Kentucky woman says she showed a Walmart worker her receipt and asked, ‘What have I not paid for?’ before being banned for a year

Self-checkout kiosks are meant to speed up your shopping trip, but for one TikToker, it turned into a store ban. A Kentucky woman named Morgan (@morgyped) recently shared on TikTok how what she says was a self-checkout glitch at a Walmart ended with her being accused of stealing and banned from the store. The video, which has drawn over 229K views, captures her anger and frustration after she was accused of stealing items she says she paid for.

“I’m so mad. I shouldn’t even get on here right now and talk about this, cause I’m steaming mad right now,” Morgan told her viewers. She said she had gone to the store to buy eyelashes for an upcoming wedding and had her children with her. “I go to self-checkout. I scan. One of the lashes has a security tag on it, right? I scan it,” she said.

She said she was distracted by her kids and the number of people in the space. “I didn’t notice that the screen paused. I’m not a d–n cashier. So I scan the other three,” she said. When she noticed the problem, she said, she called for help from a cashier. “He comes over, puts his number in, he takes the security tag off, gives me my lashes back, and he’s like, have a good day.” Morgan said she then scanned everything else, paid and headed out.

Trouble at the exit, according to Morgan

Morgan said she was stopped at the exit by a store associate in plain clothes. According to Morgan, he asked, “Is there something in your cart you’ve not paid for I need to know about?” She said she believed she had paid for everything and felt blindsided. She said she pulled out her receipt and asked, “What have I not paid for?” According to Morgan, he replied, “You need to follow me to this room, and we’ll talk about it.”

Morgan said that when she insisted she had to leave, he told her, “If you’re not gonna cooperate, I’ll just call the police.” She said he called them once they got to the room, and that she left upset. When she got home, she said, she realized her eyelashes hadn’t been scanned in. Morgan said she went back to the store to apologize but found the associate abrasive, and that he kept telling her, “You should be in handcuffs right now.” She said she was then told she was banned from the store for a year.

Morgan said the situation got worse when she called the store to dispute the ban. She said she doesn’t like the store but has to go there for work. According to Morgan, the person she spoke with acknowledged seeing on the footage that she scanned the lashes but told her, “I reviewed the whole case, and at this time, the ban stands. My associate did everything he was supposed to do.” Her account could not be independently verified. Walmart had not publicly commented at the time of publication.

Cloudpick, a company that sells checkout technology, notes that self-checkout systems are far from perfect, and one customer went viral calling the experience an unpaid internship. The company cites Capital One Shopping research finding that 67.3% of shoppers report using a faulty kiosk. It says common errors include missed scans, incorrect item entries, and system malfunctions, and that shoppers can also skip a scan by accident while juggling their groceries.

Commenters shared their own frustrations with self-checkout. One user wrote, “It’s crazy though how they NEVER NEVER F–N NEVERRRRR catch when you accidentally scan an item twice and double pay. Nobody ever runs up to give your money back…”

Some viewers said they wanted more human cashiers. One user wrote, “How about they hire EMPLOYEES to check people out!!!! Not st-pid computers!!!! Im steaming for you!!!” Another wrote, “Banning you from Walmart for a year over $38 is also a TERRIBLE business move on their part. Like you would have bought 100X that over the year…”

Cloudpick’s advice for avoiding checkout problems includes taking your time, using the “Review Your Order” feature to check items before paying, and asking an employee for help if a scanner acts up. In a separate viral video, another shopper said a checkout scanner rang up her pants for $1.