Asda home shopping - holding money

craftygranny

LilacPixie wrote: »

I had the same issue with Asda so i stopped using them. Far too much hassle. I do a big monthly shop of around £200 and to not have the use of that for up to a fortnight (halifax) does throw up some issues as we have a specific account we use for food and fuel. It has say 1000 and you do a shop for 200 guide price so it looks like you have 800 availible for withdrawl. the shopping arrives and cost 190 so you availible amount goes down to 610. Tesco don't work that way.

This used to happen to me every 2 weeks when i did my 200 pound plus shop. I bank at halifax too and it always took the full 10 days to drop back into my account , by which time i was doing another order so they had 200 pounds of my money on hold almost all the time, Got sick of it so stopped online asda shopping . Bank always blamed asda and asda always blamed the bank.
Would have tried tesco but they don't take electron online only in store. Stupid i bought 2 xbox 360's recently and tesco wouldn't accept my card so had to use hmv. tesco obviously don't need my money.

stclair

gettingready wrote: »

If you look above, some people said it was on Watchdog today - can not find a link though...

AWw ive found it view from 3.00 on this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/

MrsMow

gettingready wrote: »

Hi all,

I normally shop online at Asda and the same thing keeps on happening again.

I place an order which comes to let's say £60. In the order there are some things that come by weight or some that are unavailable at the time of delivery so when the order arrivas the amount due to pay is slightly different to the amount at the time of order (higher or lower, doe not matter - just different).

Then the correct amount is taken off from my card as payment but the other amount (from the time when order was placed) is still "pending" and I am unable to access money on my account.

It happens every single time I shop at Asda, it takes 5-10 working days for this to drop back to my acount in which time I simply can not access my money.

Normally I was calling my bank (Co-Op) and they would cancel the "pending" from Asda seeing that the money has already been taken so they would release it back to my account.

Today I was unable to do that as Co-Op said they can not do this any more and told me to call Asda. Called Asda and they said I should call my bank.

I am absolutely fuming as theoretically I have £24 on my account, but can not use it. I am behind with my TV License now because of that.

I am sure I am not the only one with this problem with Asda - apart from stopping ordering from them, what else can I do to avoid this problem in the future?

Thanks a lot...

It's the bank that holds the money for the 3-5 working days but in your case 5-10 working days. Banks do this because they lend money out on the pending money in short term business loans, it's another way of generating money, 'the robbing hood, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer'..

The person that you spoke to in the bank will know this and was just being unhelpful, if I were you, phone them back and ask them to release it. After all, it's your money!

MrsMow

gettingready wrote: »

It is Co Op visa that does seem to be Electron for some reason.

Lots of people have problems with this particular card at Tesco online, no problem in the shop but impossible to order online - it is the Co Op cards that start with 4508.

I placed an order with tesco online, all went through and on the day of delivery got a phone call from them that they are unable to take the payment and I needed to go to shop to collect and pay at the till.

Later on found a lot of info on the net about this tesco/Coop/Electron issue.

With Asda I have ordered about £300 worth of stuff near to Christmas and they have blocked that amount till after New year - that happened before, that was first time I have noticed what is going on with their online shopping/payments.

But as I said before, I would call my bank and they would clear the "pending" amount seeing that the proper payment was already made - but today they have told me that they can not do it any more....

Visa electron isn't accepted in some online stores because electron cards are given to miners, i,e. 16 year olds. Due to t&c's you have to be 18 to receive an online order, just ask them to upgrade your card.

rugbymum

MrsMow wrote: »

It's the bank that holds the money for the 3-5 working days but in your case 5-10 working days. Banks do this because they lend money out on the pending money in short term business loans, it's another way of generating money, 'the robbing hood, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer'..

The person that you spoke to in the bank will know this and was just being unhelpful, if I were you, phone them back and ask them to release it. After all, it's your money!

You are wrong I'm afraid.
The issue is nothing to do with the bank, type of account or indeed type of card.
If you trawl through the fine print of Adsa's T&C you will eventually find that the system works in the way as decsribed by the OP.
Asda put a "hold" onto the amount of your shopping when you go through the checkout process.
Unfortunately when your shopping bill is actually processd in the shop, if the amount differs be even 1 pence, the second amount is the deducted from your account.
In the meantime the original "hold" amount still shows as a pending transaction. It eventually drops off the bank's sytem because Asda do not actually claim the cash.
Because the money shows as pending the bank is obliged to ringfence it, leaving you without access to your cash.

rugbymum

MrsMow wrote: »

Visa electron isn't accepted in some online stores because electron cards are given to miners, i,e. 16 year olds. Due to t&c's you have to be 18 to receive an online order, just ask them to upgrade your card.

In my experience MOST online retailers accept Visa Electron. Tesco seems to be unique as I believe it is the only major supermarket not to accept it.
Having an upgraded card will not make ANY difference regarding Asda's online shopping system. It happens with ALL cards.
Besides which not all customers are in a position to "upgrade" their cards to a standard debit card.
PS my oldest son has been using his Electron card for online shopping since the time he was issued with one at the age of 16.

globetraveller

For the life of me I can't understand how asda get away with this- and why enough customers are happy enough to put up with this. I've never done online with asda because I've seen the complaints over the years and won't have them holding on to my money.
Tesco only take the money out on the day of delivery. I also find the cs to be excellent on the few times I have had to phone.
Now they have "refund the difference" it could make it more appealing to more folks.
To the OP - hope you get this sorted. Cheaper or not- I would seriously consider not using them.

Azari

MrsMow wrote: »

Visa electron isn't accepted in some online stores because electron cards are given to miners, i,e. 16 year olds.

Are 16 year olds allowed down mines?

And then forced to retire on their 17th birthday?

fluffnutter

This is just down to bad IT systems (or processes using IT systems). An order is placed and the money 'ringfenced'. The order is despatched/delivered and a further similar (perhaps even the same amount) is taken. The first ringfenced payment is released and the funds are available again.

This still only represents one transaction. There's absolutely no need for two sets of money to be involved. They can do one of two things to resolve this - 1) don't take the money until the goods are despatched. I appreciate why supermarkets particularly won't do this - as soon as your particular bags are loaded onto the lorry, they probably can't be redistributed. If the delivery's not made, I expect the goods are destroyed. Hence if they try to take payment but find you can't pay... they've wasted the goods. That leaves... 2) ensure that the first 'ringfenced' payment is associated with the taking of funds so that as soon as the actual payment goes through the first amount is released. You will never have a 'double payment' then. This is so easy to do from an IT perspective and with today's faster payments process there's no reason for there to be a delay at the bank's end in releasing the funds.

This is just an example of lazy systems and processes. I've no idea why people put up with it frankly; it's appalling service. Shop elsewhere. That's the only way they'll sort it out - if it impacts their business.

startagain_2

rugbymum wrote: »

You are wrong I'm afraid.
The issue is nothing to do with the bank, type of account or indeed type of card.
If you trawl through the fine print of Adsa's T&C you will eventually find that the system works in the way as decsribed by the OP.
Asda put a "hold" onto the amount of your shopping when you go through the checkout process.
Unfortunately when your shopping bill is actually processd in the shop, if the amount differs be even 1 pence, the second amount is the deducted from your account.
In the meantime the original "hold" amount still shows as a pending transaction. It eventually drops off the bank's sytem because Asda do not actually claim the cash.
Because the money shows as pending the bank is obliged to ringfence it, leaving you without access to your cash.

Hello everyone,

I don't normally post on here but I saw the thread and couldn't resist. I am a relative newcomer to online grocery shopping and only got involved when free deliveries and money off emails started dropping into my inbox.

So far I have used Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda.

The only time I used Asda resulted in the most embarassing scenario when I discovered that I couldn't pay for petrol because although showing in credit, my available cash was actually far less due to Asda's double "pre-authorisation" policy, which quite frankly, stinks.

I ordered shopping on a Friday evening for delivery the following day. What others haven't pointed out so far is that Asda for some reason add £1.00 on to the total and pre-authorise that on receiving the order. So, even if the shopping is exactly right, as mine was, when the payment is taken from the account it is for £1 less (a different amount) so they draw payment using your card details but leaving the original amount as "pre-authorised" until it drops back into your account. In my case this took 7 days - a full 6 days after my shopping had been delivered.

I wrote to both the CEO and Operations Director of Asda and received a reply from a bumped up Customer Services Executive who passed the blame directly onto the Co-op, my bank.

As the poster above has stated - it is nothing to do with the bank - the amount has been pre-authorised and I have given my security details to allow this. How is the bank to know that I have not made another purchase with Asda and that the goods have already been delivered and paid for?

I was very unhappy with the reply from Asda and wrote again but again did not receive anything positive back at all. Useless so and so's with a system that I think is verging on being illegal, in my view.
I spoke to a Manager at the Co-op and he said that they have been inundated with complaints over this practice and that, for some time, Asda have been promising to sort it out to no avail.

Tesco and Sainsburys do not operate in this way and, quite frankly, I doubt if I will ever shop at Asda again. Simples.

SA