Do you shop at Woolworths? You might want to join the stampede of Woolies customers rushing to check their bank statements.
The supermarket giant admitted yesterday that an issue with their payments provider has seen thousands of customers charged a second time for purchases made back in March 2017.
If you checked your bank statement and were completely bewildered as to when you’d been to Woolies in the last 24 hours (like I was), you’re not alone. While Woolworths hasn’t confirmed exact numbers, it’s believed that customers in their thousands were caught in the double-dipping glitch.
Facebook became a hotbed of scathing criticism as Woolies shoppers vented their frustration at realising that money had disappeared from their account. Some customers reported losing hundreds of dollars.
Woolworths says sorry, blames processing error
Woolworths boss Brad Banducci described the payment drama yesterday as “outrageous”, blaming a processing error at the Cuscal data centre. Cuscal is a payment processor that serves a number of financial institutions, including banks and credit unions.
“It is not acceptable that our customers have been charged twice, causing them stress, inconvenience and, in some cases, financial hardship. We want to know how this happened, and we are seeking firm commitments from the financial services providers responsible to ensure that this can never happen again,” he said.
The company promises that any customers caught up in the payment blunder can still “buy essentials until the financial services companies have resolved these issues”.
“We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused to our customers,” Mr Banducci said. “We encourage customers who still have concerns about the payments returning to their accounts to contact our team on phone: 1300 767 969 for support in dealing with their financial institutions.”
Cuscal also released a statement this morning confirming they are working to reverse the incorrect transactions as quickly as possible.
Make sure to check your credit card statements and contact your bank right away if you notice any strange transactions on your account.
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