WASHINGTON—Two senators are seeking answers about a Walmart prepaid card glitch that left thousands without funds.
Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bob Melendez (D-NJ) sent a letter to Walmart and Green Dot requesting information from the companies related to the system outage in May that prevented customers from withdrawing cash from ATMs, checking their account balances, or making purchases in mid-May.
The senators want information on how the problem occurred, the number of affected customers, the reimbursement provided to harmed consumers, and the steps Walmart and Green Dot will take to avoid another slowdown in the future, the Consumerist reported.
Brown and Melendez want the companies to provide a detailed timeline of the disruptions and to distinguish the circumstances of the glitch from the problems that RushCard experienced last year.
The companies were also urged to provide information on how they would enforce forced arbitration clauses in their user agreement where it involves the glitch, the Consumerist reported.
The Consumerist reported that Green Dot blamed the issue on a technical glitch and later said the interruption was due to a slowdown in transaction processing by its payment processor, MasterCard.
“About a week after the glitch began, Green Dot told customers it would be ‘putting extra money on your card as our way of trying to apologize and make things better.’ It was unclear how much the company added to users’ accounts,” the Consumerist said.