- Mom charged an extra $55 for Coles click-and-collect order
- She didn’t know that the weekly deals had already changed.
- READ MORE: Urgent warning for all buyers
A mother of four had an unexpected $55 charge added to her late-night shopping bill because she didn’t realize the weekly deals had already ended.
The Coles customer from Perth placed a grocery order for in-store pickup totalling $450.37 shortly before midnight on 6 August.
But after paying the full amount at the online checkout, the bill suddenly increased to $504.70 without warning.
When the shopper contacted Coles to ask what had happened, they were told that the week’s deals had already changed because the order had been cancelled. processed in Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is two hours ahead of Western Australian Standard Time.
She said there was no warning when she placed the order to let her know that the total amount displayed on her screen was incorrect.
“I am absolutely disgusted that they charged this extra money and it is not what I thought I was going to pay,” she wrote online.
A screenshot of her checkout screen showed no sign that there was anything wrong with the order, which also indicated she had saved $100.
Coles offered the mother a “goodwill” voucher to make up for the mistake.
A Perth mother was shocked to find she had been charged $505.37 for her weekly shop when Cole’s online checkout and collection showed a total of $450.37 at 11.35pm on August 6.
The mother of four asked the supermarket what had gone wrong and was told by a representative that it had missed the delivery deadline for its weekly deals.
I opted to cancel the order and get a full refund.
“I think it’s ridiculous that Coles would rather lose $450 worth of groceries than admit a mistake,” he fumed.
“I don’t want to even think about how many other people have fallen into the trap for this reason.”
A Coles spokesperson apologised and said they were “looking into” why the price displayed during checkout was different to the price she was charged.
“We have offered a full refund for the cancelled order and apologize to our customer for the inconvenience,” they said. He told 9News.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for further comment.
Coles’ weekly specials change every Wednesday and the order in question was placed late on Tuesday night.
Click-and-collect orders are processed in EST and this affects the change in weekly specials, but the Perth mother said she was not notified of this.
The Coles website warns shoppers that the limit for weekly deals on click and collect orders differs depending on time zones.
The cut-off times are 21:59 for Western Australia and 23:22 for South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Other shoppers who responded to the mother’s story were equally outraged that they were not warned at checkout that their bids were no longer valid.
“Seriously, that’s ridiculous,” one said.
“This happened to me, I called and they refunded me the original price since it’s not in the fine print,” added another.
“If cash is eliminated, this will continue to be the case all the time,” said a third.