On the show last week, we told you about Asda, and their online shopping bills that don't add up. We featured Fiona Medway, whose online shop with Asda last month was miscalculated by £77.09!
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Asda explained to us that this was due to a store error, and that another customer's shopping had been added to her bill. Since then, we've had over 250 emails, some of which are suspiciously similar. So what's going on?
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Asda' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
We've had our team of researchers on the case checking the total price quoted on all your delivery receipts. And boy, did we have a lot to go through! Just to make sure, we even got the finance team to check the receipts. And what have we deduced from this mathematical marathon?
Fiona's case wasn't a one-off.
Watchdog heard from Alison Bonilla in Manchester, who is a food technology teacher, regularly buying shopping from Asda for her students. Her most recent bill should have added up to £89.07 before discounts. And the Asda price? £142.56. Alison told us when she called Asda to complain, they weren't very helpful, and told her she would just have to wait and see how much money came out of her account.
The next problem bill came from Marion Dinsdale in Newcastle. Last month, she checked her bill and guess what? Her shopping should have come to £29.60 before discounts. Asda priced it at £56.80. That's nearly £30 more expensive. And as Marion tells us, she's still had no refund, despite a lot of effort.
"The evening my shopping arrived, I noticed immediately that I'd been overcharged," Marion said. "Three weeks up the line, five telephone calls later, a lot of time spent hanging on the telephone, no refund. Definitely not customer service in my eyes."
Well, unfortunately, it might take a bit more effort than that. Back in August, Tracy Scott from Essex received an Asda home delivery. This should have come to £115.57 before discounts, but the Asda price was £171.23. She has told us it took her an amazing 14 phone calls, 18 e-mails and a load of stress before they refunded her the difference, plus a £10 e-voucher to get her back online and continue shopping with Asda!
Over the past week, the complaints, and the amounts, just kept on rising and from all over the country, too.
Natalie Pursey from Bristol shopped online with Asda just over a week ago. Her shopping should have totalled £43.30 before discounts, but the Asda Price was £150.85. That's over £100 difference! Another was from John Spraggett from Taunton, whose shopping should have cost a mere £33.13 before discounts. But Asda's Price? £166.93. That's a whopping £133 difference! What is going on?
Well, it seems Clare Wilson from Warrington was onto it as early as March. Her shopping should have totalled £134.06 before discounts. And the Asda Price? £190.34. Clare, a trainee accountant, told us:
"I thought I'd look into it a bit further. I noticed that some of the things on the promotions, the savings, were things we hadn't bought. There's cat food on there and we didn't have a cat so we wouldn't have bought it.
"When I phoned them up, I told them that we had someone else's payments and savings section on our bill... but it did take them a long time to work it out for themselves."
No kidding...
So what can we deduce? The problem seems to be LARGE amounts. It isn't just concentrated in one place - we've had complaints from all over the country. And it all adds up to one thing. £436 worth of errors by Asda, and these are only the customers we know about!
Asda response:
Thankfully the number of people who have to query their bills like this is very
small, but we're not going to hide behind numbers or statistics. Even one
customer query is one too many.
We're human and we make mistakes. And we've clearly let down each of the
customers you've highlighted. At Asda when we get things wrong though we
believe the least you can do is put your hands up and say sorry.
So let us tell you what we're going to do about it, and what we've done for
these customers.
We've contacted each of the customers personally over the last few days,
apologised, and done our very best to rectify any outstanding issues.
Part of the problem you've highlighted is the time it has taken us to resolve
their query. Our process to check discrepancies between what a customer is
expecting to pay and what we are about to charge them, clearly didn't work
properly.
We have already rebriefed all of our home shopping teams. And we've
tightened up the process in store so that when the system highlights a
discrepancy - we always investigate it fully, and always charge the customer
the right amount.
Although none of the customers will be left out of pocket - that's not to say we
couldn't have done a much better job dealing with their query and making
amends.
Can we guarantee we will never get it wrong again? No. But we can
guarantee we'll do everything we can to stop these types of issues arising
again. Be that improved training for our home shopping colleagues, tightening
up the process even further, or introducing even better systems.
In terms of Mr Oram's complaint where it appeared his receipt didn't add up
- we double checked what he was actually charged and the products he
received, and are pleased to say he was not overcharged.
However we have agreed to redesign our home shopping receipts so they are
much clearer.
In the future, when we substitute one product for another one, customers
should always be able to see at a glance what they've been charged and why.
Despite being charged the correct amount, we can obviously understand
why Peter was confused by his home shopping receipt, which is why
we are working with him on the new design and layout.
So we really mean it when we say, we want to thank Peter for pointing this out
to us.
As a result of his complaint, and Watchdog taking up his case, our home
shopping receipts will be much clearer in the future for everyone.
Watchdog viewers' responses:
We got an online order from asda ordered it for the next day and got sent out of date food!!
From Pete in Kent
We did an online shop at Asda. Should have been £63 but when it arived was £93 so rang and told them to take it away. we then found out we had been charged £9300 which came out of our account that had a £500 overdraft facility.
Pleased to say we did get a refund!!!!!
Regards, Jeannie Nicholson
Hi
We were charged £16 extra just last night. This we worked out to be an offer on wine was not given.
We were promised a refund, just hope we get it
Gary & Gill Merrell Amersham
I have had similar problems with Asda home grocery shopping. Back in Aug this year Asda took 3 payments from our bank account for one lot of shopping! totalling over £300 When we asked what had happened they just apologised and said they wasn't sure what had happened and that it would be a further 5 days until our money was returned to the account. This left us overdrawn and unable to buy petrol or things for our young children! After pestering them they gave us free delivery hardly compensation for the sheer inconvience of it all!!
Lindsay, from Cornwall
Hello,
I have also been overcharged by Asda when I placed an on line order earlier this week. The 3 for £10 wine offer wasn't the bargain I thought as I was charged full price for them- about £8 more than I should have paid.
Jackie Hall
A few months ago I got overcharged by around £60!
It took me huge amounts of time chasing up the matter and was about a month or so after until they sorted it out.
Anonymous viewer
Does the Asda price add up?
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
Asda explained to us that this was due to a store error, and that another customer's shopping had been added to her bill. Since then, we've had over 250 emails, some of which are suspiciously similar. So what's going on?
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Asda' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
We've had our team of researchers on the case checking the total price quoted on all your delivery receipts. And boy, did we have a lot to go through! Just to make sure, we even got the finance team to check the receipts. And what have we deduced from this mathematical marathon?
Fiona's case wasn't a one-off.
Watchdog heard from Alison Bonilla in Manchester, who is a food technology teacher, regularly buying shopping from Asda for her students. Her most recent bill should have added up to £89.07 before discounts. And the Asda price? £142.56. Alison told us when she called Asda to complain, they weren't very helpful, and told her she would just have to wait and see how much money came out of her account.
The next problem bill came from Marion Dinsdale in Newcastle. Last month, she checked her bill and guess what? Her shopping should have come to £29.60 before discounts. Asda priced it at £56.80. That's nearly £30 more expensive. And as Marion tells us, she's still had no refund, despite a lot of effort.
"The evening my shopping arrived, I noticed immediately that I'd been overcharged," Marion said. "Three weeks up the line, five telephone calls later, a lot of time spent hanging on the telephone, no refund. Definitely not customer service in my eyes."
Well, unfortunately, it might take a bit more effort than that. Back in August, Tracy Scott from Essex received an Asda home delivery. This should have come to £115.57 before discounts, but the Asda price was £171.23. She has told us it took her an amazing 14 phone calls, 18 e-mails and a load of stress before they refunded her the difference, plus a £10 e-voucher to get her back online and continue shopping with Asda!
Over the past week, the complaints, and the amounts, just kept on rising and from all over the country, too.
Natalie Pursey from Bristol shopped online with Asda just over a week ago. Her shopping should have totalled £43.30 before discounts, but the Asda Price was £150.85. That's over £100 difference! Another was from John Spraggett from Taunton, whose shopping should have cost a mere £33.13 before discounts. But Asda's Price? £166.93. That's a whopping £133 difference! What is going on?
Well, it seems Clare Wilson from Warrington was onto it as early as March. Her shopping should have totalled £134.06 before discounts. And the Asda Price? £190.34. Clare, a trainee accountant, told us:
"I thought I'd look into it a bit further. I noticed that some of the things on the promotions, the savings, were things we hadn't bought. There's cat food on there and we didn't have a cat so we wouldn't have bought it.
"When I phoned them up, I told them that we had someone else's payments and savings section on our bill... but it did take them a long time to work it out for themselves."
No kidding...
So what can we deduce? The problem seems to be LARGE amounts. It isn't just concentrated in one place - we've had complaints from all over the country. And it all adds up to one thing. £436 worth of errors by Asda, and these are only the customers we know about!
Asda response:
Thankfully the number of people who have to query their bills like this is very
small, but we're not going to hide behind numbers or statistics. Even one
customer query is one too many.
We're human and we make mistakes. And we've clearly let down each of the
customers you've highlighted. At Asda when we get things wrong though we
believe the least you can do is put your hands up and say sorry.
So let us tell you what we're going to do about it, and what we've done for
these customers.
We've contacted each of the customers personally over the last few days,
apologised, and done our very best to rectify any outstanding issues.
Part of the problem you've highlighted is the time it has taken us to resolve
their query. Our process to check discrepancies between what a customer is
expecting to pay and what we are about to charge them, clearly didn't work
properly.
We have already rebriefed all of our home shopping teams. And we've
tightened up the process in store so that when the system highlights a
discrepancy - we always investigate it fully, and always charge the customer
the right amount.
Although none of the customers will be left out of pocket - that's not to say we
couldn't have done a much better job dealing with their query and making
amends.
Can we guarantee we will never get it wrong again? No. But we can
guarantee we'll do everything we can to stop these types of issues arising
again. Be that improved training for our home shopping colleagues, tightening
up the process even further, or introducing even better systems.
In terms of Mr Oram's complaint where it appeared his receipt didn't add up
- we double checked what he was actually charged and the products he
received, and are pleased to say he was not overcharged.
However we have agreed to redesign our home shopping receipts so they are
much clearer.
In the future, when we substitute one product for another one, customers
should always be able to see at a glance what they've been charged and why.
Despite being charged the correct amount, we can obviously understand
why Peter was confused by his home shopping receipt, which is why
we are working with him on the new design and layout.
So we really mean it when we say, we want to thank Peter for pointing this out
to us.
As a result of his complaint, and Watchdog taking up his case, our home
shopping receipts will be much clearer in the future for everyone.
Watchdog viewers' responses:
We got an online order from asda ordered it for the next day and got sent out of date food!!
From Pete in Kent
We did an online shop at Asda. Should have been £63 but when it arived was £93 so rang and told them to take it away. we then found out we had been charged £9300 which came out of our account that had a £500 overdraft facility.
Pleased to say we did get a refund!!!!!
Regards, Jeannie Nicholson
Hi
We were charged £16 extra just last night. This we worked out to be an offer on wine was not given.
We were promised a refund, just hope we get it
Gary & Gill Merrell Amersham
I have had similar problems with Asda home grocery shopping. Back in Aug this year Asda took 3 payments from our bank account for one lot of shopping! totalling over £300 When we asked what had happened they just apologised and said they wasn't sure what had happened and that it would be a further 5 days until our money was returned to the account. This left us overdrawn and unable to buy petrol or things for our young children! After pestering them they gave us free delivery hardly compensation for the sheer inconvience of it all!!
Lindsay, from Cornwall
Hello,
I have also been overcharged by Asda when I placed an on line order earlier this week. The 3 for £10 wine offer wasn't the bargain I thought as I was charged full price for them- about £8 more than I should have paid.
Jackie Hall
A few months ago I got overcharged by around £60!
It took me huge amounts of time chasing up the matter and was about a month or so after until they sorted it out.
Anonymous viewer
Does the Asda price add up?
. I called Asda customer services and was told the prices had changed from when I ordered on Thursday 20th to delivery on Friday 21st. Apparently, this is according to Asda terms and conditions. The representative was apologetic but could not help. Asda advertises competitive prices on their groceries on line to push sales. However, they charge customers higher prices and I wonder how many people check their invoices in detail. Please pass this warning on to all your family and friends.