If you get Asda Groceries delivered, you need to read this...

Davix

I did a home shop on 5th Nov that came to £123.49, but on that day my CC was billed for two amounts: £123.49 and £2.85

My Asda groceries account shows my order as coming to £123.49, so what is the £2.85 for?
I rang the online groceries helpline...

The guy I spoke to at Asda Groceries said the £2.85 was because, when the goods were bagged at the store, some of the goods had increased in value. The extra charge was to cover the additional cost. This is, he says, a new policy introduced earlier in the year and, since it's in the terms and conditions, you agree to this when you make the order.

So why doesn't this show in my Asda Groceries account? Surely I should be provided with a receipt? Am I supposed to just take Asda's word that this charge is legitimate?
I've since spoken to someone under the title of "Executive Relations" via email and also by phone. Here's what I've learned:

Your Asda account will show you the amount of the shop at the time of making the order and your paper receipt will show you the amount of the shop on the day of delivery. If it's more you'll receive an extra charge to make up the difference. If it's less you'll receive a refund.

Here's the tricky part...

How do you know what items have increased in price between order and delivery and for which you're being charged extra?

The answer is that you have to compare the price on your online account and your paper receipt, line by line, to see which is different.

But even that isn't guaranteed to help.

Maybe you put something in your online basket because it was on offer. But if the offer expires before the shop is delivered, you'll be charged full price. And you've no way of knowing because the site doesn't tell you when offers expire.

The official line I was given is that if you're not happy with the increased price, you can give it back to the driver at the time of delivery. But this is impossible because there's no easy way of figuring out which item has increased in price.

It was suggested to me that the driver would wait while I compared the paper receipt to my
online account.

Make of that what you will.

Interestingly it seems that Asda customer services are able to figure out what the price increases are because when I've spoken to them on the phone they come back with the info fairly quickly.

Although today I rang to enquire about an additional £1.48 charge and, after being placed on hold for a while, I was advised that they couldn't figure out what it was for and they would just refund it.

Here's an additional wrinkle...


The extra charge, as it turns out, was because a substitution was made which made me ineligible for a multi-buy offer.

Think about that for a minute...

The receipt said a more expensive item was substituted but I'd only be charged as if it was the cheaper item, making it appear as if I'm better off. But it says nothing about the multi-buy offer being cancelled which results in me actually paying MORE!

Surely, making out that I'm getting a discount when I'm actually being charged more is the very definition of a deceptive practice.

My suggestion is, if you regularly order from Asda online, check over your cc or bank statements and look for these second small charges made on the day of delivery. If you've got a few, ring up and ask them to tell you what every single one is for. Whether they're able to figure it out or not, I believe you've got a good basis for asking them to refund these additional charges.

alanq

It is a major shortcoming that ASDA does not advertise when offers end.

The multi-buy issue is not unique to ASDA. I bought a Meal Deal from Tesco. One of the items was substituted with a cheaper item but the bill shot up because I was not charged the Meal Deal price. I spotted what had happened and sent the items back.

Assuming having opted for no substitutions...
Another quirk of ASDA's is the calculation of the ASDA Price Guarantee. This is calculated on the basis of what was ordered instead of what was delivered. If you order items that are cheap at ASDA but are out of stock then although the cost of the order may be 10% cheaper than from a rival the cost of the items delivered may not be. On the other hand if ASDA is out of stock for a full price item and a rival has that item on offer then the customer may get a greater refund than they would have got if the calculation was based on the items actually delivered.

ohreally

Disingenuous at best.

chuckley

Sainsbury's price based on the day it's delivered so warn you if it's higher higher in price.

It only happened to me this month when I loaded my trolley a week ahead of booking and each one said the new price change, e.t.c.

I assumed they all did this though.

peachyprice

I wouldn't complain too much about it, this seems to finally be a way of ending the dreaded double billing Asda are notorious for. In the past they would ringfence the amount of your online order then if it was different on the day of delivery they would take a whole new amount, leaving the original ringfenced amount in limbo for days. It sounds like this additional payment is a work around for that problem.

ThumbRemote

Although it may solve that problem, surely this just introduces a whole raft of other problems.


I can see no reason why they couldn't show both the order date price and the actual charged price in your online account.

daytona0

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Although it may solve that problem, surely this just introduces a whole raft of other problems.


I can see no reason why they couldn't show both the order date price and the actual charged price in your online account.

That would take a lot of effort on their part to set up. It is hopefully something in the pipeline, but IT issues seem to be dealt with one step at a time!

pinkshoes

I gave up with ASDA online shopping. Far too many mistakes in prices, and it was tedious having to phone up for refunds after each delivery.

I found Tesco to be the most straight forward so far (also tried Ocado and Sainsbury), as they clearly state on each item when offers end, and if your chosen delivert date is after this, it tells you. Their customer service is also excellent.

My only niggle with them is that often LOTS of offers end on a Tuesday, and I have my shopping arrive on a Wednesday when new offers don't seem to be up and running yet. I tend to choose meals depending what is on offer.

bod1467

pinkshoes wrote: »

My only niggle with them is that often LOTS of offers end on a Tuesday, and I have my shopping arrive on a Wednesday when new offers don't seem to be up and running yet. I tend to choose meals depending what is on offer.

I wonder if that is deliberate? We also get online grocery shopping delivered on a Wednesday (from ASDA in our case) ... maybe Wednesday is a popular delivery day so the supermarkets time their offers to extract maximum price?

kremmen

bod1467 wrote: »

I wonder if that is deliberate? We also get online grocery shopping delivered on a Wednesday (from ASDA in our case) ... maybe Wednesday is a popular delivery day so the supermarkets time their offers to extract maximum price?

I no longer work in Supermarkets but it used to be that all promotions started on Monday mornings ( absolutely the worst day of the week as the store is busy recovering from either a day closed or poorly staffed ) Also if there were sunday paper adverts you often had to shop on that day as the offers finished.. So they introduced promotional changes on a quieter work day hence Tuesday night finish.

The only exception was fresh foods as the short coded stuff reached it's lowest stock level on a sunday night ( assuming all was well ) .

It got further refined when it was decided that instead of all departments changing on the same day every month that different departments would change weekly ..... So roughly a quarter of non fresh departments change weekly.

Here ends the 1st lesson. :rotfl:

Paul

Kernow666

you could always go to the store and get the things you want at the price you want