Charged twice for one product

Keighley87

I bought a TV from Asda on 14/03/12 and paid on debit card amount £189 - I entered my PIN and the card holder screen said 'remove card' I did this - then the cashier looked at screen and said 'I dont think thats gone through can we try again' I put it back in re-entered PIN and received a receipt for goods purchased.
I check my statement today and I'm missing £189 one payment for £189 is showing on statement from Asda.
I rung my bank to see if any payments were waiting to out and was confirmed there was a request from Asda for £189 on 14/03/12 that is 'pending'.
I explained the issue and he said that Asda have requested the payment twice and there should of been a void slip if the first payment failed but it didnt as Natwest received the request and authorised both requests.
Although one has been collected by asda the 2nd is pending to see if they will collect if not it will be re-credited to my account in 3 to 5 working days.
Where are my rights with Asda as I'm now short of £189 for the next week which is going to be a struggle.
Thanks in advance

Ben8282

At this point you really will have to wait the 3-5 working days to see what happens. You could go into your branch with your ASDA receipt, explain it is a duplicate charge and explain that the blocking of funds in your account is causing you real financial hardship (assuming it is) and see if they can help. If they see two charges for an indetical amount from the same retailer with only a few seconds between them they may be able to assess the probability of the second charge being genuine or duplicate. It is also strange that only one of the two transactions has actually gone through; two transactions made almost at the same time should have gone through on the same day so my feeling here is that the second authorisation probably will drop off.

GlamGirlie

You can only wait and see.

The bank can't refund something that hasn't actually debited yet, and nor can Asda.

Keighley87

Should my bank not make the money thats gone from my account available to me though?
I'm feeling its an error both ends - although how was the bank to know I didnt purchase two TV's. I suppose they have just done as asked and authorised two payments I have put my PIN in for.
I'm just finding this extremely unfair as being Friday today I could be waiting 7 days for the money to be re-credited.
Feel lesson learned - dont buy TV's from supermarkets where staff are so keen to get you out the way through the ques they are not paying enough attention to what they are actually doing.

Mikeyorks

It's a phantom transaction - at least the pending one is. Seems to happen more with Asda than most.

The theory is you take your receipt into Asda and demand they void the phantom one. They won't know what you're talking about as it won't show on their till (had it got all the way back to them it wouldn't be stranded in the way it is). They should 'phone their merchant acquirer (who d/w their card transactions) with the date / time - and they should be able to both see and void the duplicate one.

The practice is that you will be lucky to find anyone in Asda who knows what you're talking about - let alone be prepared to do anything about it. Or you could ring their HO who must be well versed in dealing with this problem?

Your Bank software will give up waiting for the debit to arrive - Mon or Tue latest - and just return the money to 'available'.

stclair

The transaction is not completed until the retailers name shows on your bank statement.

The bank will not release the funds to you just in case the transaction is genuine.

Therefore the onus will be on Asda to contact there merchant to cancel authorisation hold and inform the bank..