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????

I ordered 5 items from asda the other week ( nappies, diet coke) etc bulky things - 2 of the 5 were wrong - nappies wrong size etc. However I got delivered free nappies etc as a goodwill gesture so someone there is interested in customer service.

Definitely play on the I have a baby that is going to starve point.

I don't think this lot delivered free is asking to much in the circumstances!

Point out that there is a precedent for delivering the order without charging, I am happy to provide my email address (if I can remember which one I used) in order for them to look at my account and see this.

They don't really have a leg to stand on. Their faulty ghost payment system caused you to have insufficient funds, they should bung you the lot free of charge to avoid a PR disaster, and if they don't send it completely free they should send it without charging on the understanding that you will pay when you are refunded.

They simply cannot leave you with no money and no groceries due to their faulty system. They claim there is nothing they can do, there is, they can deliver your food without charging you. They can authorise £80 worth of vouchers to go through the checkout if they have to. Of course they can - a senior person will have to do it, but they can.

And I've emailed them with the link to this thread, and told them there's no way I'll be trying their online shopping, and I think they've behaved appallingly.

Can you link email address pls?

So glad i read this thread.........I keep getting emails from ASDA offering me free delivery on an on-line shop. I certainly won't be using them now! So sorry for what you're going through OP......it's absolutely disgraceful. Thank goodness for your lovely local shop keeper!

I've used sainsburys for years and always found them wonderful (one of the drivers even carried my order up a massive hill in the snow cos he couldn't get his van up it!). They have also phoned me a couple of hours before my delivery was due to tell me the payment wouldn't go through so I could sort it........so no ghost payments there.

I've facebooked it too, and asked my friends to copy the link to their status so we can spread the word.

I hope this helps!

Can I have email address? (quickly, before I leave work!)

Exactly EricNorthmansmistress there is something they can do, well lots of things. They could get the nearest store to package up the order and get the delivery van or the store manager to deliver it, along with a bunch of flowers and bottle of champagne for the hassle , they could fax the bank (doesn't sound too taxing ), they could put through the order themselves online using a company credit card or a director's credit card, they could go to the nearest branch of her bank and pay in £80 in cash so it was in her account today.

All would sort the issue but it seems Asda would prefer to sit on their arses while we all get pissed off and decide to boycott . They must be raking it in if they can afford to do that

Have you rung the store who does the home delivery as I find this more productive than the 'Customer care' number.

I have had none delivery of shopping and the other week someone else frozen food they never did bother to pick it up.

"they should bung you the lot free of charge to avoid a PR disaster"

Er - I think this IS a PR disaster!

Asda messed my sister about like this too. She had booked a slot for 8-10pm on the sunday as her DS was going into hospital for a week the next day and she wanted to make sure cupboards were full for various friends/family to feed her other DC at home while she was in. At 9.55 she rang to check shopping would be coming. Stroppy man on phone informs her that staff have rung in sick today so they were unable to deliver her shopping. They would have phoned except that the local store has not had time.

So she did mad dash to her local Tesco which opens til 11. Unfortunately her card declined at the til because the f*ckers at ASDA have taken the payment for her non delivered shopping. Luckily her local Tesco agreed to do a customer not present card payment on my debit card. ASDA took 2 weeks to refund her money, and neither of us will ever use them again.

ballstoit that is unbelieveable - I can't believe they can get away with such terrible service

Had head office on the phone, lovely efficient girl who still maintained that the fault lay with my bank.

Explained bank refuted this and they were happy for me to go to the press.

She is going to contact her accounts dept to get them to send fax asking my bank to release the funds, although she is unsure if they will as this is not their procedure.

She did offer to contact my local store and load a voucher card with the amount which I could spend there today, but as nearest Asda is over an hour away and I dont drive this was'nt an option.Said I wanted it delivered today but as online shopping is an automated system she said this was not possible.

She is going to send a cheque to cover the cost of my phonecalls and for the inconvinience.(She did offer vouchers but I stated there was no way I was setting foot in Asda)

I have told her about this thread and that the loss of custom will be in the thousands not just my measly £80.76, and that I still fully intend on going to the press/watchdog/send letters etc

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO'S TO BLAME.

THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY AND THEY SHOULDN'T.

ARGH.

Sorry about that - almost exploded!

I don't know how you are keeping so calm Pissedrightoff. I'm furious for you!!!

Cant they give you an online voucher code? Or send a member of staff from store to collect you and drop you off? Or pay for a taxi? Keep ringing them, if my nephew had not been so ill we would have done much, much more complaining.

I have to Indigo (with difficulty) coping (just) with PND, and if I let this get the better of me it will be a major setback for me. Also DD really picks up on it if I get stressed.

Was shaking and sweating buckets when I was on the phone to them.

Oh dear, ASDA are not coming off at all well are they. Will they redeem themselves I wonder?

I have to admit that I had no idea about this ghost payment malarky and I'm still not sure I understand it tbh. It is hard for this not to come across as theft as this is your cash we are talking about, not your credit. Who on earth has the right to 'ringfence' your money. You have not agreed to put a deposit down for some shopping, you payed for some shopping. Imagine if someone wanted to ringfence some money in your wallet? You would tell them where to get off. I can understand the ringfencing of money on, e.g, a credit card when hiring a car but this does not seem acceptable practice at all when we are talking about your debit account, i.e. your cash.

As this is an interesting issue that affects many people potentially I would consider raising it with the expert at the Guardian.

You should phone the Highland news! I can almost picture the story making the front page! [grin} Plus, it'll piss Asda off considering they're trying to get their first stores in Inverness and the surrounding area at the moment!

Thanks Honesty, I am writing an email to her now and copying in a link to this thread.

Ooh thats right peacelover, had,nt thought of that angle

Pissed - good for you then!

If something is upsetting you and it's not your fault, I think it's an excellent habit to offload the stress onto other persons. THe shaking /sweating will subside as you get used to it as a way of life

Sorry for spelling, paid not payed

I hope she gets back to you, be great if she can help out.

Of course there's something they can do.

A friend of mine had a mix-up on her Ocado order on the afternoon of a dinner party she was giving.

The driver actually drove to her nearest Waitrose, bought the items she was missing and ensured they were charged to the company.

They're just in a different class altogether.

Something similar happened in the last deep snow. Asda couldn't deliver (faair enough - no-one was going anywhere) but people had no shopping, and Bank accounts were debited so could not pay in store.

Sainsbury's let you go in & collect the food yourself, but not Asda. You had to wait 10 days for a refund & starve in the meantime!