Kate Jones from Worcester received a shock when a supermarket charged her £533 for two peppers. Asda admitted a “technical error” led to its mistake, but Kate is yet to receive back the money and her bank overdraft charges. She felt betrayed and doubted she’ll shop online at Asda again.

Imagine going to the supermarket and buying a few peppers. You would probably think that the price would be a few pounds, but what if the bill was £533 for just two peppers? That’s exactly what happened to Kate Jones from Worcester.

She did some online shopping with big supermarket Asda on 6 August. Kate was happy to get her delivery, but soon she noticed something very strange. After two days, when she checked her bank statement, she had been charged £533 for just two peppers. Way too much for the vegetables that usually cost just 59p.

Kate was shocked and incensed. “It’s just coming up to a week since I did my shopping, and now I need to buy more, but I am having to live day by day because I don’t trust using my bank card,” she said. Kate uses a wheelchair and relies on home delivery shopping because she can’t carry heavy bags. It’s her lifeline, but now she feels terribly let down.

The situation only got worse for Kate as her bank account went overdrawn because of that. It means she spent more money than she had, and her bank took extra fees for this. “I was £464 overdrawn because of the overcharge,” she said. She also added: “There are direct debits and other things due to come out. It’s ridiculous now. My bank said they would refund any charges I get, and I hope they keep their promise.”

Asda has admitted that a “technical error” was to blame for the mistake. The supermarket chain said it is “very sorry” for the problem and is working to rectify it. It added this error has caused the peppers to be wrongfully priced. “Maybe they are gold-plated orange peppers,” Kate said of the crazy situation.

She was told she would get her money back within 24 hours. And to top it off, Asda offered her a £50 gift voucher. But Kate has yet to receive a full refund, and the gift voucher hasn’t arrived. The delay is making her even more frustrated.

An Asda spokesman said: “We are processing refunds for the small number of customers who were overcharged. We want to assure that Kate will get her refund very soon. At the same time, we want to make up for the trouble she faced. On top of that, we are giving her a ‘gesture of goodwill’ as an apology for the trouble she has faced.”.

She said the experience had made her lose faith in shopping online with Asda. “I won’t be shopping online with Asda again,” she declared. For someone who relies on online shopping, that is a big deal. The experience has not only caused financial problems but also affected her confidence in using the service.

Ultimately, Kate’s story illustrates how important it is for businesses to get things right—on top of everything else, regarding money issues. This sort of mistake is very stressful and problematic for clients. It is very imperative that companies correct these issues as fast as possible and look for means to ensure that such errors do not happen again.

This has been a real fight for Kate to get her money back and, more literally, a struggle with bank charges. She hopes that people could learn something from her story and that companies would do more to avoid letting such mistakes happen in companies. Meanwhile, Kate is waiting for the resolution to her problem and hopes to put this unpleasant experience behind her back.