ASDA shopping trip from hell!!!

[reemism]

Hi,i have just experienced probably the worst shopping experience nightmare of my life so far....

Let me explain,i have to get this in text because i am not sure i believe it myself!! I entered my local ASDA store this morning ready to do the dreaded food shopping of the week we all know what that feels like,anyway i took my time as i had a limited budget for shopping and wanted to make sure i had enough food in for the week having two teenage children!!.. Well it took me about an hour and a half because the ASDA store was so busy as it was the easter bank holiday weekend..I eventually got to the checkout were there was a que obviously as the shop was very busy. I emptied my shopping trolley unloaded the items onto the conveyer belt which included my two teenage children's easter present's.. Well i packed my shopping up and then went to pay with my debit card... I was told the shopping total was £128.33 by the checkout assistant and i asked for £10.00 cash back to pay for a taxi to take me,my wife and the shopping home..

I entered my pin number knowing full well i had enough in the bank account to cover the cost of the shopping that's when the nightmare started!!! I heard a beep and looked at the terminal and it read that the transaction was declined.I looked at my wife in disbelief as i knew there was enough money in the bank account to cover the cost of the shopping.I asked her to try again and explained that i did have enough and was able to pay for the shopping with the debit card,again the transaction was declined. Well,there was a que of shoppers behind me waiting for their turn to pay for their items and i was feeling slightly embarassed.

I then asked my wife to try her card as i was so confused as to why my card was being declined, anyway she tried with her debit card and it declined the transaction again!!,this had taken a few minutes and the que was building at the tills so i was getting quite flustered as i know i had enough money to pay for the shopping.. The checkout assistant then called for a supervisor as my bank kept declining the amount i had to pay.I explained that there was enough in the bank account to pay for the shopping and there must be some mistake!! I knew the nearest Barclays branch was in the same shopping centre that the ASDA branch was in so i told the supervisor i would check the account at the local branch and return asap with the reason my card was being declined as i was 1000% sure there was enough in the bank account to pay for the shopping as i had online banking which i had checked that morning, before making the shopping trip... I rushed over to the bank and explained the situation to one of the staff in the branch and explained that there should have been enough in my account to pay my shopping bill..He punched my account number in and showed me the screen and to my horror it had the debited transaction of £138.33 which of course was the total amount of my ASDA shopping bill plus the cashback i had asked for £10.00.

I asked the bank employee would he print that part of the statement out which he duly obliged and stamped the statement to make it official. I then dashed back to ASDA as i knew my wife would have felt very awkward so i got back as quick as i could and produced the official statement to the supervisor of ASDA who had been called previously.Showing her that the transaction had been authorised and that we had actually paid for our shopping... Well she said "Would we wait until she could verify this with her Manager" which i thought was the right thing to do and this should be cleared up in no time at all and we could be on our way home,ohhh how wrong i was!!!! I then asked her could we move away from the checkout area as we were causing a blockage and obstructing other people that were shopping.The supervisor pointed us to an area which was a little quieter. A few minutes later another lady came over towards us and i must admit i wasn't sure who she was,and presumed it was a manager or the assist manager of the store who could have helped us little better with the problem we were having,She then went onto explain about the trouble with the transaction, that had been declined on their systems and they had not actually cleared their system accounts(ASDA) and that because it was the bank holiday it was floating in the system somewhere between our bank and ASDA (which was not true as i had produced the bank statement showing her it was an authorised payment) it was then i produced the evidence which was a stamped statement which i had gotten previously from the bank!!anyway she told my wife and myself that if we didn't pay for the shopping again! we were not aloud to take the items from the store!!!!!! I was totally shocked by this statement... By the way as the manager/assist manager who had approached my wife and myself on behalf of the supervisor she had a store employee at her side who was told to "watch us" and stood beside us while the man/assist manager dealt with the matter, my wife then replied that "she was not going to run away with the shopping"my wife is 42 btw and i am 38 and have never been in trouble with the police!! it was then we both felt like we were being treated unfairly(like criminals to be honest)through no fault of our own we just wanted to do the weeks shopping and enjoy the rest of the afternoon..By this time i was beginning to feel a bit annoyed as i was doing all the running about (too and from the bank)knowing full well it was ASDA's systems that were the problem! the man/asst manager then phoned their head office to cancel the transaction via fax so i could re apply the payment as i had enough for one £138.33 transaction but not another as i had only £88.00 left for direct debits later in the month..

As my wife was being supervised with the trolley i dashed back to the bank as the man/asst manager told me it was the banks fault and not ASDA's about the authorised transaction. I spoke to the manager of the bank branch who informed me that it was ASDA's own fault as the transaction had been authorised!(ear marked payment) and was disgusted with the way were were being treated and wrote her mobile number on a sheet of paper so the ASDA branch could contact her so she could explain that the transaction actually had been authorised.. I then ran back to the ASDA branch not forgetting it is busy so this is taking up more than an hour as i was waiting in the cue at the bank with my wife being guarded by an employee back at the ASDA branch who eventually took the trolley we thought we had paid for and put it behind a desk ordered from her superior! (out of the way basically!!)can you believe it!! I then returned from the bank branch with the managers personal mobile number!!!! and showed her the note the bank manager had written to ask her to call the number..The ASDA man/ass manager looked less than interested by then i had enough and told her that i would be speaking to head office as i was getting know were at the store i actually kept my calm which i am happy with as my wife and myself had done nothing wrong.. I have since got the number for head office as soon as we arrived home and are awaiting further investigation.....I cannot believe what has happened and we are £138.33 down with no food to show for it.... Edited April 11, 2009 by reemism
paragraphs

[pompeyfaith]

Blimey i cant be bothered to read that yet how about using paragraphs go edit and ill come back later.

 

PF

[sam614]

shocking treatment,hope you get a good response from head office,

bet you were mortified,best of luck:)

 

SAM:pLOWELL DETESTER

[yourbank]

Unfortunately, I can explain it but I am not sure you are going to like it. I have seen many times when for example the bank has authorised a transaction and the shop has declined it. It can be something as simple as the machine going offline which means it doesn't receive the authorisation message and then declines the transaction. Or it could be a terminal(pos terminal, that is) failure. The money will got back into the barclays account. I think I perhaps(and I have worked for a bank before so apologies for my hindsight) would have got the authorisation code and got ASDA to phone their merchant with that number.

[Rooster-UK]

Blimey i cant be bothered to read that yet how about using paragraphs go edit and ill come back later.

 

PF

Your post is not easy to read without formatting.

 

Having said that I HAVE read it right through and I must say that is one of the worst horror stories I have seen for a while.

You are definitely following the right procedure in contacting head office.

Try to get to speak to a senior staff member.... ask for the General Manager, at least and don't be fobbed off.

If you have no joy tell them that in that case you have no alternative than to escalate the complaint and that you will also make sure that the national press are made aware of your shabby treatment.

 

In addition to your money refunded you require, at the very least, a written apology.

Asda, in common with all the big supermarkets, are very conscious of public opinion and I am sure that they will sort the problems out quickly.

 

Please let us know how you get on.

 

Regards, Rooster.

[reemism]

Guys i did use paragraphs and then noticed the long post.. I then tried to edit my post when i previewed it before posting.The problem is that it has come out as one long paragraph.. i am using firefox any advice and i will edit asap..

Edited April 11, 2009 by reemism

[reemism]

Unfortunately, I can explain it but I am not sure you are going to like it. I have seen many times when for example the bank has authorised a transaction and the shop has declined it. It can be something as simple as the machine going offline which means it doesn't receive the authorisation message and then declines the transaction. Or it could be a terminal(pos terminal, that is) failure. The money will got back into the barclays account. I think I perhaps(and I have worked for a bank before so apologies for my hindsight) would have got the authorisation code and got ASDA to phone their merchant with that number.

 

Hi, thanks for your reply.. I spoke to the manager of the local branch and she did inform me that this was ASDA's problem! and that the money had been (ear marked) for ASDA so the ball was in their court..Put yourself in my position you go to do your food shop pay your bill then be told that it hasn't been paid,when in fact it has and you can show the proof.Then be ignored by senior management who is more interested in whether you are going to run off with the trolley!how would you feel then go home knowing full well you have to go shopping again for your family and have lost for the moment £138.33 from your account..

Edited April 11, 2009 by reemism

[yourbank]

The manager of the bank is not entirely fully understanding the issues of debit transactions.

There are three institutions involved in the process.

BANK--MERCHANT---SHOP. (you could technically say their POS machine could be classed as fourth). In my experience, the problem happens for a number of reasons, machine going offline, timing out so that the authorisation code never reaches the shop machine, POS system going down(happened to me on that one). It is a pity the Barclays Bank did not give you the authorisation number for the transaction. The transaction will disappear from your account in the next 2 - 3 working days. Again that is little comfort under the circumstances.

The bank and ASDA blaming each other doesn't help at all.

[reemism]

The manager of the bank is not entirely fully understanding the issues of debit transactions.

There are three institutions involved in the process.

BANK--MERCHANT---SHOP. (you could technically say their POS machine could be classed as fourth). In my experience, the problem happens for a number of reasons, machine going offline, timing out so that the authorisation code never reaches the shop machine, POS system going down(happened to me on that one). It is a pity the Barclays Bank did not give you the authorisation number for the transaction. The transaction will disappear from your account in the next 2 - 3 working days. Again that is little comfort under the circumstances.

The bank and ASDA blaming each other doesn't help at all.

 

So if the bank had given me the authorisation transaction number would this had made a difference??are they aloud to do this??

 

Also would she have presented this transaction number to the client i.e Asda instead of the customer! proving this transaction was valid??..

 

Meaning if only the manager/asst man had called the branch when asked to by the bank manager(hand written note that i tried to show management at ASDA)she could have quoted the transaction number..Thus saving me alot of grief! To be honest after the second time i approached the manager/asst manager with the hand written note from the bank manager she was far from interested...

[reemism]

Thanks everyone for your replies expecting a phone call Monday, will keep you updated.Still in shock this morning I woke up and thought it was just a bad dream until i looked in the fridge for something to eat and it was still empty LOL. Anyway Happy Easter to one and all...

[emmaf01]

That is horrendous. I hope you get satisfaction from the complaint. Terrible treatment.

[gyzmo]

Hope it gets sorted. Their actions are terrible.

 

Why could not the manager simply call the bank and get some confirmation? I'm sure these stores train staff to make customers lives as difficult as possible.

[yourbank]

Hope it gets sorted. Their actions are terrible.

 

Why could not the manager simply call the bank and get some confirmation? I'm sure these stores train staff to make customers lives as difficult as possible.

 

put yourself in the managers position. You have a hand written mobile phone telephone number purporting to be from a manager of a bank and you have no payment for £130+ worth of goods. How do you know its the manager? How do you ensure payment when the POS machine is saying the payment has been declined?

[reemism]

Hope it gets sorted. Their actions are terrible.

 

Why could not the manager simply call the bank and get some confirmation? I'm sure these stores train staff to make customers lives as difficult as possible.

 

 

I agree,When i approached her she acted as though she couldn't care less it was the attitude,either pay for the shopping again! or i am not interested! The Barclays bank staff couldn't have helped me anymore even the Bank manager gave me her own mobile number to show the the ASDA management..

 

Well hopefully getting a call today from the branch.The actual branch manager, my first sentence will be to thank him and his staff for ruining our Easter bank holiday!...

[gyzmo]

I mean the manager could have taken the simple step of taking the customer to the office, call the bank's official number or the merchant and sought independant confirmation of the transaction. That's what I would have done. I would not have used mobile number provided for the reason you state. Companies should stop spouting about how wonderful their customer service is and start actually providing it.

[reemism]

put yourself in the managers position. You have a hand written mobile phone telephone number purporting to be from a manager of a bank and you have no payment for £130+ worth of goods. How do you know its the manager? How do you ensure payment when the POS machine is saying the payment has been declined?

 

 

But the transaction couldn't have been declined as she had asked ASDA's head office to cancel the charge of £138.00! so how can you cancel a declined charge??

[yourbank]

But the transaction couldn't have been declined as she had asked ASDA's head office to cancel the charge of £138.00! so how can you cancel a declined charge??

What I think has happened and having to explain why is the difficult thing.

I think the bank has authorised it and I think the terminal from ASDA has shown it declined and therefore as you say how can you cancel a declined payment? Explaining how that has happened is the difficult thing and explaining the fact that the transaction will disappear from your account is another. How to get it completely cancelled off your account so that the funds are available to you, is the one thing I don't know.

The problem is that it doesn't help you today. In your position I would be as angry as you are.

[reemism]

I mean the manager could have taken the simple step of taking the customer to the office, call the bank's official number or the merchant and sought independant confirmation of the transaction. That's what I would have done. I would not have used mobile number provided for the reason you state. Companies should stop spouting about how wonderful their customer service is and start actually providing it.

 

 

Totally agree, i have seen situations were people goto their local garage to buy petrol and have forgotten their purses or wallet's, they just ask the driver for their name and address and ask them to pay the petrol charge as soon as they can they don't hold the car in the garage until it is paid.. It's called common sense alot of staff are to scared to use it,as their training does not allow for it now..

[reemism]

What I think has happened and having to explain why is the difficult thing.

I think the bank has authorised it and I think the terminal from ASDA has shown it declined and therefore as you say how can you cancel a declined payment? Explaining how that has happened is the difficult thing and explaining the fact that the transaction will disappear from your account is another. How to get it completely cancelled off your account so that the funds are available to you, is the one thing I don't know.

The problem is that it doesn't help you today. In your position I would be as angry as you are.

 

I understand you are just trying to explain how the system works and i thank you..I am trying to get as much information as poss about the transaction that's why i am asking you questions about it..So when the manager does explain ASDA's side of the story i can understand better..

[yourbank]

I think the ASDA person has explained the transaction to you.

 

"She then went onto explain about the trouble with the transaction, that had been declined on their systems and they had not actually cleared their system accounts(ASDA) and that because it was the bank holiday it was floating in the system somewhere between our bank and ASDA". That is kinda where I am explaining it from ie that the bank have authorised it yet it is shown as declined by the the store. I was re reading post 1 to clarify what has happened.

[nowayjose]

A similar thing happened to my son... a week last Friday he was travelling home from Darlington to Cardiff and he went to the booking office at the station to buy a ticket on his debit card for £109.00...he was asked to put his card in the machine and enter his pin number... the transaction was declined and he was told there was a problem with the systems. He knew there was more than enough money to cover the ticket cost as he just got paid... the train was due so he took out £110 from the cash machine to pay for the ticket and didnt think anymore of it.

The following evening he checked his statement online and saw that the transaction for £109.00, the cost of the ticket that was declined by the machine... He had no way of contacting the bank as it was a weekend so he had no choice but to wait... He is in the army so he had little time on the Monday to sort it out.. but thankfully on the Tuesday it bounced back into his account... So to the OP I would think that the transaction will go back in either Tues or Wed with any luck... not much consolation though when you ve got nothing to eat!!!

[yourbank]

who moved the thread to online stores section, me thinks a trip to specsavers might be in order

[gyzmo]

I walked into a bloke in Specsavers...

[reemism]

Well, the phone call from the ASDA branch manager on monday never happened!! I can't believe it, i waited until 1pm for a phone call as i had a Buffet for 40 OAP"s i had to prepare for at 5pm...My next step is to contact the Area manager of ASDA by letter which i will probably start tomorrow... UPDATE**checked online bank account this morning(Wednesday) money has still not gone back into bank account!!

Edited April 15, 2009 by reemism

[gyzmo]

Best thing. Be factual about it.