Walmart Package Tower other items in public places

1 report to CPSC, the latest made Jun 25, 2019. A report isn’t a recall.

Watch it to hear when CPSC publishes new reports about it. CPSC’s own search

Watch and the shortlist are kept with a free account, on every device. Your watch list. CPSC’s own search is on saferproducts.gov.

At a glance

From SaferProducts.gov, released Oct 25, 2026.

1report to CPSC
Jun 25, 2019the latest report was made
Jun 25, 2019the earliest
1with the company’s comments

Brand: Walmart Package Tower
Maker: Cleveron ASMakers, importers or sellers, as the reports name them
Product: Other items in public placesCPSC’s product type: Public Use Items, Not Elsewhere Classified (code 1738), in Products at Public Facilities: Other

By month

1 report from July 2018 to June 2019; the most in June 2019, 1.

The numbers, as a table

Reports to CPSC by the month each was made, newest first
Month	Reports
June 2019	1

How badly anyone was hurt

No one hurt 1 CPSC: Incident, No Injury

As each report says it, in short words; CPSC’s own words are under each.

The reports, as CPSC published them

Reports people made to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. CPSC publishes each one after sending it to the company named, and doesn’t guarantee they’re accurate. A report isn’t a recall.

Each report is the words of the person who made it, as CPSC published them. The company’s comments, where CPSC published any, are set apart as the company’s own.

CPSC, SaferProducts.gov public database export. Released Oct 25, 2026. Updated daily.

No one hurt
Made Jun 25, 2019, sent to the company Oct 4, 2019, published by CPSC Oct 28, 2019

The product, in the report: Walmart Online Order Package Pickup Tower - bright orange, enormously tall canister tower with touchscreen, keypad, Q-code reader, and sliding see-through door

*MY ARM COULD HAVE BEEN CRUSHED OR SEVERED - THIS IS NO JOKE! *
Sat 6/22/19 ~10:00 AM CDT
Walmart in Fenton, MO 63026, is testing an unsafe package pickup tower made in Finland that CRUSHED MY PACKAGE and would not let it go. There was no safety release mechanism after I failed to remove the package during the 10 seconds or so it took to take these pix. I wedged the box, thinking the robotic door would retract - it didn’t. Instead, the door kept trying to close, pushing down without raising up, crushing the package over and over while the display said, “Remove object blocking door.” - with no way to do so.
*MY ARM COULD HAVE BEEN CRUSHED OR SEVERED - THIS IS NO JOKE! *
What if a curious child stuck a hand or a head inside (to see where the packages come from) and the door came down and caused decapitation?
No employees knew how to open the machine and no one was strong enough to lift the robotic door. The machine has no instructions on it and store personnel had not been trained on it.
Keep your children away from this dangerous device Walmart is testing nationwide that will also take away more human jobs. (Two Customer Service staffers were standing idle that Saturday morning with no customers to assist.)
Sat 6/22/19 1:30 PM CDT
Follow-up two hours after: A store manager phoned me to say that the robot’s vendor came after I left the store and released the package. The contents had shifted away from the crushing door and were okay. He assured me that my package would be held at the Customer Service counter for me to pickup from a staffer after I refused to use the Package Tower. Walmart will give me a $10 gift card for my “inconvenience.”
Mon 6/24/19 10:00 AM CDT
Follow-up two days after this incident: Went to pick up my crushed package at the Fenton, MO Walmart Customer Service desk only to be informed by a female clerk that the computer indicated that it had been put back into the Package Tower even though I was told it would be held for me at the desk. I informed the manager there had been an incident with the robot and I would not use the Package Tower. The polite and professional clerk summoned a polite and professional female manager who went to retrieve my package while I waited at Customer Service. When she returned with the goods, I explained what happened, and she said it must have been a “glitch” in the Package Tower because whenever she reached her arm underneath the door, the door stopped (or retracted, I’m not sure which).
This “glitch” could quite easily maim or kill. This “glitch” allows a powerful robotic door to crush relentlessly downward with no safety release switch, no machine instructions, and no trained staff on a Saturday morning. It is mind-boggling that no Walmart employee shared my sense of concern. The vendor tech had cleared the box, presumably cleared the “glitch,” and the robot was back in business making easy money for Walmart 24/7.
Worse, recent news articles from Walmart say they plan to install these dangerous and undertested devices in 700 stores nationwide by the end of 2019. Source: https://blog.walmart.com/innovation/20180405/hundreds-more-high-tech-pickup-towers-are-headed-your-way
A half hour later I left the Fenton, MO Walmart Customer Service desk with the contents of my package (the crushed box was nowhere to be seen) and a $10 gift card, as promised. I will never place an online order with any Walmart that routes me to a detective Package Tower.
Pass this WARNING to everyone you know and let Walmart it’s not okay to present under-tested and unsafe “glitchy” equipment into the general public.

Model
Walmart Package Tower
Where
Fenton, Missouri: Other Public Property/Office
Who was involved
Unspecified
The reporter’s relation to them
Self
As this report names them
Brand Walmart Package Tower, made or sold by Cleveron AS
How badly, in CPSC’s words
Incident, No Injury

The company’s comments, in its own words

(10/18/2019) Cleveron AS: Cleveron AS (hereinafter “Cleveron”) would like to thank the submitter of the report (hereinafter “Report”) for bringing the incident with Cleveron´s automated parcel machine Cleveron 401 (hereinafter “APM”) to our attention. We assure that identifying the causes of such problems and implementing appropriate corrective measures is of highest priority to Cleveron. Below Cleveron explains (a) the circumstances under which the incident described in the Report could occur and (b) why any risk of death or personal injury is precluded in case of such incident.
1. Description of Functionality
Cleveron analyzed possible scenarios that can occur when a customer receives a parcel from the APM and identified the chain of events that results in damage to the parcel as it is described in the Report. To understand the circumstances under which such incident occurs and, more importantly, why risk of death or personal injury is precluded, a brief description of the relevant parts of the Product in connection with parcel delivery operation is provided first.
The parcels are loaded to the APM and later delivered to the customer through the console area on one side of the APM. The console area consists of touchscreen and QR-code scanner in the lower part of the console area and the parcel compartment in the upper part of the console area. The parcel compartment is a rectangular room with one open wall facing the console area to insert and receive parcels through the console door. Floor of the parcel compartment consist of the parcel tray, which is used to transport and store the parcels in the APM. The APM contains several parcel trays, corresponding to the number of parcels the APM can store. When a parcel is placed on the parcel tray in the parcel compartment, this parcel tray is transported to a free storage space in the APM. When a customer enters the code to receive a parcel via touchscreen or QR-code scanner, the corresponding tray with the parcel is transported from the storage area in the APM to the parcel compartment. When the APM is not used, the entire console area is covered with a sliding door. If a person is detected via the proximity sensors near the console area of the APM, the door is raised as far as needed to provide access to the touchscreen and QR-code scanner. The parcel compartment remains inaccessible when the door is in this position. The door is fully raised after a code to insert or receive a parcel is inserted via touchscreen or QR-code scanner. After operation the door closes.
The APM is equipped with two infrared curtains, one outside the door (hereinafter “Outside curtain”) and other inside the door (hereinafter “Inside curtain”). These are rectangular devices which form a frame around the opening to the parcel compartment. The curtains consist of several instruments next to each other on one side that emit infrared rays and corresponding number of instruments on the other side that detect whether the ray reaches the other side of the curtain uninterrupted. The row of infrared rays forms a virtual curtain. If an object (e.g. hand or parcel) is placed in the area and one or more infrared rays are interrupted as result, the infrared curtain sends signal to the central processing system, which, as one of its functions, controls movement of the door.
The purpose of the of the Outside curtain is to detect any objects in the door area and immediately stop and rise the closing door in case an object is detected between the curtains. Purpose of the Inside curtain is to detect and measure parcels on the parcel tray to find appropriate storage space in the APM. The signal from the Outside curtain (i.e. if an object detected is in the door area) has always priority over any operations of the APM. I.e. the door is always stopped and raised if an object is detected between the Outside curtains. In case a malfunction of the Outside curtain is detected, the APM enters safe mode. This means that no operations can be performed before the malfunction of the Outside curtain has been fixed by qualified service personnel.
2. Incident Circumstances
Cleveron thoroughly analyzed possible scenarios that may occur in connection with receiving a parcel from the APM and identified the chain of events that results in the situation described in the Report. The chain of events is as follows: a) the customer approaches the APM, the door is automatically raised to the level which exposes the touchscreen and the QR-code scanner; b) the customer enters via touchscreen or QR-code scanner the code to receive a parcel; c) the tray with the parcel is transported from the storage space in the APM to the parcel compartment; d) the door is fully opened; e) the customer takes the parcel from the parcel compartment and moves it through the Inside curtains and Outside curtains (i.e. the parcel is fully removed from the APM), which in standard scenario would result in the door being lowered to position where only the touchscreen and the QR-code scanner are exposed; f) in case of this non-standard scenario, before the door has been lowered to the position described above, the customer places the parcel back in the parcel compartment in a position where it is not entirely in the parcel compartment but partly outside, under the door but behind the Outside curtain; g) the customer removes her/his hands from the door area, i.e. from the area that is monitored by the Outside curtains; h) only in case the parcel was placed by the customer in a position where the parcel is fully behind the Outside curtain but under the door, the APM attempts to close the door until the resistance causes overload of the door motor, which in turn can result in damage to the parcel.
In summary, the situation described above is possible because only the signal from the Outside curtain is monitored by the APM when lowering the door after the parcel has been fully removed from the APM and then placed back before the door has been closed.
The analyze of data in service tickets has revealed that out of ca 5.5 million parcel delivery operations that the APMs have performed so far, there may have been 4-5 cases where the incident described in the Report could have occurred. 3. No Risk of Death or Personal Injury
Under no circumstances is there risk of death or personal injury in case of the scenario described above. The Outside curtain is fully operational during the whole chain of events that leads to the possible damage of the parcel caused by the closing door. This means that the door would be instantly stopped and raised in case the customer would put her/his hand or any object through the Outside curtain to remove the parcel from the parcel compartment when the door is closing.
After the APM has detected motor overload and/or the APM has detected any jams in the parcel compartment area (e.g. the damaged parcel or parts of it), the APM enters safe mode and cannot be operated by the customer before qualified service personnel has removed the parcel from the APM and reset the APM. In summary, although sight of the door crushing a parcel is understandably a traumatic experience to the customer, there is no risk of death or personal injury.
4. Corrective Measures
Based on the analysis above, Cleveron has developed an update of the APM control software that, after being installed, precludes the scenario described above. The update has been made available to Cleveron´s distributors and service partners.

CPSC report 20190625-81D2D-2147380289. Submitter: Consumer Search for it on SaferProducts.gov

CPSC’s disclaimer

Disclaimer: CPSC does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of the Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database on SaferProducts.gov, particularly with respect to information submitted by people outside of CPSC.

Word for word, from the disclaimer in CPSC’s export.

Sources

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, SaferProducts.gov public database export.

Released Oct 25, 2026 and checked Oct 25, 2026. Updated daily. Public domain (U.S. Government work). CPSC asks to be credited, and that no endorsement be implied.

Reports of harm are from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), on SaferProducts.gov. CPSC does not endorse Hearth Record.

Walmart Package Tower other items in public places

At a glance

By month

How badly anyone was hurt

The reports, as CPSC published them

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources

How to read a record

Every fact names its source.

A number never stands alone.

What needs attention is marked.

The public record comes first.