Superdrug shoppers charged multiple times despite online orders ‘not going through’ in Black Friday sales
SUPERDRUG shoppers have reported being charged for online purchases even though the orders were never placed, leaving them hundreds of pounds out of pocket.
Customers are complaining that they have missed out on Black Friday deals, even though the money has been removed from their accounts.
Some shoppers have reported being charged multiple times after error messages on the Superdrug payments system took their money without processing the sale.
The customers have been left with no order confirmation or history, but holes in their finances.
Superdrug has said that the money hasn't actually been taken, but the funds are being held as the card payment process was started before the website crashed.
This means that customers should receive all the their funds back, even though the money is currently showing as missing.
However consumers are still angry that their bank accounts are showing the money missing and they have now missed out on the deals.
One angry shopper, Sasha Butler, posted on the Superdrug Facebook page explaining her situation.
She said that she had made one order totalling £81.62 but the website crashed when she was trying to pay.
Despite the crash, the money was removed from her bank, but no order was made.
She said that the online chat team told her that the money would be back in her account within 48 hours.
She tried to pay for the order again after the chat team said that it would be fine, but the website crashed again at the point of payment.
She says she is now missing over £160, and will miss out on the one day only Black Friday offers she was hoping to take advantage of.
She has since been told that the issue is with World Pay and that a PayPal order would be successful, but that she couldn't afford to make a third offer with the money still missing from her account.
Another Facebook user posted to the Superdrug page: "Can someone please pm from Superdrug customer services.
"Your website kept saying payment server was down but you have taken the money and I have no email confirmation."
When she failed to get a response from the store she added: "I'm going to contact my bank and get them to stop the money going out. I've gone elsewhere their customer service is shocking."
"Superdrug, are you putting my money back in? Your holding £100 in total of my money. This is totally disgusting."
Plenty of customers on Twitter have also been reporting the same issues.
While the Superdrug team has been asking disgruntled customers to get in touch via direct message, plenty are reporting that their complaints are being ignored.
A third angry shopper on the Facebook page said: "I am disgusted it has taken six hours to get back to me they have taken four transactions totall[ing] £246!!!!
"I will keep posting on social media until this has been resolved, this is appalling customer service.
"I can appreciate it being Black Friday sales and you are busy but surely you need to put the customers that you are failing first!!!!
"How many more customers are out of pocket today????? I want my order cancelled and an immediate refund!!!"
A spokesperson for Superdrug said: "As you can imagine we have had a huge demand over the weekend for our Black Friday offers - we knew they were going to be popular and put plans in place in terms of customer service and IT support to help everyone’s orders go through.
"Unfortunately we know some customers have had trouble when placing their order and would like to confirm that if they have not received a confirmation from Superdrug their order has not been placed and we have not taken any money from their account.
"Sometimes, however the card payment process means the transaction begins and the funds are held before being released back into the customer’s account."
Superdrug says that anyone experiencing problems should contact the customer service team on 0345 671 0709.
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