Rent-A-Center stock fell nearly 30 percent Tuesday after the rent-to-own retailer said same-store sales in the recently completed third quarter would tumble 12 percent because a new point-of-sale system seemingly blew up in its face.

In a preliminary earnings forecast, the Plano, Texas, company said the drag caused by its new checkout terminals is expected to reduce adjusted third-quarter earnings to between 5 and 15 cents per share.

That’s down from a consensus estimate of analysts of 39 cents and adjusted earnings in the year-earlier quarter of 47 cents.

Investors ran for the exits, pushing RAC’s shares down to $9.18.

The company said it would not comment further on the problem until it comments on full quarterly results on Oct. 27.

“Following the implementation of our new point-of-sale system, we experienced system performance issues and outages that resulted in a larger than expected negative impact on core sales,” Rent-A-Center CEO Robert D. Davis said in a statement.

Davis added that the chain of 2,600 North American stores may need several quarters to recover.