Disgusted with Asda Customer Services

Aspiring

mrcow wrote: »

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ASDA simply can't afford to lose business in this way. It's their bread and butter.

I don't think in today's economic climate, any business can

DUTR

devon007 wrote: »

Long story short. Dashed in to Asda about 3.20 p.m. today. Did a quick shop. Went to self service till to use a prepaid debit card which I knew had £17 credit still on it. My shopping was £14.43. Card is a swipe and sign, not a chip and pin, but had been used in there last week successfully. Completed swiping shopping through, swiped card and was about to sign the signature pad when the machine crashed. Assistant said sorry but you need to move to a new till and start agian, which I did. BUT the first machine had already taken the money off my card so the second machine declined it due to lack of money!!!!
The Assistant could do nothing, called Customer Service Manager who refused to accept that my card had been debited, refused to let me take the goods (they were only £14.43 remember! and included some chilled goods), refused to even take my name and address despite being offered my driving licence and me saying I would either bring in a printout of my statement showing the payment or bring the money in if indeed it had not gone through (which I doubted), and generally totally unhelpful. Would not listen to anything I said and just would not be reasonable, kept citingcompany policy at me. Said I needed to pay by an alternative method - why should I - it was clear my card had been debited, but he just kept saying he could not confirm that! I could not have my goods until he was 100% certain I had paid - idiot!!! I dashed home and checked on line - yup my card had been debited. Rang the store and told him (bear in mind the store is 5 mins walk from my home)and said what was he going to do - he says you can come in tomorrow and collect your goods. No way - I am not purchasing anything from your company, in effect you stole my goods this afternoon and I no longer want to bring my custom to your store. WEll I will send a gift card - no thank you, I do NOT want to be your customer, I want my money back. I now have to go back tomorrow at 8 a.m. to get my money - at my inconvenience not theirs!

So they have had my money, have my goods, and I have to now go back for MY OWN MONEY - not good enough Asda. You lost a good customer and I will go out of my way to repeat this to everyone I know. If only you had seen fit to deliver my shopping to me this afternoon with a big bouquet by way of apology you could have actually saved the day - but I guess customer service is not high on your agenda, despite the recession!!!!

Bad bad bad show Asda! Your floor staff told me the self service tills have been crashing all day - why did they not switch them off altogether. Whilst I was there arguing the Customer Service Manager (some 15 mins) I saw at least four other machines go down in that area! You have a huge problem, not just with your machines, but with your staff and your attitude to your customers and low prices will not sort those problems out!

Sorry the episode doesn't seem to ring true, until the transaction is signed, then there is no funds deducted.
Perhaps the card company saw 2 withdrawal attempts and temporarly blocked the card. Why be arguing with the store staff , especially for 15 mins or so, simply raise your concern with the store manager and escalate to HQ if not resolved.

boo2009

Aspiring wrote: »

I would say that very much depends on the reader of the protest. Clearly we are only getting one point of view, although there is no reason to doubt it, it is still only one person's perception.

Now, if I based my lifestyle habits purely and simply on one point of view, from someone I do know know, who has admitted that up until this point they have had a good service, I wouldn't be behaving very sensibly.

However, if it was someone I knew well, who's integrity I knew, and who's opinion I had learned to respect - - - - - - it may, just may, make a difference to my overall opinion.

Now, I'm not saying the OP hasn't had a bad experience; but the experience isn't mine. Therefore, I reserve judgement on Asda based on my own experiences.

I try to avoid supermarkets as much as possible, but there are times where they come in handy. Maybe I'm just a bit more objective

Lets just say I no longer use Asda myself for my own reasons but that is another story and would not make assumptions based upon someone I do not know.

Funnily enough though I would say the percentage of replies are in favour for the person who started the thread.

jennyo

devon007 wrote: »

BTW the cashier who was authorised to give me my cash back asked me (when the CSM had gone) what had happened, because I had said to her I was not going to shop there any more. She too was horrified when I told her and said they should have let me take the goods and sort it out next day. She genuinely seemed sorry about the fiasco.

She probably was sorry, I would be really upset if this had happened to me, hope you get a good outcome from Asda

Aspiring

boo2009 wrote: »

Lets just say I no longer use Asda myself for my own reasons but that is another story and would not make assumptions based upon someone I do not know.

Funnily enough though I would say the percentage of replies are in favour for the person who started the thread.

Probably because most people feel similarly insomuch as

Aspiring wrote:

- - -It's awful that on a day when money was tight and, due to no fault of your own, the service you received was less than expected, or previously experienced.
- -- I hope you find a satisfactory outcome to this episode; rudeness and ignorance and disrespect should never be tolerated.

boo2009

I rest my case

photome

Aspiring wrote: »

How does 25% reduction at Somerfields compare to Asda reductions that (at the right time of day) can be as high as 75%? Surely you are still losing out on a bargain at a time when money is clearly tight for you?

.

The OP said they get it at 25% of original cost, not 25% off

earthmother

DUTR wrote: »

until the transaction is signed, then there is no funds deducted.

Sorry to disagree, but I know from experience that funds can be deducted without authorisation. I had a situation with Lidl last year - new card and for some reason it wouldn't let me use the PIN. The cashier said the transaction was cancelled, took the payment in cash (I was trying not to spend it as I needed it for something else that day) and I thought nothing of it - until I checked my bank statement a few days later and there the transaction was - not a holding amount, but a complete statemented transaction. I realised he hadn't given me a 'cancelled' receipt, but luckily the store accepted what had happened as their tills were out too, so I got a refund, but another week I could have been in a right mess.

devon007

DUTR wrote: »

Sorry the episode doesn't seem to ring true, until the transaction is signed, then there is no funds deducted.
Perhaps the card company saw 2 withdrawal attempts and temporarly blocked the card. Why be arguing with the store staff , especially for 15 mins or so, simply raise your concern with the store manager and escalate to HQ if not resolved.

The saga is written exactly as it happened. When I am working, I am a lawyer in property law (nuff said at the mo!! what a market!) and therefore have 30 years experience in both dealing with people and with taking in details, periphery information etc.
I tried to raise my concerns with the General Manager - he is off ill. I tried to speak to the Deputy Manager - he was on a conference call. I was stuck with the CSM who approached me with an aggressive attitude to begin with and kept his hand on my shopping bag quite a lot of the time he spoke to me - as if he was worried I was going to nab it and run :mad:
My card still shows the debit of £14.43 as at tonight. I spent 15 minutes because I (stupidly) thought the CSM might just see the value of customer loyalty and be reasonable. How utterly mistaken of me!

devon007

Aspiring wrote: »

I think this is what you have to weigh up when you are sending your complaint to head office. In the main, you have been most satisfied with the service you have been given - albeit, on comparatively less urgent spends.

It's awful that on a day when money was tight and, due to no fault of your own, the service you received was less than expected, or previously experienced.

What do you hope to gain from your letter? An apology? Bouquet of flowers? Gift voucher? If you should get one or all of those, will you then post here and say that you are pacified and will now return to Asda for your shopping? I will never ever return to Asda to shop of my own volition. What I would hope to gain is some improvement for other customers in future who may find themselves in the same position. What would actually have made me change my mind totally would have been the CSM returning my shopping to me on his way home yesterday - I am only 5 mins away - it would not have taken much effort.

How will you know if it has made any difference to the way these incidents are dealt with if you are no longer a customer? Why should I care about whether I know or not? As long as Asda know the problem the ball is in their court to sort out. I will throw the ball, if they don't catch it and lose more customer in the same situation, so be it. I have done my bit.

Is there anything they could say/do that would alter your mind about returning to the store? Not now, no. They've left it too late. A big bunch of flowers with my cash this morning MIGHT have been a good start but the attitude of the CSM this morning was only a little bit better than his counterpart yesterday.

You make a point and seem upset that you were dealt with by the Customer Services MANAGER and declined an opportunity to speak with the Deputy MANAGER. Yet both are "managers" which means they have equal status. Do you think one manager is a lesser qualification/status than the other? Perhaps my perception of managers is not the same as yours? My understanding of the heirarchy in the stores is based on friendship with a General Manager of a huge Co-operative Store up North. He was GM of the entire store and ultimately responsible. He had a team of Deputy Managers, who did day to day running and were in turn responsible for the Customer Service Managers. Therefore, I was trying to speak to someone who actually had the power to make an on the spot decision rather than a CSM who had no personal power to overturn company policy.

In your original post, you stated that you spent 15 minutes "arguing" - do you think your own demeanour had any bearing on how they responded to you? Did you "argue" because you felt intimidated and lacked confidence on your rights? Is it possible that if you had chosen a different level of communication, the outcome would have been different? My demeanour was led by that of the CSM who most definitely approached me on the basis that he was not going to do anything for me because I could not prove there and then that I had paid for the goods, and was most definitely not going to let me leave with anything I could not prove I had paid for (see the post above). You did make me laugh. ANyone who knows me knows only too well I am last person anyone will intimidate. Everyone from the refuse collectors to the Queen gets exactly the same respect from me and I expect the same in return. I don't lack confidence in my rights - I probably know my rights better than Joe Average due to my job.

Do you anticipate/hope/expect that by posting on MSE, you will influence where other MSE'ers shop? Is that your aim? Nope, my aim was to see what others thought of the situation and how they would have reacted and indeed to find out whether there was anything that could assist me with my letter - which indeed there was!

How does 25% reduction at Somerfields compare to Asda reductions that (at the right time of day) can be as high as 75%? Surely you are still losing out on a bargain at a time when money is clearly tight for you? I thnk someone else clarified your misreading of my post.

Is it the self service tills that you had the problem with the real issue? Or the way it was dealt with? By that I mean, I refuse to use the self serve tills because they are a complete pain in the proverbial and would rather queue at a regular checkout. Would that "solve" and prevent any further errors of this nature? Nope - I luv the self service tills and use them regularly - they are usually brilliant. I do not find them a pain in the proverbial cos I usually pay cash at them. But on this day they clearly had a huge problem with all the self service tills crashing and clearly should have taken them all of line.

I hope you find a satisfactory outcome to this episode; rudeness and ignorance and disrespect should never be tolerated.

I actually don't expect to have much of a satisfactory outcome given the attitude at local store level. But if no one ever complains nothing will change. I will add to this that when I have had good service over and above what I would expect I always send a letter or card of commendation. I was at a 5* Hotel in London a few weeks ago (Paramount Pictures paid for that - it was part of a win) and the service was superb - so even though I was not footing the bill I still sent a Thank You card saying how excellent the service was and singling out a couple of members of staff for going that extra mile.

I'll also add in here that I used to do mystery shopping and regularly did the local Asda store - I no longer work for that particular firm so am not bound by any confidentiality, it was some time ago. On occasions when a member of the shop floor team excelled they were specifically praised in my report. I don't complain for the sake of complaining is what I am saying. I complain for the sake of future customer service levels.