@asdaserviceteam ASDA online charged me twice and wont give money back for 10 days

[nomoremoney]

Hi everyone. Ordered asda groceries as always, they didn't turn up yesterday.

 

 

40 minutes later I rang up they said they said it had been cancelled reasons unknown. They promised the local store would ring me back to try and squeeze it in that day, as payment had gone through.

Checked online banking and confirmed they had taken payment.

 

 

Didn't ring me so I rang them, they apologised, said they would send shopping tomorrow.

Got shopping today, however they have taken money a second time. Delivery driver said loads of orders got cancelled yesterday for same reason.

 

 

Phoned asda, they said if I get the authorisation number and fax number of NatWest, they will fax them so I can get an instant refund. Otherwise the money is held temporarily for 7-10 days.

 

 

NatWest gave me the authorisation code, but won't provide a fax number to the public and say their mechant provider (streamline) has the fax number.

 

 

Phoned back asda, they demand fax number, I merge them on a new call with NatWest, who put me through to card errors deparment. Natwest now say they cannot even act on a fax, it is completely asda's fault and up to them to get me my money back.

 

 

Asda will not do anything without this fax number. Their manager just went round and round in circles. They will not let me go into the store and have cash or do me a bank transfer. They say after 7-10 days I would have the money twice.

 

 

At the end of the day, I am out of pocket by £76. It is a weekend we are supposed to be taking the kids out today. We are now stuck. This is absolutely unacceptable I have to wait for this long banking process to resolve itself. Asda will not provide any sort of goodwill gesture.

 

 

Surely there must be something I can do to get these funds quicker. Why should we have to suffer?

 

 

I have recorded the entire call (over an hour plus 6 other calls totalling another hour) its quite comical to here how this manager, asdas highest point of contact, is so simply minded.

 

 

If I went into a shop and made the mistake of not paying for the shopping, then promise to pay them in 10 working days, they would insist this is stealing. How come it is acceptable the other way round?

 

 

Sorry for the rant I am livid right now. Does anyone have any advice?

 

 

Thanks so much

Edited August 22, 2015 by citizenB

[citizenB]

I agree, this is disgraceful and wonder how many others they have done this to.

 

Will try and find someone who can help.

 

What you do need to do is to send a complaint to Asda Head/Registered office.

[fkofilee]

Here you go

 

andy.clarke@asda.co.uk

 

I kind of see your point, but also understand the payment clearing rules. Technically you shouldnt have been charged twice... Also I would run from Natwest, they are crap...

[nomoremoney]

Thank you I will give him an email.

 

 

They technically haven't charged me twice.

They have requested authorisation from Natwest twice.

Natwest authorised both transactions, but asda is only completing the second.

The first will be left to naturally expire which takes 3-5 days (according to NatWest).

 

 

However asda changed their tune half way through the call that both might have been authorised and so the refund will take 7-10 days.

Neither have shown on my bank statement yet they have just reduced the available balance.

 

Yes this is the last straw from NatWest, after glitch the other year left me unable to to pay for petrol

. And then the other glitch that stopped my wages and bounced half my direct debits.

As usually, I have to put the hours in to sort everything out.

 

 

I realise asda and NatWest are following a long established banking procedure,

but its time the little people stood up for themselves as these kind of things are not acceptable,

especially when the error is nothing to do with the customer.

[fkofilee]

Thats what I though, they are normal payment clearing times and the actual balance of the account will be different from the available balance based upon what funds have been "Earmarked".

 

I know, its tough when you get stuck in between. Either way. Drop him an email because it has still inconvenienced you.

[estellyn]

We stopped using asda for this reason - several years ago when it snowed a lot just before christmas, asda cancelled our christmas food delivery, but still took authorisation for the payment. We were also livid, how was a customer supposed to pay for christmas food shop if asda's authorisation request had disappeared the money from the account. Luckily we had enough money to buy from a different store - but asda refused to provide the shopping even if we went to the store to pick it up, we haven't used them since.

 

The problem with asda is they take authorisation for the order around midnight, even before they've picked the order. We had also had instances when a lot of the order was out of stock but was still charged for - and then we had to wait for a refund.

 

My advice is don't use asda for home delivery.

[numbers666]

Twaddle by both nw and asda.

 

 

Their merchant services who process card payments through the PDQ are able to be emailed and or faxed to release a pre-auth.

 

 

The issue probably is the accounts department are M2F 9-5 and no one else can access merchant website to do this at the weekend.

 

 

By PDQ this can be software based nowadays.

 

 

On credit cards the pre-auth is released on a completion returning unused funds if the case or auto released on request for expiry of 5 days (MasterCard visa).

Amex is 7 days.

Debit cards are longer, up to 12 days.

 

 

You need to push asda to manually release the pre-auth or refund ( 3 days back to bank) the 2nd payment.

They can then complete on the 1st.

 

 

Potentially this will not resolve by bank holiday weekend.

Claim for any charges you may incur from the bank bills missed etc.

 

 

You will struggle to be compensated for anything else as the funds were not earmarked for owt else.

 

 

A gesture for inconvience is the best you will get.

[SabreSheep]

Use the Asda Twitter and Facebook pages, you may get a quicker response

[ericsbrother]

Asda can cancel the payemnt if they wish and it is refunded the next working day. they just cant be bothered to manually intervene.