Lawsuit Claims Walmart and Sam's Club Vision Centers Are Overcharging Customers

A class action has been filed in Arkansas alleging that Walmart and Sam’s Club overcharge for prescription glasses, eye exams and other goods and services by pocketing vision insurance benefits that should be reimbursed to customers. According to the lawsuit, Walmart and Sam’s Club have created a double-billing scheme in which vision center customers and their insurance companies are each billed for the same charges, with the retailers keeping part of the insured customer’s benefit for themselves. The lawsuit seeks compensation for 100 percent of the insurance benefits that Walmart and Sam’s Club allegedly withheld from its customers and seeks to prevent the retailers from engaging in this double-billing practice in the future.

Lawsuit Claims Walmart Overcharged Arkansas Customers for Eyeglasses

Leslie and William Epps filed the lawsuit against Walmart and Sam’s Club after they each purchased prescription glasses from a Walmart in Jacksonville, Arkansas. According to their lawsuit, Walmart and Sam’s Club do not provide reimbursement for the full value of a customer’s eye insurance benefits and obtain “double payment from the customers and their insurers for the same charges.”

According to the lawsuit, which is now pending in federal court, Walmart submitted a claim to Ms. Epps’s insurance company and received $80 in benefits, but only credited Ms. Epps $25 for this payment, thus overcharging her by $55. For Mr. Epps’s eyeglasses, the insurance company paid Walmart $107 in benefits, but Walmart only issued a credit for $72, resulting in a $35 overcharge.

Once Mrs. Epps realized the error, she submitted a complaint form on Walmart’s website, but the company allegedly failed to respond to her complaint and did not refund the overcharges.

The lawsuit claims that Walmart has violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by engaging in an “unconscionable, false, and deceptive practice in commerce.”

Walmart Vision Center Complaints

At least one other Walmart vision customer has noticed similar billing irregularities. A complaint posted on the website Ripoff Report states that Walmart reportedly told a customer at its Knoxville, Iowa, store that his insurance plan covered frames, but not prescription lenses, and charged her for the lenses. A few weeks later, however, the customer received an explanation of benefits notice from his insurance company stating that Walmart billed the insurance company for the prescription lenses. The customer wrote that:

“We called Walmart to ask for an explanation of the billing and were told only that it was standard billing procedures and that the vision company may not pay all of it. I called the vision company and they said that it would all be paid and when I explained the duplication in billings the representative stated that it was a contractual agreement. Walmart needs to learn the old adage that you can sheer a sheep many times, but you can skin it only once. Don’t trust them with your vision insurance.”

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