Computer glitch meant Asda took our last £496 (From Gazette)
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Computer glitch meant Asda took our last £496
9:00am Saturday 1st September 2012 in News By Caroline Tilley
Sent into the red – Claire and Tim Schobs
A SUPERMARKET has been accused of taking hundreds of pounds from a family after a technical glitch caused by thunderstorms in America.
Asda – whose parent company Walmart is based in America – wrongly took £627 from Tim and Claire Schobs’s account after the US storm caused a glitch in the company’s computers. The couple had spent £131 on Asda internet food shopping a few days beforehand.
But instead of Asda taking the correct money, they took a further £496.
Mr and Mrs Schobs only found out after they filled up their car with petrol and were told their card had been rejected.
They spent hours on the phone to Asda and were informed by e-mail the company was unable to refund the money for up to ten working days.
The couple said they and their two teenage children had been left without food and unable to pay their bills.
Mrs Schobs, 44, of Abbott Road, Dovercourt, said: “Asda has taken all our money. They have stolen our money and left us in debt to the bank.
“We haven’t got an agreed overdraft on that account. I have a 14-year-old who can’t go to school next week because I can’t buy her a uniform.”
The money taken from the account was Mr Schobs’s disability benefit. Mrs Schobs is her husband’s carer and the couple said they will have no income for the next month.
The incident has left them hundreds of pounds over the limit and at the mercy of their bank, which charges them £10 a day for being in the red.
The family were offered £15 of vouchers by Asda to keep them going until the money is back in their account.
But Mrs Schobs said: “We are a family of four – £15 isn’t going to cover the cost of a week’s shop. We haven’t got a penny.” A spokeswoman for Asda said the money had been refunded and should be in the Schobs’s account once it had been processed by the banks.
She added: “As soon as we became aware of the overcharging issue, we contacted customers affected and refunded the overcharge and any resulting bank charges.
“Our initial investigation has shown this was an isolated incident.
“As a gesture of goodwill and to say sorry, as well as refunding the overcharge we have also credited customers with the cost of their original shopping order.”
Comments(13)
Bigh321
says...
1:22pm Sat 1 Sep 12
fnagwaa
says...
10:55pm Sat 1 Sep 12
rhetoric
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8:32am Sun 2 Sep 12
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You may be sitting on a pile of well-earned savings that will hedge you against any future disaster, and if so, I can understand some of your silly comments but not condone them.
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You seem to be yet another disabled - hater/resenter. Try being a carer for a month, that'll knock the wind out of your sails. Try it for a year, you'll need a carer yourself.
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Nobody is talking about legal aid, or compensation, just decent behaviour that should be forthcoming from an organisation that has plunged a family into debt when in fact they seem to have been balancing on the knife edge quite competently heretofore.
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The allowances etc will come in on their usual due date, and as this couple appear to be organised in the main and only thrown into disarray by the illegal actions of a large corporation, your remarks are unthought and very callous.
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However much or little you have put by, however well or not you "manage", I'll bet you'd soon be screaming to the world if your Bank "lost" all your dosh, even for a week, when you needed some of it.
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The only honourable way to have dealt with this, would have been for ASDA to check with all possible speed that the facts were as stated, and for them to put the amount in question into the Schobs family's account out of their local contingency funds, then sort out the details later when the US Bank got its act together.
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I have known of such an action, in this case taken by a Bank which was in the wrong. If they can do it, why not a mega-superstore?
claireandsam
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10:31am Sun 2 Sep 12
rhetoric
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1:14pm Sun 2 Sep 12
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Nobody is blaming just one ASDA in Essex for the error, just saying they are the ones "upfront" and should be working to get their organisation to deal with the problem.
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Equally, the huge organisation behind the local store should be honorable and deal with these matters, which in its scheme of things are very small but which are monumental to a family concerned, in a very speedy manner. They should endeavour to ensure that nobody is out of pocket or has to ensure any kind of hardship because of their bank's glitch - which has already been admitted.
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Do you think you would like your bank account wiped out "because of a thunderstorm", and would you sit there and say "never mind, it's not the fault of the store which took too much money, and we'll just say forget it, even if we get into overdraft and can't pay our other bills."?
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With most faulty goods and service, it's up to the retailer to make up for the problem. If this is how they - slowly - deal with such "errors" I'll keep my debit card well away from ASDA.
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There's also a lurking thought - if a thunderstorm can cause such glitches for a Bank, where is one's money safe? We've already had the NatWest/RBS computer problem, but at least they blamed it on the "system" and not on Act of God!
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What was not "beyond anyone's control", claireandsam, is the behaviour of the point-of-sale store. They could have dealt swiftly and sensitively with the customers concerned and sorted out the financial problems themselves, instead of leaving a vulnerable family in a bad situation. The story would not then have made the papers in all likelihood.
wormshero
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8:46am Mon 3 Sep 12
Even if it was a natural problem then they should have insurance in place to cover this, and paying back all bank fees as well as the shopping cost, and providing additional vouchers to the value of the shopping cost would be reasonable, and wouldn't sting such a big company so much.
rhetoric
says...
10:52am Mon 3 Sep 12
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So the cost of the shopping was refunded - eventually? That still left the family with no money in the bank to pay many other regular bills. In case you haven't noticed, there are other necessities in life than the groceries etc provided by ASDA. The corporation blithely stated it would sort the matter out as soon as possible. Whoopee!
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I agree with Wormshero - if such a glitch could be caused by a severe thunderstorm then the entire financial world would soon be in total chaos.
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Good for this family, bringing the matter to light. It isn't nice having this kind of publicity, as it attracts negative comments from all the disabled-deniers, the resentful of benefits, those who think the world is run on their income tax alone. The Schobs have been very inconvenienced and, I dare say, embarrassed at being completely broke, and have voiced their concerns.
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If a huge corporation like Walmart can't have some customer welfare officer in place to deal with such matters, even one situated centrally to deal with the UK, then it just shows how little they really care. At least there have been some moves locally, but too little and a bit too late.
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Try being a full time carer, Bwanna, see what it takes out of you, and this carer also has to look after school age children. It isn't a situation to be envied I can assure you.
aeb147
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6:14pm Tue 4 Sep 12
itsalltomuch
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3:41pm Thu 6 Sep 12
colchesterconcerned!
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4:39pm Fri 7 Sep 12
romantic
says...
5:14pm Fri 7 Sep 12
colchesterconcerned! wrote:To be fair here, the story does say that the money was taken out of their account a few days after the shop, not at the same time.
The thing with stories like this is, it is always taken too far! Yes, I think it is awful that this happened to the family, but everything is exagerated too vastly and makes the family look worse. For instance them saying they had no food when they had just spent over £100 on a food shop, and claiming the 14 year old child couldn't go to school the following week because of this. All excuses!
There have been some frankly nasty comments on here based on the fact that he´s got tattoos, and because they´re on benefits. Very easy to stand and cast judgment on people you don´t know.
Some of you lucky people might have cash tucked away all over the place, but not everybody has. Plenty of the population would struggle if this happened to them. Yes, they will get the money back in the end, but there are also bank charges, late payment fees etc.
In a situation like this, it would be good if a huge company such as Asda acted fast. A transfer can be made within hours, there is no reason why it should take days to refund money taken by mistake.
colchesterconcerned!
says...
7:03pm Sun 9 Sep 12
romantic wrote:I pointed out it was all exaggerated, I didn't actually say anything about them being on benefits or tattooed. However I wouldn't say that people with savings are 'lucky' - I work full time and that is why I have my own money.
colchesterconcerned! wrote:To be fair here, the story does say that the money was taken out of their account a few days after the shop, not at the same time.
The thing with stories like this is, it is always taken too far! Yes, I think it is awful that this happened to the family, but everything is exagerated too vastly and makes the family look worse. For instance them saying they had no food when they had just spent over £100 on a food shop, and claiming the 14 year old child couldn't go to school the following week because of this. All excuses!
There have been some frankly nasty comments on here based on the fact that he´s got tattoos, and because they´re on benefits. Very easy to stand and cast judgment on people you don´t know.
Some of you lucky people might have cash tucked away all over the place, but not everybody has. Plenty of the population would struggle if this happened to them. Yes, they will get the money back in the end, but there are also bank charges, late payment fees etc.
In a situation like this, it would be good if a huge company such as Asda acted fast. A transfer can be made within hours, there is no reason why it should take days to refund money taken by mistake.
rhetoric says...
11:10am Sat 1 Sep 12
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Ok, but what about the £10 per day charge for overdraft from the Bank? What about all the phone calls and distress?
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Offering £15 of vouchers was a derisory gesture made by someone without an ounce of compassion, commonsense or, indeed, knowledge of PR!
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At the very least the company should have pitched in to see the family was ok, provided the necessary school clothing if possible - and they do sell clothing! and provided food and fuel and anything else the customers needed to see them through. Any adjustment could have been made later, including taking into account any overdraft fees from the Bank for paying other absolutely necessary bills.
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Walmart doesn't have a good history of public or staff relations, and it seems their subsidiary ASDA is going the same way. Having said that, try reasoning with Tesco over one of their "blips"!! You might as well save your breath. In fact their rudeness at HO level will take away any breath you have left in your body.
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ASDA have in fact taken money that doesn't belong to them and are not hurrying to replace it. What can anyone call that kind of behaviour?