asda call centre 6am call - normal?

victoriav

vettyemma wrote: »

just to put another spin on this.....

i couple months back i had the same thing happen to me, and i refused to give any details out over the phone.

However as i never received any email from asda saying delivery cancelled, and my online account still showed that the delivery was to be expected, i waited in for it.

The shopping never arrived, so i rang asda myself to query it. The phone call had indeed been from them, and my delivery was cancelled as i failed to supply the correct details.

I of course complained that the phone call i received was 'dodgy' and a company like asda should not conduct themselves in that way.

I got a £25 gift card for my trouble.

This is almost exactly the same as my experience! ..read on...

Yesterday, I went to asda after my order did not arrive, (like with yours) I decided I would go get it myself. I got to the till, guess what? the card had been blocked. Then they said they don't/won't call the card issuer to find out why, and that I would have to do it myself whilst they looked after my items for me.

So I had to go to the bank that issued the card, they told me to ring the credit card department of themselves using their office, which I did, I was then told by them that an asda staff had tried putting in several 3 digit numbers ten times (guessing at it) as I hadn't disclosed it on the phone, - on 6am phonecall - to allow the order to go through (although I'd had confirmation after placing order saying it was fine and the order would arrive) and in doing so they had exhausted the ten times use per day allowance by the credit card company....

so I said what do I do now then? as I have only the pin on me (memorised) to this card and not sufficient cash and am stuck with me shopping defrosting waiting for me back at the supermarket - which had also attracted many curious onlookers who were 'wigging in' on what was occuring (much to my embarrasment...)

after prompting,he then said ok he unblock the card but it would take overnight, so I asked the bank staff if they could give me £50 from it over the counter..they could not as I neither posess a passport or a driving licence with a photograph - other id was not accepted! incase I wasn't me...then I tried the cashpoint and was charged between £3 and £6 to get the money out - seems it had cleared quicker then 'overnight'...

Back to the store, I retrieved and paid for my goods, and asked to speak to the manager telling my concerns and wondering if the website had possibly been hacked - (as at this stage i had no idea that the call had been actually asda, and this is how they operate....) The manager was totally confused and said he was new to home deliveries but to cancel my card incase it had been a scam., and that asda store and asda home deliveries are not at the same building., although my goods come from there.

In the meantime I rang home deliveries department and found it it had indeed been a call from asda but they declined to comment on whether the staff had tried ten times to guess at the number, but the reason for it was the bank refused them the transaction, said that it must be a fault with the system, and thanked me for the call and wished that i had a nice day!, and wished for me to continue shopping with them, after I'd cleared all credit cards with them and just use one in future..

(no voucher offered for inconvenience and embarrasment) :mad:

I'm speechless, this wasted an entire afternoon into evening....

Another point, your credit card supplier requires your phone number on the application form, so then why didn't they use my number which they have and alert me to this ? whats the point of having your number or is it just to sell you things or sell on to other companies for telesales...

WhiteHorse

If it was a scam, then how did the caller know that an ASDA delivery was due? Perhaps ASDA is merely incompetent. Maybe scammers were hoping to get lucky (ASDA is a very popular retailer, after all), or they had inside information.

juno

WhiteHorse wrote: »

If it was a scam, then how did the caller know that an ASDA delivery was due? Perhaps ASDA is merely incompetent. Maybe scammers were hoping to get lucky (ASDA is a very popular retailer, after all), or they had inside information.

Or they just guessed. So many people have home delivery now that calling several people will end up with 1 that shops with asda.

Or even if they just say "your supermarket home delivery" some people will fill in the blanks themselves (especially if half asleep). I know some of the bank scam phone calls just say they are from "your bank" and hope people go "oh yes, Halifax!" and some will.

ljonski

I would be emailing Asda and telling them of the inconvenience caused and asking how much they are going to give you in vouchers to placate your wrath

lizzywig

I do think sometimes you have to let certain things pass you by but on this occasion OP has 1) been woken up at 6am by someone claiming to be from Asda but who was unclear and contradicted themselves, 2) caused embaressment in the supermarket, 3) had her card cancelled by the bank because of Asda's incompetance * and 4) incurred a charge for withdrawing cash that she wouldn't have otherwise incurred.

* I would definitely take what the bank say as correct and so far Asda have been confused and unsure of exactly what has happened. I often think that when transactions go wrong staff make assumptions because they don't know what else to say. The reason he declined to comment was because he didn't know. Yes the bank refused the transaction....because some numpty at Asda tried guessing the security number!

I would write to them (but then I have no life), outline your story politely and factually and send a copy of your credit card statement and ask them to refund you for the cash withdrawal charge. I also find that complimenting them rather than giving them an ear bashing helps. So something like, "in my experience this is very unlike Asda so I was disappointed to have been treated in this manner by such an upstanding supermarket. As this experience has caused me much embaressment and wasted a lot of my time I won't be shopping with Asda again in the future unless Asda can show me that this was just an unfortunate incident and not the manner in which they usually operate their business. I would also like a written apology for my embaressment". I would also include what the bank said about someone from Asda entering your info 10 times and saying that staff should be trained not to do this.

Wolfsbayne

victoriav wrote: »

Another point, your credit card supplier requires your phone number on the application form, so then why didn't they use my number which they have and alert me to this ? whats the point of having your number or is it just to sell you things or sell on to other companies for telesales...

They do but some are better than others.

I used to work at Capital One in the fraud department and there is a particular piece of software they use to track all accounts for suspicious activity. This activity could be anything like using it in a shop you've never used it in before to using it an area you've never used it in before, etc. The more suspicious activity there is the higher the flag rating and the higher up the database for agents to use it appears.

This is where the problem comes in - at Capital One we could only use the database when we weren't on the phone dealing with customers and we were on the phone 99.9% of the time. So most of the customers were called in the evenings or weekends when the phones were less busy - you had already resolved your problem in the afternoon so chances are it was on the list to be looked at but you got there first.

It was also down to the agent's discretion what action they took and if they saw that you had used that card at that shop in the past they may not have considered a necessity to contact you immediately - after all, no transaction was made so no fraud was committed. Yes it looks odd and would warrant looking into but if you only had the time to make one call and someone had had a transaction for £1000 in a city they dont live in compared to someone who'd had no money taken in a shop they'd used previously, you can guess which one would take the priority. They may have generated a letter to be sent to you but because you'd got in touch yourself they later cancelled the letter. It is also possible that they tried to call you when you were out of the house, a lot of banks wont let agents leave answer phone messages.

I havent worked for Capital One since 2004 but can't imagine things will have changed that much. Each banking group have their own unique software for this and slightly different procedures but generally it should work like this:

1) Account flagged up on system
2) Agent assesses the activity, places a temporary block on the card if deemed necessary and attempts to call the customer. If no answer, try to send a text message alert or ring mobile number. If no answer, put a note on the account for it to stay flagged on the system so another agent will come across it later in the day.
3) Try to ring the customer again - no answer a letter is generated and block remains so that the customer will either contact the bank because they can't use their card or after receiving the letter.