Be Aware When Using Solo/Electron Cards in Tesco

[emma81]

My partner are i went to our local Tesco Store on Saturday afternoon, after mooching about and getting what we need, we headed for the busy tills, we loaded our shopping up and it came to £33.67, i handed over my Electron Card to the cashier for her to swipe, entered my pin and waited, the cashier said an error message had come up saying 'Use another method of payment' she said to me i'll swipe it again and the same error message came up again, so feeling a little embarassed i went to the cash machine with the same card and took the cash out, on my return i said to the adviser there must be a problem with there terminals at which she grinned as if to say 'I dont think so' it was most humiliating as i knew there was more than enough money in my account!

 

In checking my online banking the next day (Sunday) i notice the balance on the account was wrong, yep you guessed it the 2 times they swiped my card and said it hadn't gone through it had basically i paid for my shopping 3 times, in contacting the bank they advised that they had put it through twice and to go to Tesco with the codes the bank gave me and get my money back, on going to Customer Services and speaking with a TL giving him all the info he went off in search of my money only to come back and say it was only taken once blah blah blah, which wasnt good enough by this time the manager had come down and told him to ring the Merchants who confirmed it had been taken twice so it was put back on my account straight away......

 

I have to add aswell that Tesco said they have been having a number of problems processing Solo and Electron payments so if you use your card in there i would keep a close eye on your bank balance or you will be giving the A LITTLE BIT EXTRA !!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!

[kelly101]

Thanks for the heads up Emma. I'm glad you got it sorted.

 

Also, there was (allegedly) a major Solo/Switch problem last week that caused lots of ghost payments to be debited from people's accounts. There were numerous people who shopped at various stores affected according to the customer adviser at my bank. I noticed it last Saturday but the bank weren't aware of it at the time. They gave me my statement and sent me off to Marks and Sparks to get a refund thinking they too had debited my account twice so I was quite vocal about it to the manager. Especially when he implied that I might be trying to rip them off for £13 When the bank admitted the real reason for the extra debit I had to go and eat humble pie at M & S. I'm still not convinced that they believed me.

 

And to think I used to laugh at people who kept their cash under their mattress!

 

[silverfoxtrot]

My son's ex girlfiend had a Solo card that was refused payment at Tesco tills yet she knew she had plenty of funds, so had to go to cash point and withdraw cash to pay for her shopping.

Poor girl was quite embarrassed.

I'll ask her to look very closely at her bank statement just in case.

Mind you, she's just joined cag and has a very interesting tale to tell about said card and Nat West.

[kregrs]

I had the same sort of problem a few months ago with Tesco. I'd just received my Electron card and was still waiting for the pin, so asked if I could sign instead, which was allowed. Two hours later I was back again, again asked if I could sign but this time was refused, although by then they had swiped the card. So I paid in cash and off I went. I checked my statement online next day to see they had taken the payment, contaced bank who confirmed it was Tesco. So I spoke to manager at Tesco about the problem, and after he'd checked came back and refunded the money, and gave £10 on top as goodwill.

[superg]

hi guys tesco debited my account twice too on 24/04/09 only for 1.94 like but not sure if i kept receipt sorry its on old thead but looks like its happening again guys beware

[superg]

hi guys 2 days later only one amount showing so bank may have realised used tesco till today no problems