Yahoo Finance Tesco apologises for taking card payments 3 months after customers shopped
Tesco has admitted it has taken card payments off customers three months after they shopped.
The nation’s largest supermarket chain has apologised after thousands of payments were delayed – potentially presenting a nasty shock to shoppers.
A glitch in its credit and debit card processing system at 300 Tesco Express stores has resulted in some payments not going through since the end of November.
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While some customers are seeing money being taken from their accounts now for shopping they did weeks ago, others have complained they have been charged for multiple shops all at once.
Just had a @Tesco payment taken from my account – TODAY -dating back to 9th December!!! What the actual …. Tesco, you need to get your act together!
— Rose Alexander (@RoseA_writer) February 12, 2018
Steve Nowottny, news and features editor at consumers website MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “It’s good to see Tesco has apologised to shoppers, but this is a real blunder – for a major supermarket to take payments up to three months late simply isn’t acceptable.
“If you’re operating on a tight budget it’s crucial you know that payments will be processed more or less as you make them.”
In letters sent to customers, Tesco says: “You were accidentally not charged on a recent visit and this is a delayed payment.
“Rest assured, you will not have paid twice.” It goes on to say the processing issue has been resolved.
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Tesco has not revealed how many people have been affected, or which Express stores suffered from the error.
Just found out that @Tesco has had card payment problems in over 300 express stores and is now starting to take payments 2 months later what a absolute joke #nothappy #anothermessup @asda @sainsburys @Morrisons
— Vroooom Automotive (@VroooomAutos) February 12, 2018
All customers are being urged to check their bank statements and shopping receipts, where possible, to see if payments have been taken.
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Tesco has promised to reimburse any customers who have gone into their overdraft or been hit with other charges from their bank as a result of this problem, “subject to evidence”.
It says anyone affected should contact its customer engagement centre on 0800 0853 547.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “As soon as we identified this issue, we contacted as many affected customers as possible and have now processed all incomplete transactions.
“The issue has now been resolved and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
