A woman in Pennsylvania is once again making headlines after she successfully sued Walmart over a $.02 price discrepancy and won $100 for her troubles. But this isn’t the first — or second, third, or fourth — time she’s taken Big W to court over small change.

“This is the fifth lawsuit we’ve had against this store for the same problem,” plaintiff Mary Bach, whose 2008 court victory — also over $.02 — was the subject of a Consumerist story. “This isn’t an isolated incident.”

Bach says she purchased a package of Banquet Brown-n-Serve sausages at her local Walmart in August. The package was supposed to sell for $.98, the price listed on the shelf, but it rang up for $1.00 at the cashier.

“The clerk did everything right when I pointed out the error and refunded me the difference and noted the error,” Bach said.

When she went back six days later, the store still hadn’t updated the price. A manager offered her a refund, but she’d had enough and opted to take them to court.

In court, the manager testified that his store carries more than 50,000 items and does about 5,000 to 6,000 price changes each week. He said the confusion over the sausage was due to a change in packaging by the folks at Banquet and that, at the time of the incidents, the store shelves contained both the old $1.00 packages and the new $.98 boxes.

But in the end the judge sided with Bach, awarding her $100 in damages and around $80 in court costs.

“Wal-Mart abandoned an earlier chainwide practice of offering scanner guarantees — for no explainable reason — and they also appear not to be following established store procedures for correcting scanner errors when customers report them,” says Bach.

Murrysville woman refuses to give Wal-Mart her 2 cents [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via LehighValleyLive.com]

Thanks to Ashley for the tip!

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