Asda home delivery - the didn't charge me now sending threatening letters

pixieofdoom

I'm not really sure where I stand on this issue as I have received goods that I haven't paid for but I did try to pay! Asda delivered my shopping a couple of weeks ago and then called several days later while I was at work asking me to ring them between 12pm and 5pm Mon-Fri as they wanted to 'check something'. I was unable to do this as I work those hours. I had taken the day off when my shopping was delivered and they didn't contact me that day.

I have now got a very nasty letter saying that I have witheld payment and they are considering legal action. I have no idea why they didn't take payment at the time as there were definitely sufficient funds in the account. I accept that I didn't make the ffort to chase them to find out why they didn't take the money but nor did they try to contact me in the evenings, weekends or indeed the same day. According to their website they check that sufficient funds are available before delivery anyway! From another thread, it seems that people usually have the opposite problem with Asda holding money.

I accept that I will need to pay them but it is quite inconvenient now, more than two weeks after the shop. Has anyone else had anything similar happen and I have I got grounds to suggest that they now wait for payment until my next pay day or anything like that? I feel that their customer service has been very poor and I'm quite unhappy about their heavy handed approach when the error was originally theirs

williacg

A similar thing did happen with me, but that was with Tesco, however, the difference was that I just left the money in my account so they could take it out whenever they'd sorted out whatever the blip was. but no, they didn't harrass me with debt letters, as I didn't dip into it, so they just took it out a few days later, and sent me a £5.00 voucher for messing up.

mazy_m

Send them a letter politely asking them to contact you betweem 6pm-10pm when you're not in work!! it's ridiculous some companies penalise people for working...If you speak to them they may let you pay it after your next payday but will this mean that technically you will have to pay for two amounts of food shopping that month?

thatguy1

do you not have a lunch break where you could call them?

pixieofdoom

The money was left in there but they didn't try to take it again, I assumed that they would

williacg

Did you contact them at any point (before the arrival of the dreaded letter) to find out what their problem was?

pixieofdoom

No, they wanted me to contact them when I was at work. I don't generally take a lunch break and I hadn't realised what the problem actually was. Initially I thought they wanted to sell me insurance or something. As I'd checked that the money was there I didn't think any more of it, especially as I didn't expect that they would deliver without knowing the money was there

Meepster

You got the goods. You owe the money. Plain and simple.

ASDA have 6 years to request the payment.

You need to pay them, ASAP. You can ask them for more time to pay, but they don't have to give you this...

alwaysonthego_2

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hcb42

I dont think it is reasonable you dont pay now - you have had the goods so waiting until next pay day is not really on ...although I might be disinclined to use them again.

halibut2209

At the end of the day, you owe them the money. And you accept this, so that's a moot point.

You are unhappy in the way they are acting which is fair enough. You did everything right, and now THEY are expecting to get a resolution at YOUR inconvenience. I believe this is why you are unhappy.

So as for how the law is concerned, they can act like !!!!!! and chase you for the debt, but the reality is that your credit will not be affected unless they take legal action and you still don't pay. That's a long way down the road.

So, how to deal with this with the least inconvenience to you?

You have a few optiona. First of all, always make sure that the money is in your account as they may try to take it at any time.

How you then proceed is up to you. Personally, I'd send an email to their customer services or even their CEO expressing your dissatisfaction (short and simple. to the point. no emotion) explaining that you don't appreciate threatening letters, and you are disinclined to give them your business in the future. I expect that you'd get a swift resolution and probably some vouchers as well.

At the end of the day, this is down to a glitch. It's a mistake on their part caused by automated systems, which companies on that scale have to use. You need to get a human element to intervene and you should come out better.