New Delhi

A technical glitch in mid-March caused overcharges at Walmart stores across the United States, affecting thousands of customers.

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This issue, first reported by Bloomberg News, occurred on March 19 and disrupted price data transmission to self-checkout kiosks at approximately 1,600 of Walmart's over 5,000 US stores.

The glitch persisted for several days, during which customers were overcharged on various items, including groceries, clothing, and appliances.

According to a Walmart spokesperson, the retail giant has since prioritised refunding those affected.

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"We've made it a priority to refund customers who were overcharged, and we did not take action on the undercharges with our customers," said Mischa Dunton, a representative for Walmart.

Despite the scale of the incident, Walmart has not disclosed specific details regarding the number of impacted products or the total amount overpaid by customers.

The company also refrained from revealing the exact number of stores affected by the glitch.

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This recent technical issue follows a January settlement where Walmart agreed to pay $45 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit in Florida.

The lawsuit alleged that the company overcharged shoppers for bags of citrus fruit and various meat, poultry, and seafood products sold by weight.

Although Walmart denied any wrongdoing, it opted to settle the case.

In recent years, Walmart has invested heavily in upgrading its stores and technology infrastructure, pouring billions into enhancing retail operations.

Last October, the company announced a $9 billion investment aimed at adding more self-checkout options and improving overall store functionality.

However, these investments have not been without its shortcomings.

Earlier this year, Walmart faced an outage reported by the Wall Street Journal, where thousands of registers were unable to process transactions.

Additionally, Bloomberg noted that the retailer also experienced glitches with its photo and vision centres earlier this year.

(With inputs from Reuters)