Thousands of Tesco customers potentially double-charged in 'technical error'

After customers complained of delayed payments at Tesco stores across the UK, it has emerged that some customers may have been double-charged as a result of a ‘technical error’.

The technical issue, which is said to be ongoing, has seen error messages displayed on card machines following an initial purchase - prompting customers to pay again.

Thousands of shoppers at a range of Tesco outlets, including petrol stations, superstores and Express stores, may have been impacted.

The news follows MoneySavingExpert’s findings of complaints about delayed and double-payments from Tesco shoppers posted on social media, dating back to February 6.

Steve Nowottny , news and investigations editor at MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “This is clearly a major error which has led to many customers being double-charged. While we don’t have precise figures, the scale of complaints we’ve seen – from Tesco customers all over the UK – suggest the problem’s significant and widespread.

“If you’ve shopped in-store at Tesco recently and believe you may have been affected, check your account. Tesco says it’s automatically refunding customers within a day, but if you've been double-charged you should make sure the refund comes through. It may take several days for banks to process refunds, so you may unfortunately need to wait to get your money back.

“If you’ve been left out of pocket, for example because you’ve unexpectedly gone into your overdraft and been charged bank fees, complain to Tesco. Given it’s mistakenly double-charged customers, it should be willing to put things right.”

A spokesperson for Tesco said: “Due to a technical error some customer card payments have been authorised more than once. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we want to reassure affected customers that they will only pay for their purchases once and any duplicate transactions will be reversed.”

The supermarket chain will be reversing any double-charges and have encouraged those affected to reach out to their customer services team.

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