B&M card transaction fault

Drakwrig

Hi, total newbie here looking for some consumer advice.
I went to my local B&M on Sunday, payed for my goods using my monzo card which immediately indicated that the transaction had gone through. However, the till showed it had been declined.

Because I could clearly see a debit to B&M on my monzo app, I challenged this & asked to speak with a manager.

He was awful 😕 he led me to a pile of boxes right in front of the tills & kept saying (very loudly) "I can't allow you to leave the store, you haven't paid for those items" - which of course, as far as I was concerned, I had. He proceeded to tell me that my bank was at fault & that the money would be refunded within 7 - 10 days. My choices were to either empty my bag & leave the store without goods and with £23 gone from my account or pay again. I only had £10 left in my account so had to empty my bag in front of all the customers queueing at the tills & leave. 

I was mortified. I felt like I'd been accused of shoplifting. The whole incident upset me so much, I broke down in years when I got home.

I complained to B&M who sent me a stock apology & told me that they were having issues with the company they use to process transactions. I was offered a £30 voucher as a goodwill gesture.

I've declined their offer in the basis that if they know it's an issue, they should equip their managers with a protocol to deal with it (& also train them not to be horrible to customers) and also offer a warning to customers so they are able to choose whether to use card or cash. Nor have I had a refund yet, so essentially they're offering me £7 which I find absolutely insulting.

I suppose I'm looking for some validation that I'm right to stick to my guns on this issue? 

Can anyone offer any advice to whether they SHOULD tell customers of known problems with card payments & if it was right that they made me empty my bag & leave empty handed? 

I feel like I've been wronged in so many ways here.

Thanks

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

You can probably buy a fair bit of stuff in B&M for £30, I'd take their offer and ask when the £27 will be refunded.

Sounds as if the manager didn't handle the situation particularly well, hopefully B&M will address this internally  

sheramber

Did they know there was a problem when you were at the tills? You may have been the first person affected by it.

Unpleasant as the incident was , f they did not know about the problem they can only go on the current circumstances which looked like someone trying to buy goods without the money to pay for them. 

The manager could have dealt with it better.

They may still not have the money of it failed to go through.

Can you do a chargeaback through your bank for the money assuming you have the declined receipt?

Drakwrig

sheramber said:

Did they know there was a problem when you were at the tills? You may have been the first person affected by it.

Unpleasant as the incident was , f they did not know about the problem they can only go on the current circumstances which looked like someone trying to buy goods without the money to pay for them. 

The manager could have dealt with it better.

They may still not have the money of it failed to go through.

Can you do a chargeaback through your bank for the money assuming you have the declined receipt?

I was told that it had happened three times already that week & customer services told me it's a known issue. 

The manager said that if the money wasn't put back into my account I could return to the store with the 'declined' receipt. I to write his name & a brief summary on the receipt (so that I didn't have to go through it all again) & he refused saying "I don't have to give you anything"

MobileSaver

Drakwrig said:

looking for some consumer advice.
I suppose I'm looking for some validation that I'm right to stick to my guns on this issue? 
if it was right that they made me empty my bag & leave empty handed?

Your consumer rights are that you should be refunded the £23.

If you "stick to your guns" you will be refunded just £23, if you accept their goodwill offer you will receive more - although it's not clear whether the £30 voucher is in addition to the £23 refund?

If their system said the transaction was declined then they were perfectly within their rights to ASK you to empty your bag; they had no way of knowing that what you showed them on your phone was genuine.

It would have been an interesting situation if you had walked out with the goods knowing you had paid for them. In theory they could have quite legitimately made a citizen's arrest but whether they would risk the blowback over £23 is anyone's guess.

How much compensation are you after?

emmajones1976

Personally I would have called their bluff and walked out the store with the goods.

mr_stripey

I had this with my Monzo app once - it showed on the app as paid but the store said it hadn't gone through so I paid "again"

In reality though, later on the original transaction was refunded and the second one remained.

So it maybe could just have been a glitch with the app. Either way. I assumed if I had been double charged I could have resolved it afterwards either with the bank or the store.

molerat

The app did not tell you that you had paid B&M, the app told you that B&M had requested funds.  Until the till shows the transaction as complete then you have not paid, walking out with the goods in that situation would be theft. There can be a thousand reasons why the transaction failed, there is not a lot anyone in store can do if the system throws up random declines even if "they know about it".  If you want to rely on electronic payment methods you need to have a backup for instances like this.  Take the voucher.

Has the transaction actually shown up as cleared ?

mattyprice4004

£30 for a bit of embarrassment in a B&M? I'd take that any day!
Fair enough if it was a 'vanity' store with high image like Waitrose, but I can't see the average B&M clientele being overly fussed about a small discussion with a manager. 

Stuff happens, mistakes are made, and the manager is probably barely above minimum wage for doing quite a tough job. 
I'd take the voucher in good grace and make sure the refund appears (and if not, return to the store). 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

molerat said:

The app did not tell you that you had paid B&M, the app told you that B&M had requested funds.  Until the till shows the transaction as complete then you have not paid, walking out with the goods in that situation would be theft. There can be a thousand reasons why the transaction failed.  If you want to rely on electronic payment methods you need to have a backup for instances like this.  Take the voucher.

Has the transaction actually shown up as cleared ?

The OP wouldn't have had the intention to permanently deprive the owner of the goods so I don't think it would have been theft in this specific case.

molerat

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

molerat said:

The app did not tell you that you had paid B&M, the app told you that B&M had requested funds.  Until the till shows the transaction as complete then you have not paid, walking out with the goods in that situation would be theft. There can be a thousand reasons why the transaction failed.  If you want to rely on electronic payment methods you need to have a backup for instances like this.  Take the voucher.

Has the transaction actually shown up as cleared ?

The OP wouldn't have had the intention to permanently deprive the owner of the goods so I don't think it would have been theft in this specific case.

So how were they intending to pay for the goods when their offer of paying by Monzo had been rejected ?