On Friday 13 August (oh dear should have known) my wife shopped at ASDA on line for Groceries on behalf of my Son. The value of the order was £30.08p

On the Saturday we noticed our bank account balance had been debited twice 2 x £30.08 totalling £60.16p. with an additional £1. On contacting the Bank it transpired that ASDA online had processed two transactions for the same value totalling £60.16. + the £1 We immediately contacted ASDA by phone, Surprise surprise, a call centre in South Africa. They assured us that this was not possible. However, our bank confirmed this to be the case and also that this appeared to be ASDA policy double transaction on all on-line orders the second of which is returned to the account after delivery confirmation.

Several frustrating calls later over the weekend period they agreed to get somebody from accounts in the UK to ring us. A promise never kept. So after obtaining Head Office details, I personally called customer relations who informed me that all on-line accounts and transactions were handled by South Africa and they could do nothing. A very lengthy call eventually ended with a promise that they would fast-track pay back of the over payment the following day which they would confirm by phone between 09:00 - 11:00 am and, as a gesture of goodwill send a gift voucher for £20 and have SA add £20 to our on-line account (as if we would want to shop on-line again.

As usual the promise was unfulfilled overpayment was not back in the account and received no phone call. A further call to our bank confirmed this. They also informed us that a payments to of lower value of £29.90 had now been completed following delivery of the groceries, . they also confirmed that the overpayment could take up to ten days!!! to credit back to our account, which was out of their hands. What happened to ASDA’s promise to fast track? Apparently this is routine policy on ASDA's part and our bank cannot override. We understand that our Bank is currently in dispute with ASDA over this process as so many customers with multiple transactions have rung in to complain.

We are now at Thursday 18/08/2010 and despite constant calls to both the UK customer relations (who incidentally refuse to connect us with any higher management authority outside of their department and continue to intercept mail and email to such bodies) and the on-line group in SA, we still have no satisfactory response nor has our monies been credited back to our account. Many Calls and failed promises of return calls complete and utter apathy from the staff. To add insult to injury my wife did decide to order on-line using the evoucher refund However it wwas necessary to pay the delivery cahrges of some £3+ the delivery charge was taken from the account after which the order was cancelled no delivery and no explanation. The only good thingh is they refunded the delivery charge to our account within the same day. Shame they still have not refunded the previous larger value overpayment.

I know £30 seems a small amount but for my wife and I it is critical, being unemployed for nearly a year only returning to work in March means we are trying hard to get back on an even footing clearing arrears to debts, mortgages etc. and can ill afford to have a wayward £30.

It is interesting to note, that following a recent successful court case between ASDA and Specsavers, Andy Clarke, President and CEO of ASDA commented on the victory: “We will always champion common sense, transparent pricing. We are 100% committed to exposing consumer rip-offs to help save people money.

Souns good but just for media effect!!! Time to expose this rip-off I think!!!