Tescos and ghost transactions
Discussion
Twice now my son has had this happen to him and I wondered if anyone else had experienced it. He asks to buy a packet of tobacco, gives them his card, puts in his code and they give him the card back saying the transaction didn't go through. At this point he gets a mini statement from the cashpoint which says it did, he calls the Bank who say the money has gone from his account and it's nothing to do with them, he takes the statement to Tesco who tell him it didn't and it's a 'ghost transaction' tough s
t. Anyone else had this happen to them?
t. Anyone else had this happen to them?Never heard of that. If the money has gone from my account then I paid for the product, I wouldn't pay again.
I wouldn't trust Tesco customer services over my own bank, and i'd be putting in a complaint to Tesco regarding them making up something called a 'ghost transaction'.
It wasn't just a weird Halloween promotion was it? Maybe he should swipe his testicles with the barcode reader and claim it was a 'Ghoulie transaction'.
Maybe.
I wouldn't trust Tesco customer services over my own bank, and i'd be putting in a complaint to Tesco regarding them making up something called a 'ghost transaction'.
It wasn't just a weird Halloween promotion was it? Maybe he should swipe his testicles with the barcode reader and claim it was a 'Ghoulie transaction'.
Maybe.
We had it happen here once on a £30k transaction; basically the POS supplier had a problem whilst processing the transaction which meant that they ended up with the money rather than either us or the customer.
A right pain to sort out and took a couple of days of phone calls.
Not sure how you'd get on with Tesco though. The only thing I would suggest is asking your son to get something in writing from Tesco with the time/date on them and then request a statement from his bank showing the payments to them. Then take it into the store and should all be sorted.
A rare occurence to be honest, so I'm surprised it's happened twice to your son.
A right pain to sort out and took a couple of days of phone calls.
Not sure how you'd get on with Tesco though. The only thing I would suggest is asking your son to get something in writing from Tesco with the time/date on them and then request a statement from his bank showing the payments to them. Then take it into the store and should all be sorted.
A rare occurence to be honest, so I'm surprised it's happened twice to your son.
Edited by matc on Monday 24th October 10:48
carreauchompeur said:
I always try to get the "cancelled" slip and keep it for a few days just in case when this happens. Probably wouldn't get one from Tesco though as it's all integrated.
I seem tyo think that you do.I keep all my card receipts until I have verified them against the banks statement and recall having a few transactions with them when they had just opened a new store go pete tong. iirc i got a slip confirming that the transaction was voided.
matc said:
We had it happen here once on a £30k transaction; basically the POS supplier had a problem whilst processing the transaction which meant that they ended up with the money rather than either us or the customer.
Sounds like a similar thing happened to me...I was in Africa settling the balance on a safari, they processed the payment, it printed 1 copy 'authorised', followed immediately by a 'port error'? slip.
They checked their current account and the money wasn't there - cue me being marched to a cash point in Tanzania and made to use credit cards on the machines to get out 2 grand in cash to 'pay them', or be 'left'.
I phoned my bank from Africa whilst out on safari and was told the payment had gone through fine, but was sitting at the merchant bank 'waiting to be claimed'.
After a lot of swearing and calls to the tanzanian tourist authority, I got my cash back (but no payments I had made for using the cash advance abroad).
It was also discovered that the merchant CC machine was faulty (and therfore it was their issue all along).
Probably a different scenario really, but I thought I'd wheel it out under the guise of paying for something but the money not reaching the target destination!
Sheets Tabuer said:
Mrs said it is a banking error that will be rectified within 48 hours, the money is on "hold" in your sons bank and will be credited back.
Yours Mrs ST.
Tesco manager of 24 years.
^^^This.Yours Mrs ST.
Tesco manager of 24 years.
It happens to all the major supermakets and it's due to the way they handle some transactions unfortunately.
Indeed. I've worked on a credit card systems for several leading retailers and the transactions are bundled up overnight and sent to the bank for settlement, it's only then you get charged for real.
In this situation there's probably been an online authorisation so your bank knows about it but a problem somewhere in the chain of processing (the returned authorisation message has to go from your bank to the store's bank to the store's datacentre to a server in the store and then to the POS) has made the transaction fail.
In this situation there's probably been an online authorisation so your bank knows about it but a problem somewhere in the chain of processing (the returned authorisation message has to go from your bank to the store's bank to the store's datacentre to a server in the store and then to the POS) has made the transaction fail.
Well it never went back into his account.
It happens to all the major supermakets and it's due to the way they handle some transactions unfortunately.
jhfozzy said:
Sheets Tabuer said:
Mrs said it is a banking error that will be rectified within 48 hours, the money is on "hold" in your sons bank and will be credited back.
Yours Mrs ST.
Tesco manager of 24 years.
^^^This.Yours Mrs ST.
Tesco manager of 24 years.
It happens to all the major supermakets and it's due to the way they handle some transactions unfortunately.
HellDiver said:
He's doing it wrong. The card should never go out of his possession. That's why the slot is in the chip and pin machine, and not in the till any more.
^^This.I don't know who he's been giving his card to OP, but all the staff in Tesco have been told not to handle debit cards, only clubcards and instead direct the customer to insert their card into the chip and pin reader themselves. This has been the norm for about two years at least.
I had it the other way round when buying a car once.
Dealer took card and tried to take £5.5k from it. Tried several times, in fact. Eventually called the bank to get an authorisation code. It all "went through okay" and I drove off in shiny new car.
Only it didn't. Nothing left the account.
What made things more interesting is that it was *me* who noticed and went back to the dealer a couple of weeks later. They hadn't spotted the problem!
Dealer took card and tried to take £5.5k from it. Tried several times, in fact. Eventually called the bank to get an authorisation code. It all "went through okay" and I drove off in shiny new car.
Only it didn't. Nothing left the account.
What made things more interesting is that it was *me* who noticed and went back to the dealer a couple of weeks later. They hadn't spotted the problem!
jhfozzy said:
HellDiver said:
He's doing it wrong. The card should never go out of his possession. That's why the slot is in the chip and pin machine, and not in the till any more.
^^This.I don't know who he's been giving his card to OP, but all the staff in Tesco have been told not to handle debit cards, only clubcards and instead direct the customer to insert their card into the chip and pin reader themselves. This has been the norm for about two years at least.
Sort of, just last week I'd bought a few odds and sods in store and then stopped for fuel on the way out. The Tesco petrol station declined my card for IIRC just short of £90. Paid on another card and went straight round to the bank. They saw the transaction on their systems, Tesco had taken the money but put it straight back in. It didn't show on my online account though.
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