Ohio man uses Scan & Go to skip checkout lines at Sam’s Club on a Saturday, ends up down $800 by Tuesday: ‘Absolutely horrendous’

An Ohio shopper’s attempt to breeze past the weekend crowd at Sam’s Club allegedly turned into a banking nightmare. According to him, the automated checkout app Scan & Go triggered a cascade of duplicate withdrawals after using it once.

Content creator Kyle Fry (@kilofree86) documented the financial headache in a viral TikTok video. Instead of enjoying the convenience of skipping the standard line, Fry reportedly had to watch his checking balance dwindle over several days as the exact same transaction repeatedly posted to his account.

To make matters worse, attempting to resolve the discrepancy only led to a customer service ping-pong. Both his bank and the wholesale retailer reportedly failed to offer quick resolution. So, Fry turned to social media to vent his frustration and find out whether others have navigated similar billing bugs.

A routine weekend trip with Scan & Go triggered multiple charges

Fry explained that he had frequently relied on the Sam’s Club’s mobile application to scan items and pay straight from his phone without incident. However, the reliability of the system allegedly broke down following a routine Saturday shopping run.

Upon returning home and opening his banking app, Fry allegedly noticed that the single store visit had generated three distinct pending withdrawals for the exact same total. He explained that he uses Chase bank, but the customer support lines were closed over the weekend. So, he was forced to wait until Monday morning to dispute the duplicate transactions.

To his relief, Chase representatives initially appeared to resolve the problem by reversing two of the erroneous charges. But the relief proved exceptionally short-lived. By the following morning, another identical charge reportedly posted to his account, completely wiping out the progress made with customer service.

Phantom charges kept posting despite bank reversals

By Tuesday, Fry reportedly found himself managing four separate charges for a single basket of goods. This left a substantial financial deficit in his account while representatives offered few immediate remedies.

According to Fry, both Chase and Sam’s Club informed him that clearing up the automated billing loop would require a waiting window of 7 to 10 business days before the funds could officially return to his possession. “They have charged me $800 in four transactions. And now they’re telling me that they have to wait to get my money back to me? That makes no sense,” Fry complained. 

Fry also questioned why financial institutions can withdraw funds in milliseconds but take nearly two weeks to correct system errors of their own making. “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Chase Bank, do better. Sam’s Club, do better. Both of your customer service, absolutely horrendous today,” he remarked.

To think of it, apps like Scan & Go are marketed on the promise of frictionless, modern shopping. They’re designed to save members time by bypassing registers entirely. Yet, when automated processing goes rogue, the friction-free efficiency seems to work in only one direction. 

So, even though skipping lines is convenient, self-checkout convenience rarely feels worth it if your checking account is left paying for the same groceries four times over.

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