What the hell can I do about this?! (Asda delivery)

[Counttheshadows]

Ordered a home delivery shop yesterday to arrive today. I'm having some problems following my c section 3 months ago, and I just couldn't face carrying shopping etc as my stomach is quite painful.

Just had an email to say the order has been cancelled and to phone to ask why. So I did, and they've said "the bank never got back to us in time to secure the payment". The money was there, I made sure of it before I ordered, but now it's not showing in my bank, so I can't even go shopping now!! There's no food in the house, so what the hell do I do?!! Asda say it's nothing to do with them. Can't even phone the bank cos it's dh's card and he won't be able to phone until after work now.

I feel so low this morning and have been very tearful anyway, and this has just tipped me over the edge :(

Re who has the money....

I think that what happens is that ASDA pre-authorises your card for the entire amount ie they "reserve" the cost of your shop from the bank - it cannot be accessed because the money is reserved for ASDA.

Additionally on some occasions (eg if the cost of your shop ends up not being the same as the cost in your basket) then the payment is taken additionally to the authorisation, hence the double payment issue.

PS. If you would like I'm sure some more technical folk could tweet this thread at ASDA if you like?

hi op. sorry to see things are difficult. i read back on the thread. it was suggested your partner could get some bits on the way home. but you said he does not drive. lots of people get shopping who do not drive. he could get a few bits to see you over tonight or maybe get a cab home.

do you have anything in the house at all for you to eat during the day. even if its toast/breakfast stuff. any odds and end as long as your able to eat something.

when i shop at asda. they take 1p or 1.00 cant remember which. im told its to make sure the card is active. then they take the amount for whole food shop on the morning of delivery.

I had an issue with Sainsburys refusing to give me back my money for an item they had no intention of delivering.

I accused them, over the phone of theft and repeatedly asked for my money back that same day and to speak to a manager. They kept telling me it would take 3-5 days. I kept telling them they could return it within 2 hours and to do so.

I basically made a nuisance of myself to the point where the most senior person on shift that day hung up on me.

I didn't get my money back that day, but it was in my account first thing the next day. Something they told me was not possible.

So, yanbu, and if you have the energy, keep ringing them back and refuse to take no for an answer. They can and will sort it out.

good luck.

Well the money's somewhere and it's not in ops dh bank account! And given several posters have said this is a problem only with asda then I think it reasonable to assume asda have done SONETHING wrong!

The problem is not only with asda, i have known the same problem with mobile phone companies and I work for a car dealership and the same thing happened with £25k of a customers money for a new car.
Everytime a card transaction goes throught that is not authorised the money gets taken from account anyway and put in a holding account. In our case the salesman cancelled the transaction by accident, the money was taken from the customers account but never hit ours. The bank explained this is what happens. We couldnt release the car because we didnt have the money and he obviously couldnt pay another 25K for the car until the money was credited back to his account, which it was 3 days later.
The same happened to a friend when she tried 3 times to pay for a mobile. Some banks dont like paying out to mobile companies because of fraud. The money got taken from her account 3 times.
Why it happens at asda a lot i dont know, maybe they make mistakes trying to put the money through.

Highly recommend Tesco or Sainsburys for home delivery. I used asda once and never would again.

Asda have a really old system. It should check that the card is valid by taking £1, and usually it does, but sometimes it holds the full order amount instead (so £63 in OP's case). This has automatically told OP's bank that she has spent that money, so it isn't available to spend again.

Then they went to take the actual money this morning, but OP only had £3 available, so the order got cancelled. If OP had had enough to cover the shop again, the £63 would have been taken and the authorisation would cancel immediately, so OP would not have noticed that for a small period, ASDA essentially had her money twice. The same happens with the £1, so most people don't notice it.

Because the order was cancelled, the authorisation will automatically expire in 3 - 5 days. The bank can return this money to the OP's available balance but will need confirmation from ASDA that they can do so, and they'd need to speak to the account holder.

Tesco did this to me - my 40th birthday party shopping order.
I was 38 weeks PG!
They cancelled the order, didn't tell me, no apology. No notice - they lied, said my card didn't work - the very same card I used in the months before and months after and used with them for many other orders.

They lied again and said they had called me on my mobile to let me know - no message left, no missed call, no call received.

I wrote and complained and got a "non apology" from them.

It totally put me off Tesco and I rarely shop there now - yes 8 years later I still think "lying fucks" every time I shop there

In summary, they really don't care about messing with you.

Ohhhh Anchor that makes a lot of sense. Annoying it works that way though!

Counttheshadows if you can once this is sorted look at using Ocado or Morrisons, they use the same network as each other though obviously prices and stock are different but the key thing is they reserve £1 to check that the card is working then do not take the actual payment until after the goods are delivered which means any substitutions that you refuse are never charged for in the first place. I have never had issues with them and can only remember getting a substitution once and unlike Asda it was suitable. Saying that I have ordered this week from Asda because they were miles cheaper than anyone else for something I needed to stock up on.

I hope you manage to get things sorted quickly

Maybe those of you who asda have taken the piss out off need to contact watchdog!
Glad I don't get online shopping there.
Tesco couldn't get a payment once (old card on there system so my fault) .
And they phoned me an hour before my delivery was coming and was able to sort it out stright away and I still had my delivery on time.

Dm is on her way :) Will take her an hour to get here, but means she can go shopping for me or watch dd while I go.

Hope things work out.

Asda are famous for this "ghost payment" thing. It also means that if you place an order on one day for delivery on another, but make a transfer in between, you can get shafted.

eg a friend of mine placed an order when her account was low on funds, then transferred into it more than she'd need. The "ghost" payment couldn't get quite enough, but froze the funds it could get. Asda cancelled the order (without telling her) and the system held on to the ghost payment. No shopping, no money.

If your final payment is different from the ghost (more or less, but they don't match) then the ghost is held until it's released. So if you place a £63 shop and it ends up being £62 because they'd run out of gingerbreadmen, your account is down by £125 until the system reboots.

DON'T USE ASDA unless you have a big cushion in your account.

I really highly recommend Morrisons delivery. In a year we've had one substitute, and no missing items. The sub was one shape of pasta for another in the same range, and they text you first thing to let you know what subs (if any) you'll be getting.

It also tells you the name of the driver and the decoration and plate of the van, which is cute for me and presumably reassuring for more nervous people.

So the doorbell went, and I nearly didn't answer it as was dressing dd, but glad I did, as it was the shopping!!

I really find it outrageous that shops are still doing this method for home delivery shopping orders.

There must be a better process to use that doesn't put people in these situations and make this out of their control.

If you are on your arse and you order and they do this, it can really put people in an awful situation.

Good news Count.

Count that's fantastic! Still send your mum out for some chocolate though :)

Well the washing machine is now playing up. Hopefully I can sort it when dm gets here but either way, dd has gone through her 2 sleeping bag things last night/this morning, so can send dm out to get another one as it won't dry in time (if I can get the machine sorted that is!). So won't be a wasted journey! :) Can't believe all that stress was for nothing. Still, I got my shopping

Ahhh that's a nice ending to the story Count. Make sure you still complain though so they can give you a voucher that you can spend on Chocolate and Biscuits and/or Wine depending on if you can drink it or not!!

glad it's ended well! At least you know not to use thrm again. Too much stress!

Have a good day OP

Asda did the same thing to me, texted me to cancel my order. Couldn't reach hem on the phone to complain so in a rage went to Tesco and bought my shopping. Door bell went few hours later and lo and behold it was my Asda delivery. Sent them packing. Horrendously bad customer service from them sometimes.

Glad you are sorted OP.

@OhPillocks

Of course MNHQ have to post their standard comment. If people come online and say their are skint then someone invariably offers them money or goods. It's lovely when people do that however there is no way that you can tell who is a scammer and who isn't so you either have to have the warning on every single 'I'm skint' thread or none of them. There is no need to feel insulted by it.

Yes. THIS Hope you are feeling better soon, OP = and that you've got some nappies now. Can you also maybe use DM's washing machine for a bit. Kindest wishes to you MNHQ

Washing machine is sorted but we're off to get another sleeping bag as 2 obviously isn't enough. Thank god for mums! (and MN!!)

Thank you everyone. Definitely learnt a lesson not to use Asda again!

MNHQ - I wasn't saying I was skint though, I was honestly just asking for advice on how to try and get my money back/shopping delivered. Just don't want anyone thinking I was looking for handouts, because I honestly wasn't.

Thank you so much everyone for the support. It's really appreciated