To think Asda are just shocking?

[EddyF]

It's late but I can't stop thinking about this. I shopped in Asda quite far from home as I was coming back home with a friend after being somewhere. I ended up doing a bit of a shop including their home stuff. Queue was a nightmare but held on as I really wanted the lamp that I had fallen in love with. Got to the till, everything came to £266 and some change. Entered my card and bloomp! DECLINED! I was mortified as queue was long behind me and I knew there was money in my account. I tried 2 more times and card was declined.

Assistant was fed up with me by then. Luckily my friend paid for my stuff what I was busy trying to tell everyone I had the money. We get back in the car and I charge my completely dead phone. On the motorway I call my bank and they tell me that there is a transaction from Asda for the same amount that was declined. My bank couldnt return it to me as Asda was holding it and advised that Asda would most likely drop it back into my account within 10 days. Just not good enough.

We turn back to go back to Asda and they really couldn't give a shit. Said "yeah it happens sometimes. You will get your money back".

The whole experience was shit which has lead me to remember another time (more fool me for shopping with them; I stick with Sainsbury's and Lidl) when I had a ectopic pregnancy and was home ill from the hosp. I had a home delivery. Young driver was SO rude and hostile to come up the stairs (small flat, no lift). The stairs are about 6 before front door. I explained to him that I was ill. He told me it's not his job to climb stairs as I'm not disabled! I asked him how would he know?he replied well you don't look it and you're not old. He ended up just throwing the bags around. Told him I didn't particularly enjoy seeing my milk and bread on the floor.

I thought of reporting him but he honestly looked like a mouthy yob and i just thought he knows where I leave and I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle of it all.

So yeah this post is probably pointless but I'm done with Asda. Luckily I was able to pay friend straight back as I had money at that rime. But what if I didn't? Why take money and then Shame me by telling me it's declined?

"make sure you no this for deliveries too.at stroke of midnight they take your money into holding.so if for some reason it didn't get delivered or something happened you wouldn't have either the money or the items."

This happened to me once and I've never shopped at asda since. I stick to Morrisons. I've never had a problem with them.

I avoid asda like the plague for basically being shit anyway but i'm amazed they can get away with frequently witholding customer money for 10 days! Losing the price if a weekly shop AND the food could really fuck some ppl up no wonder payday loans are such a thing.

@FortunesFave: No, I can understand what you mean. I can understand that yes, it feel different matter to complain loudly to the manager and then say well just put it instead on debit, or go to get out cash. It absolutely sucks. We both know that it's unjustified to feel that way but it's inevitable that you do. However, remember you have the right to demand proper service - they're in the wrong. A gift card should be the equivalent of cash.

The irony is that so many budget sites suggest one buys gift cards for smallish amounts each week/fortnight to allow you to save for Christmas in an easy way. With your experience you have to wonder what's the point of doing so.

Actually, thinking about it, I had been thinking of cashing in my Flybuys points to spend at Christmas. In the end I didn't, but I would have been beyond furious if Coles couldn't cash their own reward points.

Now you've calmed down, I think you should contact them and give them a blast. It was only just over four weeks ago. I decided last week that I'm no longer going to take bad service lying down. For example, I took a cheap Telstra phone in for repairs under warranty about 18 months ago. I have been unable to get it back from them due to distance, them never answering their phone or replying to emails - which is an irony for a telco's shop. I had sort of forgotten about it because I ultimately replaced it with a phone that I prefer. But, then I thought bugger it, and have just contacted Telstra's head office, partly because I am bloody sick of Telstra in all its forms. Will see what happens.

Asda once delivered flour that was 5 months out of date. Only realised because when I opened it, it was full of insects. I never check dates on cupboard stuff, so god only knows how often it had happened before. I complained, and they were unapologetic, and just refunded the cost of the pack of flour. Haven't used them since.

This is why we use a cashback credit card for all our shopping, DH both have cards, track the spending on an app and have a direct debit set up to clear balance monthly.

I’ve had the pending transaction thing happen in a few places (not Asda, as we don’t have one) but at least with a credit card its not your cash that is held!

This happened to my friend but with a online shop, they cancelled her order last minute due to poor weather conditions (driver couldn’t get to her) but they already took her payment and told her it would be ten dats before it showed up in her account, so she couldn’t afford to go shopping for ten days and the order contained pet food for her dogs. She called them and explain that that money was all she had and she could now not feed herself or her dogs and they basically said “nothing we can do” .

This does also happen at Sainsburys.
Before Xmas i made a very large online argos purchase and my bank froze my card for 'suspect activity' even though i had 3k in my bank, my online shopping payment was declined (embarrassing) and i had to ring and use another card. The 'declined' payment to Sainsburys didn't clear from 'pending' on my bank account for 10 working days even though they had been paid.
Fecking annoying.

I carry two cards but I've had my cc declined in Asda (I have a £10k limit with no balance) but then gone to Waitrose and it's fine. I simply switch cards if there's an issue - I do go there because the location is convenient and I like their clothes

Im a weekly Asda shopper. ive had this a couple of times. nightmare, however, if you ring your bank - they return it to you within hours (mine did on each occasion)

The same thing this has happened to me (twice) at a different supermarket. Asda can’t release the money to you, they don’t have it. The 10 days is how long it can take the bank to return the money from the no-mans land holding area that it’s stuck in. Contact the your bank directly, I did and both times my money was back within a couple of hours.

I stopped shopping at Asda when I had bronchitis and the delivery guy refused to help me bring the shopping upstairs, he stood there looking at me as i went up and down 6 times. This is actually their policy, not him being mean, they are not supposed to help you bring it up. They did the same to my brother when he was on crutches.

There was also another time when they took the money from my account but didn't deliver the goods, when i called I was told that it was my fault for picking a late delivery time because sometimes they don't make it round the whole route and the late night ones get missed. This happened just before payday and I had to go and re-buy the shopping and wait over a week for the refund to come through.

I had this with Asda. I had done an online shop they cancelled the delivery an hour before saying the van had broken down. Nothing mentioned about taking 10 days to return my payment. I went to the store to shop the next day and my card was declined. When I checked my account I was overdrawn by £80 with 6 pending payments to Asda. They had taken 5 payments for my online shop and then I had tried to buy the same things so that was the 6th transaction. It took 3 days to sort out and I had charges from the bank. They refused to do anything about it. I had no food no money and charges. I have never done an online shop with them again

I've online shopped with asda before and they refused to carry up the stairs. I'm not disabled, it's just an inconvenience. I shop with tesco now

Asda has definitely declined in terms of customer service over the years. I never go now. On my last visits the people working on the tills never engaged, no please, no thankyou, no smile, faces like the customer was a major inconvenience to them.

I avoid ASDA religiously. In the last few says before the independence referendum here in Scotland they decided to threaten the public with hefty price rises should we vote Yes.

Will never enter an ASDA again.

I avoid ASDA like the plague, unless I can pay with cash

I had the problem with the online shop. They took the money twice, then just didn’t turn up with my order - no call, email, text, anything. Just a total no-show. Took 10 days to sort out.

Then it happened again in the store - the first transaction declined so they tried again, declined again. DH then used his card from the same account and it went through fine. When I got home and checked the bank online the 2 declines transactions were showing in pending too. Took another 10 days

When I spoke to my bank they said there’s no reason why it should take any more than about 3 days for the pending to drop off.

Stuff like this happens (although never with any other shop I’ve been in), but ASDA we’re so rude and unpleasant over the whole thing.

I gave up shopping at Asda last year due to this same problem. Alsp happened in Tesco a while back I contacted my bank while still in store. Tesco apologised gave me a gift card with amount of bill for the embarrassment and inconvenience (£106.73) and gave me my shopping for free. Hurray Tesco Boo Asda. Asda customer service is awful.

Never had this problem - and Asda is my local store.

I was bit snobby about them but they seem to have good policies around employing those with disabilities (I haven't researched enough to know if this is just good PR spin but our local store has some regular staff with visible disabilities) and they give food donations to events at the local children centre and have their charity scheme. So within my local community I can't find it in me to hate them too much.

Haven't trusted them with an online shop though.

I had an issue with them a while ago when I tried an online shop. They just didn't deliver it, no explanation just an email after the end of the delivery slot to say they had cancelled it the order and the money (£150) would be returned within 10 days.

I spent the next month trying to get my money back. In the end I had to go and stand in the shop and tell them I would be staying there until they actually processed the refund. Strangely enough they managed to do it that time. After a whole month.

Needless to say I have never and would never shop with them again.

What do people whining that "the staff don't care!!" expect them to do? They have no control over bank transactions (They won't even know why the card has been declined, just that it has) and they can't just give away stuff because what if the customer doesn't have the money?

Meanwhile, the money is sitting somewhere earning interest. I suspect that they might do this on purpose with larger amounts as it's a handy cash injection for them. If they're doing it to hundreds of people throughout the UK, that's a lot of money to earn interest on.

I had this, but in Aldi, card declined twice so I took the cash out at their instore ATM. Cashier was a bit rude about it all and customers in queue all looking . Turns out it was taken twice after all. I went straight into my bank and yes it was refunded. Just had to wait a few days.

It's up to ten days, so more often than not much less, and it happens at all stores.

@MouseUtopia They don't have access to the money when it's in a holding account, so they're not going anything from it.

Well, I am going to come on and defend them

I shop there because they are cheap. I don't like Lidl and Aldi, as I can't get a full shop there.

I have done my weekly shop there for about 8 years. I have never had a problem with a card transaction. Except for once when it was my fault (I had been sent a new card and was trying to use the old one by mistake) on that occaion they were veyr nice, took me and trolley over to customer services, were very nice while I tried to sort it out.

In the last year we have switched over to delivery.
The drivers are unfailingly polite and nice and helpful.
I get irritated when I have an awkward substitution, but that isn't the drivers fault.
This week they had accidentally put a large heavy item on top of crisps, as soon as I pointed it out, the driver apologised, stuck it in as a refund and then handed me the crisps anyway, as they would not resell them.

In store, the people are really polite and their customer service is good. I know they are taught a mantra to say, you can hear it, but I don;t mind
me - do you have any (totally obscure item)
them - let me find out for you madam
find out, escorts me to correct aisle and finds it.
Can I help you with anything else madam? Have a good day.

Asda are rubbish.
I once bought some new potatoes. Flung them in a pan. Fed them to the family. Next day, noticed some green ?plastic in my dd’s poo when wiping her bottom. Didn’t link it to the potatoes. Bought same potatoes a week later. Same thing happened again. Checked the remaining potatoes in the bag and noticed same small green plastic particles in the potatoes. Contacted Asda. They had no interest whatsoever.
The last few times I purchased reduced products I noticed that I had been overcharged. My £10 milk was listed as a £13.00 leg of lamb!