ASDA online shopping - charged twice

tinkerbell28

unholyangel wrote: »

I take it you mean that its not bank related and only supermarket related and not that asda are the only ones who have had complaints about this?

I mean out of the 4/5 home delivery companies. Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Iceland & ASDA. Asda are the only ones it affects.

Asda pre auth your card originally for 1p to check validity.

The night before the pre auth for the WHOLE shopping. Then when picked. If the value differs they take the new amount, leaving the old pre auth for the whole amount hanging.

They're the only supermarket to do it. Every other one pre auth £1/£2/1p to check validity.

Then after they pick and check validity, they charge the whole shop. SO only one lot gets frozen/charged.

Asda are the only supermarket to pre auth the whole shop before packing. Then charge again, which is why this happens. It's also why it's been covered quite a lot in the press, on watchdog, on forums. As it can leave those doing a "big" shop. Effectively paying twice. As yes it's a pre auth, but it takes up to 10 days to drop off.

j0nathon2

Our company do the same thing as this.

We authorise the card for the expected value, if it goes up when we settle the funds, we authorise again and ignore the original. We can phone the bank and promise not to settle the original and they will cancel it, but it's a very manual process.

One reason for doing this is that authorising token amounts of £1 is all very well, but if that card holder only has £4.50 in their bank, the company are wasting time doing all that picking only to abandon when the real authorisation comes through. Another reason can be purely cost, two settlement of funds costs more than one. A third reason can just be antiquated systems that only permit a single settlement of funds per order/invoice.

unholyangel

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

I mean out of the 4/5 home delivery companies. Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Iceland & ASDA. Asda are the only ones it affects.

Asda pre auth your card originally for 1p to check validity.

The night before the pre auth for the WHOLE shopping. Then when picked. If the value differs they take the new amount, leaving the old pre auth for the whole amount hanging.

They're the only supermarket to do it. Every other one pre auth £1/£2/1p to check validity.

Then after they pick and check validity, they charge the whole shop. SO only one lot gets frozen/charged.

Asda are the only supermarket to pre auth the whole shop before packing. Then charge again, which is why this happens. It's also why it's been covered quite a lot in the press, on watchdog, on forums. As it can leave those doing a "big" shop. Effectively paying twice. As yes it's a pre auth, but it takes up to 10 days to drop off.

If you think asda are the only ones to have done this, I'm afraid that's not entirely correct.

tinkerbell28

unholyangel wrote: »

If you think asda are the only ones to have done this, I'm afraid that's not entirely correct.

Yes it is.

It's well publicised as a problem with ASDA.

If you read the t&c's very closely of all the supermarkets. They are the only ones to do this and they say so. Which is why people end up with the funds for 2 shops frozen.

The others don't.

j0nathon2

If it's stated in the T&C and you don't agree to it, then surely you just either 1) shop elsewhere, 2) go into an Asda or 3) don't eat?

wealdroam

j0nathon2 wrote: »

Our company do the same thing as this.

We authorise the card for the expected value, if it goes up when we settle the funds, we authorise again and ignore the original. We can phone the bank and promise not to settle the original and they will cancel it, but it's a very manual process.

One reason for doing this is that authorising token amounts of £1 is all very well, but if that card holder only has £4.50 in their bank, the company are wasting time doing all that picking only to abandon when the real authorisation comes through. Another reason can be purely cost, two settlement of funds costs more than one. A third reason can just be antiquated systems that only permit a single settlement of funds per order/invoice.

So 'your company' clearly thinks it is ok to save a few pennies at the risk of putting their customer into serious financial difficulties.

I agree it is a fine line to balance, but any company that uses this policy must be prepared to free up the first pre-auth on request, without any fuss or discussion.
Also, that certainly means not suggesting to the customer that it is the bank's fault.

tinkerbell28

j0nathon2 wrote: »

If it's stated in the T&C and you don't agree to it, then surely you just either 1) shop elsewhere, 2) go into an Asda or 3) don't eat?

Precisely. If all the other home delivery grocery retailers can do it, they've no excuse.

unholyangel

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

Yes it is.

It's well publicised as a problem with ASDA.

If you read the t&c's very closely of all the supermarkets. They are the only ones to do this and they say so. Which is why people end up with the funds for 2 shops frozen.

The others don't.

I'll repeat: Asda are not the only ones to have done this - never said anything about who's currently doing it.

I know from personal experience Tesco did it for years. I also know that a quick google will tell us its not isolated to asda.

Doesn't make asda doing it any less wrong for doing it in the first place, just they're not the only ones to have done so.

tinkerbell28

unholyangel wrote: »

I'll repeat: Asda are not the only ones to have done this - never said anything about who's currently doing it.

I know from personal experience Tesco did it for years. I also know that a quick google will tell us its not isolated to asda.

Doesn't make asda doing it any less wrong for doing it in the first place, just they're not the only ones to have done so.

I don't understand why it's relevant at all? You seem to be splitting hairs to try and save face. Completely clouding the water unnecessarily.

Currently Asda are the only supermarket who have this policy. None of the others do it. They may have done it in the past. But maybe, just maybe, they implemented better policies for their customers, or updated things to be more user friendly.

It's got nothing to do with the point I was making. Tesco may have done it. They haven't done for a very long time, (on their grocery arm) neither do the others.

My point stands, I'm not sure what yours is? If people want to avoid this, don't online shop at asda, they are the only supermarket who CURRENTLY do this. Simple.

j0nathon2

wealdroam wrote: »

So 'your company' clearly thinks it is ok to save a few pennies at the risk of putting their customer into serious financial difficulties.

I agree it is a fine line to balance, but any company that uses this policy must be prepared to free up the first pre-auth on request, without any fuss or discussion.
Also, that certainly means not suggesting to the customer that it is the bank's fault.

I only offered reasons as to why.

My company DO NOT do this for cost reasons. Companies arrange different agreements with banks, and we pay for the authorisation and not the settlement, therefore we would get no cost benefit to doing what we do. However, other companies I have worked for pay only on the settlement and so they would.

Our systems and provider only permit a single settlement which is the reason we do it. I must also add that we are not in the home grocery market, and the only time our end price is greater than the authorisation price is when the customer changes the original order, e.g. adding a new item or increasing quantity, and is incredibly rare. We also explain this to the customer or phone the bank, we never blame the bank. Lying to customers is a stupid thing to do on so many levels.