Originally Posted by Me on Asda Tunbridge Well's Facebook page
Home delivery and customer service are truly awful. What follows is a truthful timeline of my current experience, and though I write this on April Fools' day, believe me, I am not laughing.
Monday 24 March. I place my groceries order, in good time, for delivery the next day between 8pm and 10pm.
Monday 25 March. Receive email confirming delivery will be between 8pm and 9pm. So far, so good. Until......9pm passes, still no delivery, and no contact from the driver or store. But hey, I did book 8pm - 10pm. Fair enough still. 10pm passes. Still no delivery. Next step? Phone their customer service line, which despite ostensibly being there to help, costs 14p per minute from my mobile (no landline I'm afraid). After 10 minutes on hold (racking up a £1.40 charge) I finally speak to a pleasant person in their CS department.
And at this point, I would like to make it crystal clear my issue is not with this person. They were very polite and helpful.
Turns out that my order, whilst accepted well within time, wasn't sent to the store until it was too late to go out. But hey, it can be sent out for the next morning, and a £10 discount was applied to my £55ish order, on account the goods aren't actually charged for until delivery is completed. All good? Sadly not. Due to a family bereavement, I was travelling to Scotland the next morning (with a 7am start) and wouldn't be back until the following Monday, 31st March.
Helpful person remains helpful, and delivery is rearranged for 31st March, again in the 8pm - 10pm slot. Hurrah and hooray, all sorted.
No not really. It continues.
So, Friday 28 March comes, and I'm mooching around my brothers flat, feeling rather glum due to the reason for my visit. And I receive an email (my first contact from Asda since Monday) informing me a refund of £55ish was being applied to my card. Somewhat bemused on account I'd been told I hadn't yet been charged. Quick call to my bank? Lo and behold. I had indeed been charged the £55.
Now, whilst the quick refund was appreciated, and it taking 3-5 days to hit my account being beyond anyone's control but the banks, the resulting £25 charge for going over my overdraft limit was most certainly not appreciated. You see, an emergency trip up to Scotland at short notice is surprisingly pricey, and as such, I had taken pains, and missed out on my first proper family dinner in around 18 months, to ensure the agreed, revised price of £45ish was left in my account, ready for collection on the new delivery day of Monday 31st March.
Finally get home, and have a chance to jump on the Internet. Only to find the rearranged order (you remember, the one with the £10 discount) had been cancelled because.......the payment had been refused.
And why had the payment been refused? Because Asda had compounded their previous error by charging me for 'The Delivery That Never Was'. This was communicated to me in an email that was extremely generic, and seemed to suggest it was my fault for not ensuring the relevant funds were in my bank account.
Cue another call, on that 14p a minute 'customer service' line to escalate my complaint, and find why my online account claims the original delivery is now listed as delivered. As expected, the person who picked up wasn't able to deal with that level of complaint.
Once again, quick caveat - No beef with the person answering the phone. Polite and helpful once again.
Promised this would be escalated to a case manager, and I would receive a call some time during the morning of April 1.
Guess what? It's now 20:23 on April 1.....and nobody has bothered to contact me.
So despite every issue encountered being down to Asda's incompetence, at absolutely no point have they been proactive in contacting me, and every phonecall I have had to pay through the nose for.
As I work in high end customer service, you can imagine my general disappointment and disillusionment at one of the country's biggest Supermarkets abysmal approach to customer dissatisfaction.
So, Asda. The ball is now in your court. Try not to drop it a third time eh? I await your contact with baited (but not held) breath.