Tesco taking money twice.

enigma82

I had an incident at Tesco's at the weekend, where I used a self service till. I paid via debit card, and went through the chip and PIN process, and then came up with an error on the main screen saying that it required alternative tender. I spoke to some one in the store, who assured me no money would have come off the first card, and so I put it through on another.

So, Lo and behold the money came of both cards. Speaking to the bank they say it is in a holding account, and will return if unclaimed after 15 days, which is a long time to wait, especially at the end of the month! I rang tesco customer service, who told me that if I got the Authorisation code for this transaction and went into the store then they would be able to get this money return sooner. I did this and went to the store, who told me that this was a lie, and that there was nothing they could do.

I again phoned your customer services department, who confirmed the store should be able to do this and would look into it. They then called me back and told me that the transaction did not happen, they have not requested any money, and there was nothing they can do. I then called the bank again, who confirmed the money had been requested by Tesco's, was in a holding account and only Tesco's could send it back.

So, Tesco's have my money, deny all knowledge of it, and won't do anything to help. Is there anything I can do? The bank say because I paid by a Visa debit card they have to guarantee the payment, hence the money going to a holding account. To be honest it's not about the money now, it wasn't a huge amount, it just makes me angry that Tesco can just take that money twice and will do nothing about it. What if I had bought a big item, I could be down hundreds of pounds and have to wait 2 weeks to get it back, its ridiculous!

Storck

Tesco do not have your money. As the bank said it went into a holding account, the holding account is theirs. They have then decided to decline the payment and have therefore not released it to Tesco. As far as I am aware the store can not do anything about it. The customer service helpline is at best poor and at worst useless they will tell people that ring up anything to get them off the line as quickly as possible, this include telling people that products are in stock without actually checking with the store.

Why would Tesco not take the money if the bank was going to allow it to be released. They could lose out on a large purchase if the customer had no other way of paying.

Freddie_Snowbits

Tesco do not have your money, it is held pending the transacting bank requesting the funds. Thye have 14 days to do so. You can go to your bak and ask they speed up this process,

enigma82

I have spoken to the bank, including speaking to a supervisor, they have said that as they have authorised the payment with tescos, they cannot do anything about getting the funds released unless tesco's tell them to do so, which they won't because they deny the transaction ever took place.

What I am annoyed about, aside from the poor customer service, is that they will reserve this money despite the fact their till had an error, and they knew payment had been made on another card. They should have a system in place to deal with errors on their tills, and take responsibility for the problem.

Toe-Jam

I had the same with Flybe, Paid for the ticket and then there was no seat available so it rejected the booking. The card got authrised but I didn't get a reservation. I had to wait 10 working days for it to go back into my bank account with the Halifax. As far as Halifax were concerned i'd bought a ticket, and they had to wait for Flybe not to collect it before returning it to me.

The only bank that I know of that will delete pending debits is the Co-Op they can return them to your account if you ring them up and tell them what happened. None of the other ones that i've ever come across are willing to interfere with the natural process.