'Highly unusual': Pensioners lose hundreds of dollars in overcharging error at Woolworths

Two Auckland households have been stung by overcharging errors after shopping at Woolworths. 

One of the customers was left chasing hundreds of dollars in refunds weeks after their visit to Woolworths Silverdale. 

The second was overcharged, but is now reluctantly holding on to a significant refund overpayment from their local outlet in Ōrewa. 

Woolworths told the Herald they are “sincerely sorry for the delay and frustration” their customers experienced, attributing both instances to human error, while saying the relevant teams have been notified and are looking into the issue. 

Vicky Davidson visited Woolworths Ōrewa on March 6, spending about $175 on groceries that she paid for via Eftpos. 

“It was taking ages, I even said to the checkout lady, ‘Gosh, it’s taking a long time to get the receipt’,” Davidson recalled. 

“It finally came out and off I trotted, came home. And it was later that afternoon, I checked my bank – because I always do – and I’ve seen that it had been taken out twice." 

One customer was charged four times for their $175 grocery shop at Woolworths Ōrewa, while another couple waited weeks for a refund after being billed three extra times and credited just once. Photo / NZME 

Davidson said she went into a “tailspin” and immediately called the store manager, who allegedly told her he wasn’t aware of any such incidents happening before. 

She returned to the store the next day after supplying receipts of the transactions, where an in-store refund was processed. 

Four days later, Davidson said she woke up in the middle of the night with a bad feeling and discovered two new charges of $175 had been processed against her account. 

Discussions with her bank concluded the error to be a merchant issue, so Davidson called back the store manager for answers. 

“A couple of hours later, I get like a credit. But I got a credit for three instead of two [payments], so now I’m ahead by $175 that I owe them.” 

Davidson said she raised it with the store manager again, informing him she now owed Woolworths money, but “he wasn’t interested”. 

She then rang head office, who allegedly directed her complaint to one of their fraud specialists. 

“My bank even said to me, ‘Look, keep it. You should keep the money’. And I said, ‘I can’t do that. I just can’t. That’s not in my nature’,” Davidson said. 

“I spoke to the fraud guy ... I said, ‘What do I do about that?’ And he said, ‘Oh, keep it’. I was floored.” 

While she hadn’t experienced any problems since, Davidson said she was hesitant about returning to Woolworths, noting she struggled with finding help and the lack of perceived interest in resolving the matter. 

The customers were at a loss as to how the payments were processed and approved several times. Photo / 123rf 

“I thought, ‘Great, somebody to finally help me’. Well, in the end, he really didn’t. 

“And obviously, nothing’s been done because it’s happened again.” 

Jewal Morrison visited Woolworths Silverdale on May 8, spending $296.68 on groceries for her and partner Edmond Grant. 

The checkout operator required a signature to complete the purchase, she said, which was unusual given they hadn’t needed to sign off on past purchases. 

Days later, having noticed the transaction was missing from bank statements, Grant queried whether Morrison had indeed paid for the groceries. 

It was eventually processed one week on from her store visit. 

After rechecking the account two days later, Grant came to learn three further identical debits had been processed against their account. 

Referencing the couple’s bank statements, Grant said one of the debits was curiously processed to Woolworths Belfast in Christchurch and credited back immediately, but they remained nearly $600 out of pocket. 

Subsequent weeks saw Grant rehash his experience to Woolworths employees, both at the Silverdale store and head office, but he said the interactions were largely fruitless. 

In-store workers allegedly seemed perplexed by the couple’s situation. Woolworths’ national Customer Care team said they’d investigate, but then repeatedly missed their deadlines. 

Woolworths has apologised for both customers' experiences, attributing the overcharges to human error. 

Grant later returned to the Silverdale store for answers. While staff informed him they weren’t allowed to issue an in-store refund, he accepted a $50 gift card and an apology from the company, with a promise they’d credit back the money owed soon. 

Nevertheless, it wasn’t for another week – when Grant set his own deadline and warned head office they’d enter the store and take $300 worth of goods if it was missed – for the credit to be actioned. 

“I’d like to think that these organisations, when it’s drawn to their attention, that (a) somebody will actually care enough to want to sort it out, and (b) that it doesn’t take weeks,” Grant said. 

“We’re old people on the pension. But we may have been in the situation where we live from pension day to pension day. 

“And if that’s the case, I don’t know how you’re expected to live.” 

When the allegations were put to the company, a Woolworths spokesperson acknowledged there was human error made by staff. 

“We are sincerely sorry for the delay and frustration experienced by the customers involved in these instances,” the spokesperson said. 

“The way we handled these fell well short of the standards we set for ourselves. 

“These instances are highly unusual, and typically refunds should appear in customers’ accounts in three to five days, given the processing time between various banks.” 

Woolworths’ spokesperson said the issue had been raised “with the appropriate teams”, and they were “looking into how these cases occurred”. 

“We aim to provide a seamless shopping experience to all our customers, and we sometimes get things wrong. 

“When that happens, we work hard to make things right without delay.”