Shocked at hidden fees in my Asda shop

[Lucie984]

I’ve shopped through Asda online for years and with the exception of a few minor issues have generally found the service and produce to be good both online and instore. I’m also aware they have a £40 minimum basket charge ( fair enough) we have an anytime pass so as long as I do a £40 shop I should only be paying for the groceries purchased….
However the cumulative basket total shown in the corner as shopping can show £40 but this does not mean you have actually reached the minimum £40 basket total. Was very upset to look back through the full receipt of many of my recent orders I have been charged £7.50-9 in these hidden fees. Shockingly even when actually adding a few extra items would have still made the overall charge on our credit card nearly 25% cheaper!

I’m with you on this, they’ve changed it when the website updated. I get a small order with fresh foods on a Sunday for packed lunches etc, quite often I’ve to add a few bits and bobs on to take it up to £40. I used to just look at the total as I was adding things but now I’ve to physically check the final amount to make sure that my whole basket is £40 and not just the total with the delivery charge and under value charge.
I’ve shopped at Asda for almost 30 years and I’m seriously considering moving to Tesco. Their website is shocking now, quite often I can’t get my payment card to go through, the rewards haven’t updated since the start of the month and the amount of substitutes and out of stock items is rising every week.

I think people might be booking one hour slots. I pay for the four hour slot, then the night before they email with a one hour time if you see what I mean. So I’ll book it between say 6 - 10, then get an email saying it’ll actually be between 8.30 and 9.30.

Here are the four hour slot prices, but even in the one hour slots the top price is £5.50.

But surely you'd notice at some point that the total amount you're being asked to pay doesn't match the figure you were keeping an eye on?

If you're adding items and it comes out at £55 on the bit you see that wouldn't be the same price once you've gone through and the discounts come off, so you wouldn't be paying the £55 you thought you were, it would go down to £48 or whatever.

You've never thought hang on, what's the difference for there?

@Lucie984I get what OP is saying. On the top of the page it says how much your total is. Now on my Sainsbury's shop that total is just for food. If it says £39 I know if I check out then that another £7 will be added for delivery so £46 will be final total. However if it says £40 at the top of the page and I check out there is no delivery fee so remains at £40. With Asda the delivery fee is there from the beginning and she hadn't realised this so she gets to £40 and thinks she has £40 of food but it's actually £32 (,or whatever) of food and £8 charges so she could have bought £8 more of food for the same £40 total.

OP, I can see what you are saying about the basket, it should only have shopping items in it, that would make sense. However, you are clearly shown all the basket total and all charges at the point of checkout, so it is on you, to check that total before you make payment.

I also don't see why you can't do one larger shop per week. My milk lasts well over a week, and so does the bread if you keep it in the fridge.

I'm clearly utterly confused. Aren't we ALL busy yet still above to read the fees at the end of the receipt. I wouldn't call that going through it with a fine toothed comb! Just checking what I'm paying for.

Are there certain items that don't get counted towards the £40 min spend, or once it calculates multi-offers at the check out, then the total goes below the min spend???

sometimes I’ve just thought it’s from other items I’ve left in the basket from starting a previous shop (and I review what I’ve added to the basket at the end) but what doesn’t help is the new system for adding favourites that requires you to tick them then click add to basket at the end of the list, so usually I go straight to add regulars and then press click to basket so it’s adding them all on at once and saying there is £40+ in my basket

So it’s a you problem not an Asda problem 🤦‍♀️

Yes but the easy answer is look at the receipt online before you pay.

Even if you know exactly what you’re doing, wouldn’t you check at the very end to make sure you’d not clicked on an expensive time slot or something? Honestly, look at the checkout final total is such a basic suggestion. At least two posters have screenshotted their Asda receipts here and it’s very very clear.

@Lucie984 you haven’t screenshot your receipt here.

Wouldn’t there be £40+ in your basket at that point regardless of how you chose the items?
I’m finding your confusion a bit baffling, tbh.

I think the app has changed- all the fees used to be added at the end if needed, now they add them on at the beginning and they get taken off at the end (for example if you have a delivery pass) it’s really confusing and caught me out at first !!

Lol at "hidden fees and charges" that are clearly listed on the check out page and on the receipt!

I get Asda deliveries all the turn and never had any ‘hidden’ changes. I am also a busy mother

Yeah, I sort of see what you're saying, but this bit here is definitely just a you problem. You're saying that because their website has a feature that lets you bulk add your favourites, you then don't bother checking the information on the checkout screen.

What is strange to me is that you didn't mind the amount you've been paying until you've just realised you weren't getting £40 worth of groceries. Presumably up until now you were quite happy that you'd spent £40 and got the groceries you got? Did you just think 'gosh, eggs are really expensive now'?

Every other supermarket would have a basket total of £39 so you would think oh I need to add something else so I don’t get charged extra fees

Exactly! I can’t believe everybody is ignoring this - not just every other supermarket but every other online retailer will show as basket total your item prices, not item prices + charges.
I’m with you OP!

Plus min charge too.

I’m impressed your bread lasts that long. We go through 2 loaves a day!

Bread keeps just fine for ages if you stab holes in the plastic or whatever and put in the fridge. Saw it online thought nah...but it works. Its tight plastic/sweating that 'kills' your bread. Try it. Saved us lots of throwing bread out. Also buy part bake loaves. They wait in your cupboard and air fryer or bake up quickly. (10 mins air fryer on 180) then you can shop less often (?) Also get carton long life milk.... again keep you away from shops

Ok so I was curious about this and I apparently have nothing better to do so I have just tested it on the Asda app.

I went in and had nothing in my basket and no delivery slot booked. Basket shows as zero.

I booked a £5 delivery slot and it added £5 to my basket in the top right of the screen.

I then added a whole chicken priced £5.44. The total in the top of my screen went to £14.44, apparently adding the minimum basket charge on.

However, tapping on the basket doesn't bring up the basket plus charges, it only shows you what you have, in my case a single chicken, and no explanation of why that chicken is going to cost £14.44. It's not until you tap on 'check out', then tap on 'continue check out', and then scroll down a whole two screen lengths, that you get to the order summary and there the totals are line itemed out.

So next to my chicken I added two lego kits which together come to £31.94. My basket is now showing as £46.38. Great thinks I, that's a £40 basket plus the £5 delivery charge (because maths is not my strong point). But no, of course it's £37.38 plus £5 delivery and £4 basket charge.

Adding three bags of apples at 99p one at a time takes my basket to £47.37, £48.36, and then £45.35. Which actually is a £40 basket and a £5 delivery charge.

I agree OP that it is not clear or user friendly. If I was designing this, when you tapped on the basket to see the shopping contents it would also display any charges such as the delivery and minimum basket charges. You shouldn't have to go all the way to checkout and scroll all the way down the page to get that information. It's way too much of a faff. I would write to them and complain if I were you. Tell them to sort their UI out and remember that people are trying to save money and shop smartly here and they are making it more difficult.

It's really baffling. Apparently we're all shopping wrong.

No offence intended, genuinely, but I'm just surprised that no one has yet said that Oi, Asda, requiring people to check what they have to pay before actually paying it is discriminatory to those with autism, neuro divergence, sen, anxiety, ocd, ptsd, dyslexia, and a hangover...

@katmarie thank you for doing this and explaining it so clearly. I'm sure you'll get told you're wrong any minute though!

Sadly Waitrose is expensive but I use their saver slots for £2.00 and look for offers , our Asda is not worth the hassle , low stock , poor substitutions .

I would say they are the opposite of hidden fees as they are shown/added from the start.