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Original poster

To be livid at Tesco 'ghost payment'

37 replies

Mallenstreak · 12/12/2009 22:56

Went into Tesco on Weds night and spent £150.00 on chocolates for Santa's grotto at the school bazaar. I was fairly near my overdraft limit as almost payday but transferred some funds into my account on Friday morning.After leaving work I went to the cashpoint to get some money out as it was my works xmas bash that night. The cashpoint refused to give me any money so I knew something was wrong (I work in a bank). When I got home my hairdresser was on the doorstep but luckily hubby had enough to pay - this was all the money he had as he does not get paid until later in the week. I then called the bank who said that £150.00 was showing as due to be debited from my account even though Tesco had already taken the money. As it was Tesco's error the bank couldn't do anything and I had to call Tesco's.3 calls later I finally reached the store and was told to pop down and the checkout manager would sort it out. When I got to the store was told that they had to call India! To cut a long story short 40 mins later we had got nowhere and as it was after 6pm I was told nothing could be done until Monday. I was furious as I could not get any money for my works do and couldn't even buy a drink. Had also planned to take DS out for day tomorrow and unable to do that either! Apparently these 'ghost transactions' are common and caused by error with the Chip & Pin machine. This has ruined my weekend

OP posts:
EvilTwinsStoleSantasSleigh · 12/12/2009 23:01

YANBU at all. I have had this too, and it's ridiculous. They are right - it IS common. I've checked our online account a number of times, to read that the "available balance" is somewhat less than I was expecting, and then within a day or two, it's gone back up.

How annoying for you. Not surprised it's ruined your weekend.

drlovesmincepies · 12/12/2009 23:04

OMG ! thats shocking. I hope you write a letter of complaint to tescos head office, pointing out that you were very inconveninced by their mistake .with any luck this mess will be sorted out very quickly.

JustAnotherManicMummy · 12/12/2009 23:07

Actually I think your bank should have sorted it out. If it's a known issue then they should have a process to manage these situations.

Even if it is just a temporary overdraft.

Alarmbellsring · 12/12/2009 23:07

My friend had the same thing happen with Asda, took weeks for them to get the money back. The only reason they got the money back was when my friends went through their banka nd the bank threatened Asda with action if they didn't refund the money. Cost my friend £'s in phone calls and not even an apology from Asda

Glitterknickaz · 12/12/2009 23:10

Premier Inn did this to me resulting in me being on the Isle of Wight, unable to buy any food.

Glitterknickaz · 12/12/2009 23:10

Premier Inn did this to me resulting in me being on the Isle of Wight, unable to buy any food.

scottishmummy · 12/12/2009 23:15

what a shame!Never heard of ghost payment

IMoveTheStarsForNoOne · 12/12/2009 23:18

sorry, i don't understand? what is a ghost payment?

could you not transfer more money?

Original poster
Mallenstreak · 12/12/2009 23:26

A ghost payment is when they take only 1 payment but records show that another payment is 'earmarked' to come out again but never does. Don't have enough to transfer (would have to be £150.00 + what else was needed.

OP posts:
JustAnotherManicMummy · 12/12/2009 23:38

I thought all pending payments automatically dropped off after 3 days if they aren't called for by the shop's bank. After that you can dispute the transaction and your bank should refund you whilst it gets sorted out.

It is odd that £150 would be a pending payment - IME ghost payments are only for less than £50 because anything over that normally has to get authorisation and is auto accept/declined by the purchaser's bank.

However, I have not worked on the front line of retailing banking for a couple of years so I could well be out of date.

Alarmbellsring · 12/12/2009 23:52

My friends payment was £60 - not sure if it is classed as a ghost payment though. They paid online and Asda took two lots of £60 from their account.

TwoIfBySea · 13/12/2009 00:11

YANBU I had this happen a few years ago, actually Tesco took two payments by accident and put us over our overdraft. The store manager behaved like we were trying to swindle him rather than get it put right. I haven't shopped at a Tesco since and have no intention of doing so again.

I had noticed anyway that everytime I went I had to check the receipt as often the special offers wouldn't go through properly. Must be a clever way to get their profits up.

June2009 · 13/12/2009 00:17

we had the same thing happen to us with a mattress we bought, and it was £300.
The bank could not tell us who the payment was earmarked for which was really stressfull.
We figured it out because it was exactly the same amount as the mattress.
Still, we were told nothing could be done and we just had to wait!!!

TinyPawz · 13/12/2009 00:24

Mallen granted it was Tesco fault (blink eejits) but your bank can remove the earmark....presummably you work for the same one that you bank with, the Visa/Switch department can remove the earmarks on your request.

Darn inconvenient though.

You might want to chase that up on Mon morning, I know I certainly could be without 150 so close to Xmas

PurpleLostPrincess · 13/12/2009 00:57

I've had this happen a few times - once a few years ago in Somerfield and it ruined my weekend, and once a Morissons garage. The bank (barclays in this case) said that the 'merchant' had 10 days to claim the money, then if they don't it goes back into the back. It really is infuriating, I feel for you and hope you find a way of getting through the weekend

squashimodo · 13/12/2009 01:10

This has happened to me at least 4 times. I now make sure there is enough in the bank for a ghost payment. It is bloody annoying, but usually if I pester the bank enough, they do put it right immediately.

skihorse · 13/12/2009 07:38

I have had this paying a hotel bill for ¬1.5k! The bank wouldn't let me pay because there was an earmarked transaction for paying the bill- wtf? I did manage however to use the a different card on the same account to withdraw the money ¬150 at a time. It was very stressful and really embarassing - I'm sure the girl on reception thought I was trying to pull a fast one.

DoingTheBestChristmasICan · 13/12/2009 08:15

I have heard this of a number of people,a lady i was talking to in work last week told me that her card was refused at Tesco,even though she knew she had money in her account.

She managed to scrape enough cash to pay the bill & rung her bank from home,there she was told that they have more problems with Tesco than all the other complaints put together.

hatwoman · 13/12/2009 08:23

I've never heard of this but it's outrageous. if you don't get a satisfactory outcome on Monday - including some form of compensation for the massive inconvenience of being left money-less over the weekend - I'd write a blistering letter to hq and then, if still no joy, I'd go to You and Yours or one of the newspaper consumer pages.

vinocollapso · 13/12/2009 08:24

Write a VERY strongly worded but polite letter to Tesco head office outlining how stressful this was and exactly what you are expecting as some sort of compensation.

Other people (and companies) just assume we all have 'other funds' to fill the gap, but I most certainly don't, and clearly neither do you!

Good luck.

MaggieAnFiaRua · 13/12/2009 08:33

wow. what a strssful pain in the neck. hope you get loads of vouchers to try and make up for it.

i recently ordered a bag from littlewoods and when the bill arrived with giro slip i walked into bank to pay it off in full.

so, the next time a littlewoods bill arrived, i almost didn't even bother opening it because i knew i'd paid it. luckily something made me open it and to my shock, it said that i hadn't paid anything last month.

when i spoke to bank, at first they were saying, well if you'd paid, one of us would have been forty quid up at the end of the day last 9th november and that wasn't the case (so basically YOU must be imagining that you paid! i was so sure i'd paid though. eventually the tiller said he'd check what was paid to that referencce last month and he finally came back and said that a payment for same amount was made last month wihtout a reference!

so, it was totally the banks error. i told them to pay it properly and the guy still wouldn't do it immediately. he said he was going to try and get the forty back and then pay properly (with the reference).

all sorted out eventually, but very stressful as it was hard to get the bank to believe it could possibly be their mistake. They were so quick to label me another crazy broke customer fantasising that she's already paid this bill!

all very stressful

MaggieAnFiaRua · 13/12/2009 08:35

ps, not sure i understand the reasoning behind a ghost payment. how can they justify debited your account twice for something you bought once...?

skihorse · 13/12/2009 09:21

Maggie That's awful. I really hate the insinuation that you're a cheating bastard when you question these things. I'm another one who hasn't got money pissing out of my ears and sometimes I have to make a call to say "I will pay you when I get paid" and you just know they're thinking "yeh yeh, lying cow."

Original poster
Mallenstreak · 13/12/2009 09:45

Thanks for all your comments. My bank can't remove it but gave me an authorisation code for Tesco to give to their 'visa merchant' to have it removed. I hope it doesn't go on for 10 days as some of you have said as it will cause massive inconvenience and embarassment. Need to get some more xmas shopping before DS is off school! Still if I can't afford to eat maybe I will have to doo what I talked about on my other thread and take it off Tesco's shelves!!

OP posts:
skihorse · 13/12/2009 10:01

Mallenstreak Yep! If you get caught shoplifting phone the Daily Mail with a sob story! Would be very PR for Tesco to sue you for theft when it's their administrative error which got you there...