Accused of Fraud with ASDA Price Guarantee

twirlie

Beware!!

Before you use these vouchers - ALWAYS check that the amount you have been given back is written somewhere in the barcode.

I have a £10.63 voucher from back in July. Today is the last day it is valid, so off I went yesterday with my 4 year old in tow to spend it.

I split my transactions into two shops of 8 items each, because I'd taken the time to sit down and work out which items were cheaper in Tesco so I could get another APG back.

Because I was doing two small shops, I went through the self scan. Half way through selecting our goods I got a call saying that my boyfriend was waiting to be collected at the station - he'd decided to 'surprise' me with an impromptu visit, assuming (like most people do!) I wouldn't be crazy enough to go to asda at 8pm! Therefore by the time I reached the scanners I was in a bit of a rush.

Unfortunately after I'd scanned through the first lot and tried to pay, the APG voucher wouldn't scan. The store assistant was worse than useless, faffing around with the machine, wandering off to ask other people what to do and generally taking FOREVER. In the end I paid for the entire shop in cash and told him to forget the second transaction - I couldn't wait (by this point the scales had gone wrong too!) and asked him to give me back the unclaimed APG voucher so I could use it today instead. By this point the poor bf had been waiting at the station 20 minutes. My son had also been driving half the customers mad by sitting on their scales and disrupting their checkout! I was beginning to sound like a fishwife yelling at him, and I'd just had enough. I wanted to leave.

I completely appreciate that these circumstances made me look suspicious. However, I didn't appreciate being told I couldn't leave, not being given back my £10 voucher, and being frogmarched over to the security guard to be told I was trying to redeem fraudulent APG's (they've had a few, apparently). I was basically made to look like some kind of major criminal for the 15 extra minutes it then took the customer services assistant to realise that the time had been input wrongly on the APG (the seconds hadn't registered) - thus meaning the APG WAS vaid, but the barcode was a generic one and wouldn't scan.

What would have happened had there not been a savvy customer services advisor there? Would I have been taken off to a back room with my 4 year old in tow and accused of trying to defraud Asda? As it was I faced 15 minutes of humiliation at the front of the store being questioned by security.

What worries me is that I have since tried to reinput my receipt to get a valid APG to print off, as I was advised to before I eventually left yesterday. I've tried three times, and each time I've got the same barcode, and the same APG with the seconds missed off the time. Its obviously a blip on the Asda system, and I would hate for this to happen to anyone in a store where the issue wasn't already known. It was embarassing enough for me.

So - Short version - DO NOT attempt to use an APG if it has 00 as the seconds, and does not have the amount of the voucher somewhere in the barcode. If you do, you will be risking getting interrogated by security and very public dose of humiliation!

twirlie

Just in case anyone does have a voucher like this, you can call 0844 894 7405 and they will escalate the issue up to head office and send you out a new voucher that will scan in the post (with an extended expiry date too! Yay!)

Forgetful

yes Ive just looked at mine and on the voucher the time is printed as 00 for the seconds but on my receipt its 22 seconds... gosh..
scared now...
but barcode seems ok,,, but lately none of the vouchers have been scanning...

tattybonce

Something similar happened to me two week's ago. I was overcharged at self scan with a Whoops sticker and when I went to customer service to claim my overcharge back, two members of Asda staff accused me of 'pulling the label off'!!!!! I have written to Head Office but not heard anything yet. I wouldn't mind but I absolutely hate Asda and only went there for milk. Accusing customers of theft and deception? Just how low will they go? .....

Forgetful

quite a few years ago,, oh was actually taken to police station accusing him of putting the reduced lables on the goods... he was just looking to see what the original price was.. but no they immediately called police and whisked him off tot he station, but he was released a couple hours or so later...no charge..

quoia

twirlie wrote: »

Beware!!

<snip>
So - Short version - DO NOT attempt to use an APG if it has 00 as the seconds, and does not have the amount of the voucher somewhere in the barcode. If you do, you will be risking getting interrogated by security and very public dose of humiliation!

</snip>

Perhaps I can help.

Firstly ALL APG vouchers are :00 seconds - I'm looking at 2 right now.

Every one I've ever had has been like that, and that is approximately 100 of them (Yes, ONE HUNDRED - all 00 seconds)

I noticed it from the very first one I printed out about 5 months ago. Thought it was a bit "odd" but when the 2nd and 3rd were all the same I took it that ASDA were happy just to have the the time accurate to the same minute as the receipt.

And since I never had any issue in redeeming it I thought no more about it.

((( On another BUT somewhat "VERY RELATED" issue - I had a receipt that "COULD NOT BE FOUND" when entered into the APG system - double/triple checked the details and tried several times over a week or more. In the end I called Customer Service and got them to try. The very nice lady took exactly the same details and confirmed, after about a minute, that she had found it, it was in/on the system and indeed I had an APG refund of about £2ish due to me.
I said something like "How odd that it wouldn't work for me. I've never had one that couldn't be found before"
She said something along the lines of "It looks like the time hasn't clicked over"

She then said "Try entering the details again BUT ADD ONE MINUTE to the to the time - to the number of minutes"

So I did - entering the HH:MM:SS time of 14:53:22 as 14:54:22

AND LO AND BEHOLD - APG system found my receipt and indeed a £2ish voucher to print

Which I did - and it had a time of 14:54:00 - redeemed without issue

END OF "somewhat related issue" )))

SECONDLY ... I WAS going to give a DEFINITIVE answer about "the amount of the voucher somewhere in the barcode" issue ...
... BUT I'll have to respond with a 99% sure reply

OK, first you need to understand something about BARCODES
Those used on any product found across a multitude of different shops and outlets etc. eg a tin of Heinz Soup - conform to a 13 digit format

(Asda have their own 8 digit ones but these wouldn't scan in Tesco - at least not recognising it as the same product)

5000157062789 - this contains a country code (UK) a manufacturer (Heinz) and the product detail (Big Soup - 400grams - Beef & Vegetable) - and the LAST DIGIT (9 in this instance) is a VALIDATION CHARACTER to assist in accurate scanning (It is calculated on the value and position of all the other 12 numbers)

NORMAL MOCs (Money Off Coupons) of the 50p off Heinz Soup type (NOT APG) follow another format - also 13 digits - the 13th (the X below) as per the previous usage ....

99bbbbbbb£ppX

... BUT .. they start 99 - this indicates a money OFF coupon - on scanning this 99 the till "knows" to DEDUCT an amount from the bill and DOES NOT ADD to it.
The next 7 (bbbbbbb) are again a "who and what" code - eg "This coupon is from Heinz for Heinz Soup)

The next 3 (£pp) are a bit of a give away - since I've used the £ & pp
They are the VALUE of the coupon - 50p would be 050 - £1.75 would be 175

This brings up 2 exceptions - 000 - still a MOC but requires operator intervention to INPUT the value of the MOC.
000 is USUALLY used on a MOC for a FREE product where the selling price varies across a wide range of redeemable outlets. Something like a free Mars bar - 40p in ASDA, 45p in Tesco, 50p in the Co-op, 60p in a petrol station and 65p in a little corner shop.
65p might be the RRP and the T&Cs will say the MOC has a maximum value of 65p ...
... accordingly the MOC hopefully is refunded at the actual selling price.

The other problem is since there are ONLY 3 DIGITS then 999 is the maximum - so £9.99
Obviously some MOCs may be for £12 or £15 etc. So again the value needs to be keyed as per the terms of the coupon.

OK , back to APG - well it IS very similar to a "normal MOC"

For a start they start 99 and have 13 numbers ending in the validation digit - so 99

it looks like they all continue 1961 (indicating an ASDA APG voucher I presume) - so that's 991961

then it appears they continue £pp£pp

The 2 in front of me are 9919611581581 and 9919611081081 - respectively worth £1.58 and £1.08

So AGAIN we have the issue of an APG worth more than £9.99

I'm guessing that yours are 991961000000n ? Yes ?

This would be CORRECT !

Needs a SA to input the details for one worth £10.63 as the barcode cannot (at least does not) include this amount.

Sadly I cannot remember even looking at what the barcode was like on the only APG I've had that exceeded this limit - namely a £14.34.
Unfortunately I also cannot remember the absolute specifics of redeeming it.
I do know that I went to a manned till and not a self-scan because I had a conversation with the SA about why it was for so much (especially considering the lowish total value of the corresponding receipt (under £30) and the relatively few items on it), which was namely a litre of Gordon's at £23.76 when Morrison's had it just for a weekend special price of £12
Something I was aware of when I deliberately bought it in ASDA - the APG making it just £10.80 :rotfl:
Anyway, there was not an issue, I presume it either didn't scan and it was a manual override - or it did scan but needed the redemption value to be keyed.

SO IN SUMMARY

00 seconds IS NORMAL

If the APG is over £9.99 then the barcode (as it stands) CANNOT include the value

ruth7979

Quoia.. Blimey you're good!!:D

twirlie

Wow you're good!

So the issue is with any APG issued for over £9.99?

That makes sense.

Actually reading the barcode indicates you're right too.. we have 9918422269992 - indicating the value as £9.99 instead of £10.63 because there isn't room for the fourth digit.

So the moral of my story is beware any APG's that are for over £9.99 as they will have to be manually input, and any store without this knowledge will be confused about what to do, and may well assume dodgy dealings are going on.

Your post is very informative. I'm tempted to print it out to illustrate my point should I ever have this problem again. Would that be okay?