Asda ‘charged shoppers twice’ at stores 200 miles away from each other

'There were people crying because they had no more money for food and bills.'

Asda customers say they were charged twice for their shops at stores hundreds of miles away.

Several customers at a Wakefield store claim they did their usual food shop but then they were charged again twice on March 24 – 220 miles away in Essex.

Other shoppers were also charged again in Lancaster, 100 miles away from the Yorkshire city.

One customer who complained said Asda told them it would rectify the problem and any money taken in error would be returned within ten days.

But many shoppers could not afford to be out of the pocket for that long and were left feeling distressed.

Customer Ruth Barnett fumed: ‘I’m wondering how many people don’t know that that they were charged again. You might not notice smaller charges coming out.

‘It was only because I went through my statement or else I wouldn’t have known.

‘People are struggling as well and don’t have money to spare even if it is paid back.

‘A lot can happen in “five to 10 days” if you’re struggling. It might have been money aside for petrol or food.’

Fellow customer Kelly Bainbridge said she went into the store last week and saw ‘people crying’ because they now had no more money for food and bills.

She said: ‘When I went into the store on Sunday there were queues of people who were affected.

‘I was told the issue was with the payment processing company and it may take up to 90 days to refund my money.

‘While I’m able to manage without the money for now there were people crying because they had no more money for food and bills.’

Kelly explained the second transaction came out of her account 21 days after her shop.

‘It started when I went into the Wakefield store on March 5 and made two transactions one for £104.07 and one for £27.98,’ she said.

‘Then on March 24 both of those payments were taken again by Asda Shoeburyness and Asda Lancaster.

‘I feel whoever is responsible needs to sort it out.’

An Asda spokesperson said: ‘It doesn’t look like any payments have been taken from customers and the pending charge that some customers have said had appeared has also come off their accounts.’

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