Tesco customers are seeing red after a technical defect caused their bank accounts to be debited—often multiple times—months after using the retailer’s petrol stations.
A growing number of customers are complaining they hadn’t budgeted for the unexpected payments and lack the funds to cover the charges.
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Tesco has promised to refund the affected customers and make good any bank charges incurred.
The technical issue occurred at certain dates over a period of three month: October, November, and December 2020. Petrol pumped at a number of Tesco filling stations were not charged to customers at the time, the company says.
When the error was discovered, the customers’ credit and debit cards were charged—two or three months after the event.
The snafu also affected purchases made at certain kiosks, between October and December.
Number of customers affected unknown
Tesco says it was unable to contact all the customers to inform them of when the payments would be taken. The reason: the supermarket doesn’t have the contact details of all the customers.
The company has not disclosed the number of customers affected, nor which petrol stations were impacted.
However, from the torrent of customer complaints on social media, it appears the problem was not confined to a particular area of UK. Forecourts mentioned by the griping customers include one in Lincoln, Lincolnshire and another in Irvine, North Ayrshire.
Tesco says all the relevant bank accounts have been debited. So, anyone who suspects they might be affected is advised to check their bank or credit card statement.
Déjà vu
It’s not the first time such an incident has happened at Tesco.
In 2018, Tesco had to apologise to customers after taking up to three months to process thousands of payments made in 300 of its Express stores.
The foul-up left shoppers—who had been charged for multiple shops all at once—facing a bills-shock and in some cases going overdrawn.
