A woman in Nashville, Tennessee, fully believed that her local Walmart attempted to scam her. She noticed an apparent random $10 charge on her receipt, and while she got a refund, she fears many more might be getting charged randomly. Meanwhile, the internet struggled to believe her claim.
TikToker Hannah Sherry shared her Walmart story online. She is a content creator who often posts videos of her singing and playing piano or guitar. Within a day, the video above became her most viral yet. It garnered 938,100 views, 143,200 likes, and close to 5,000 comments.
The Tennessee woman, while sitting in her car, straight-up claimed that she had nearly been “scammed” by Walmart. She explained that shortly after shopping, she checked her receipt. There, she noticed a $10.22 charge she didn’t recognize.
“I made sure that, like, I was scanning everything properly. Nothing scanned twice. And I also didn’t buy anything on here for remotely close to ten dollars,” Hannah said.
‘Site Merch’ Charge
She immediately noticed that the charged item was only called “site merch.” Hannah added, after reading online commenters, “It’s a fancy way that Walmart scams people. But they phrase it in a way where it’s like, if something scans twice, or if you have to search for an item or a piece of clothing or something like that, they’ll label it as site merch and then refund you.”
In Hannah’s case, nothing had been scanned twice. So she called Walmart customer support and was met with an AI assistant that couldn’t help her. Finally, she decided to walk into the store and ask about it. No one knew what the charge was for, she said, but she was eventually given a refund. Still, she is worried this might not be a one-time error.
“So clearly, there’s something going on here with dozens and actually hundreds and hundreds of people discussing this site merch thing online, and somehow the employees are not made aware of it,” the Tennessee woman said. “So I don’t know. Personally, I think that it’s a little scam, but at the end of the day, even if it’s not, it’s still weird.”
Reactions And Misinformation Accusations
Many viewers bashed Walmart as a result of Hannah’s video. One said, “This needs to be a class action lawsuit.” Another one commented, “I don’t understand why people still shop at Walmart.”
However, other viewers said they scanned Hannah’s receipt and found that the item in question was Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Flavored Instant Coffee. It is, in fact, priced at $10.22. Users such as Entertainingppl accused her of spreading misinformation while showing her receipt and her entire order.
“I believed it wholeheartedly… Embarrassing for me,” one user wrote in Entertainingppl’s video. Another one added, “I thought I peaked in my stalking behaviors, but this is next level.”
It is unclear whether Hannah was randomly charged for an item she didn’t get or if she was confused by the “site merch” name and ended up getting a discount regardless.
