To wonder where the hell is my shopping and/or money?

[pissedrightoff]

Last night I checked my bank account online, £105.00 is the balance. Fine, I'll do an online shop at asda to arrive tomorrow.
Total shopping comes to £80.76.

Shopping does not arrive today and when I call to enquire why, I am told that there were insufficent funds in my account.

I then check online balance,£24.24 suggesting that between last night and now £80.76 has been debited.
Phoned bank to make enquiries and indeed Asda have taken the amount and bank gave me the authorisation number.I ask if it is possible that it is a pending payment, bank says no, as it has come off the balance then the payment has went through.

Phone Asda back, not helpful in the slightest, They say that they have not recieved the money, I tell them I have an authorisation code from my bank and an available balance which says otherwise.They say they will look into it and call me back at midday tomorrow.

So I now have only £24,Very little food, live in the back of beyond so no shops, will have to take two buses to a tesco tomorrow to see how far my £24 will stretch for baby food, milk and wipes.

Where is my money if it's not in my bank and Asda say they don't have it????

Just checked online banking and the money is back in available balance.

Super

AW, they're gutted.

Never mind (I wouldn't use them if my arse was on fire and they were the only suppliers of water now)

Shirley- PMSL, sooooo funny, if you don't mind I'm stealing that phrase for future use

So the outcome is that you have got the delivery for free in the end. Asda now presumably consider the case closed - or are they actually going to look at the procedures used for home delivery order processing?

Asda may well not know what went wrong. However they have a contract with the card processor, who may have tried to double charge your account (the pre-auth and the actual).
Did your bank get two payment requests? Maybe they did and declined the second one. Should they have declined that when the amount was already earmarked?

To me the problems all seem to be with the banks and card processing systems. Who is responsible for those... surely not the end customer of the retailer and the bank. I feel it is up to the bank involved and the merchant service involved to get together and work out how to prevent this happening in future.

Asda do warn in their terms and conditions that it can happen... but I do wonder how many people actually read the terms and conditions before buying something.

just spent 400pounds with sainsburies online for a party I'm giving. That would have gone to Asda last week

I want to reply thus:

Dear Shirley - Call me ShirleyKnot if you don't mind

Thank you for your email to Andy Clarke about the home shopping order that's being discussed on mumsnet. As part of Andy's team I'm available on his behalf to respond.

• I'd prefer a response from Andy himself, but let's go with it...

I do appreciate it took a while to look into this matter. However, we did need to investigate this fully.

• It took longer than "a while" it took days. Days in which PRF was waiting, without food or MONEY.

We spoke directly to the customer a number of times yesterday. Although we weren't at fault for the customers funds being held, I can confirm as a gesture of goodwill the shopping was delivered yesterday evening free of charge.

• blah blah blah - who is at fault please? Your "goodwill" gesture was to deliver the shopping - um, as per the payment which was waiting for 3 days. Nice one.

I'm sorry to read you've decided to withdraw your custom from ASDA as a result of the postings on mumsnet.

• I can tell ASDA is very upset about this. Let's try WALMART shall we?

If you have any further queries do please let me know.

Please read the above.

Lots of Love

x

Yours sincerely

Jordan Anderso

Nannynick- I understand where you are coming from, But being a customer service provider myself,
I feel one of the key things is to look after your customer regardless of fault lying with a third party and this is where ASDA went horribly wrong by folding their arms and saying 'tough, not our fault, unlucky'

That being said this ghost payment malarkey is causing lots of problems across the board (and that's only the people who have complained, how many others who just accept it?)

Glad you got your money back PRO.

Cheers SAG, was thinking about popping over to MSE to get some advice on how best to spend it

I feel one of the key things is to look after your customer regardless of fault lying with a third party and this is where ASDA went horribly wrong by folding their arms and saying 'tough, not our fault, unlucky'

I fully agree. It's all about how they handle such situations and the 'tough, not our fault' will result in an unhappy customer who will tell a lot of people these days.

Exactly Nannynick. I wonder just how many people 'We've' told this past 3 days? and how much revenue that would add up to?

I simply cannot believe this is the only response received from Asda after all this - it is just so pathetic. Why hasn't the CEO responded to someone - how much bad press do they really want?

Stressed2007- I don't think they care or they don't think Mumsnet has a wide-enough reach to affect their profits perhaps?

I found this post by suzikettles one of the most comprehensive summaries of the ills at ASDA.

I do hope someone senior from ASDA HQ goes through this thread (yeah, right... OK, the latest recruit in their marketing, or customer services, or even someone from IT where they may be closer to knowing how the card processing is carried out)...

Even if someone senior only sees a precis, with a timeline, they might better appreciate how their HQ customer service people came across as unhelpful and dismissive.

PRO - rather than battle to find out how the money was ringfenced, and whether ASDA could do better, I'd suggest you make a short summary of how things went wrong (acknowledge ASDA did have a staff member come on Tuesday to deliver your order, free, and that by luck - given timescale of 3 to 10 days - the money was returned to your a/c on Wednesday).

I think the main issues are

o how the customer is left in limbo, as the bank cannot reverse the transaction but depends on the merchant (X)

o how systems can be set up which debit the same amount more than once, and the company requesting the funds can 'lose track' or not even acknowledge this may have happened

o how a customer low on cash at the bank (far from uncommon, I expect, eg near the end of a month) can be left with no way to purchase anything (esp if there's no cash withdrawal facility nearby)

Send your summary to Moneybox using e-mail to
[email protected] and see whether they get back to you today or Friday in time for the broadcast on Saturday (or a week on Saturday).

If you don't hear back from them or they appear disinterested, you could try [email protected] (so when Andy Clarke is interviewed in a few weeks, they can query what's being done, perhaps outside the scope of the general 'profiles of supermarket bosses' but no doubt he will want to co-operate or be seen as hostile!)

If you get no joy from either of those programmes then an e-mail to Woman's Hour via their page (since online food shopping, especially where the whole family, including a baby is concerned, may fall on women all across the country) and see if they take on board the frustration you felt with no food and no way to even order the minimum to get through Monday/ Tuesday, with the 25 pound minimum.

(X) This has some similarities to a credit card 'continuous authorisation' where a customer has allowed a merchant to debit a sum (whether monthly, quarterly or annually) for some service (eg car insurance) but the only control over cancelling it is with the merchant.

Changing account number, getting a new card with a new expiry date (and even death) cannot automatically stop the company from taking money.

The customer can ask the bank but the bank will do nothing in most cases. It may be possible to get a refund if one can prove that attempts were made to contact the company to tell them to cancel the service but it's all built to favour the company taking the money, no matter what problems (eg interest, or penalties) the customer may face.

I'd try to avoid mentioning ASDA too often because the questions about the handling of transactions and potential for putting your money 'on hold' with no (easy) way to get it refunded applies to more than just ASDA.

I know ASDA might be the worst culprit, and if they had just sent that fax to your bank, things could have been sorted out faster.

It seems clear that (all) customer service staff need to do a bit more when a customer gets this type of problem - liaising with a customer's bank, for a start, and being willing to accept the customer's situation is not (usually) of the customer's making - yours certainly wasn't!

Of course that's only the half of it. If someone treats it as a "minor problem" when someone has had the cash taken, and won't get it back for days, they need a lesson or two in where their priorities should lie, and how such attitudes are disliked by customers.

NetworkGuy- Thank you so much, I shall be using your posts as a template for my (5th draft of) letter.

Your advice has been calming and helpful throughout this thread, Thanks.

I think this thread shows MN at it's absolute best, I'm not a 'known' poster as such, yet everyone rallied round offering help, support and even to set up a paypal fund to help me out. And without this I am quite sure there would have been no action taken by they who must not be named.Wonderful, kind-hearted people.(you guys, not them!!!!)

"I feel one of the key things is to look after your customer regardless of fault lying with a third party and this is where ASDA went horribly wrong by folding their arms and saying 'tough, not our fault, unlucky"

Exactly!!! That is what I couldn't get my head around and why I was so annoyed on behalf of PRO. I couldn't understand how a company that relies on its customers to survive, can continually repeat 'it's not our fault' and do nothing, to a customer, who's only 'crime' was to phone up and order some shopping.

While she went without for three days (and had to go cap in hand to the local shop for credit to get goods to tide the family over) had no sight of her money or her shopping, the bank were saying 'not our fault', Asda were saying 'not our fault' and nothing was getting done.

Whose fault is was had become completely irrelevant by then. There had been a cock-up and it wasn't the customer's cock up yet she was the one suffering. At that point Asda should have stepped in, but instead they 'looked into it' and 'investigated' and waited to conclude', posted here, posted on twitter and the clock ticked on.

Why couldn't they have spoken (or faxed) PRO's bank?

Why couldn't they just have sent the shopping and then worried about sorting out the money afterwards?

It's been a real eye opener to me, and although I have considered home shopping in the past, I'm afraid this has put me right off.

PRO 'calming and helpful' - wow

I have sometimes worried I'll drive people to sleep as I tend to write quite a bit.

Think 'they who must not be named' do need to be named at least once, since it would assist the BBC in contacting the correct HQ.

Also, I forgot to mention that you may want to say you are happy for the BBC and ASDA to discuss your situation, but "on air" you'd prefer to be just "Mrs X from Scotland" (I assume that'd be preferred to Mrs )... Only mention your wish for privacy when they are positive about wanting to get more info from you...

Hope you get on air, to be able to highlight this sort of problem. I know the crowd from MSE were rather negative, but the BBC deals with a wider cross-section and while quite a few on MN probably don't listen to Woman's Hour, I've no doubt it will open the eyes of a few older, richer, people {parents and not} about how awkward it can be in a rural situation, and with limited cash in the bank.

Been following this thread with horror and am really glad you got your shopping and your money back.

But I still won't be giving them my £100 a week again.

Noooo its They Who Should Be Named (And SHamed!)

Just read through this thread (took a very long time..!) and can't believe how CRAP ASDA have been! I wouldn't dream of using their oneline service after reading what you've gone through.

I'm glad you've (eventually) got your shopping and money back PRO

online, not oneline!

Just popped up in my inbox is a customer survey from Asda. The last time I shopped there must have been 6 monhs ago and it was only a very few items if I remember correctly. I think I did then fill out a survey as a promise to go in a draw some vouchers or something like that. I will fill in the survey later then I reckon they will wish they hadn't sent it to me after what 'pissedrightoff' has been through.

I've just had a reply from Asda:

Thank you for your email. We appreciate you making contact and raising your concerns

The customer referred to in your email, has been contacted and her concerns have been addressed. We have also put processes in place to prevent this from happening again. Please be assured that we always strive to deliver great customer service.

We hope you will consider trying our online shopping.

Regards

Carmen Londt

ASDA Home Shopping