Duplicate Transaction

I often shop at Lotte Mart and pretty much always use my HD bank debit card to pay (the SMS message after each transaction is a great feature). Never had a problem, except on 16 March. The system was slow, the till staff swiped too many times, and I was charged twice.

I reported it to Lotte Customer Services, who filled a form designed especially for this, then told me it will take up to 45 days to process by their bank.

Soon afterwards (on 20 March) I received an email with signed letter from VietinBank (who must be Lotte mart's bank) saying 'We are committed to repay the amount of transactions for the customer in case your transaction duplicated from 02 times or more due to system error, but also was credited to our bank account'.

That was the last I heard from VietinBank. So I spoke to my bank, and they confirmed that it will be dealt with as soon as possible.
The 45 days was up on 30 April, but I still haven't received the refund.

I spoke to Lotte mart again two weeks ago. They said it's taking long as it's two different banks and assured me they will chase it up. No refund and not a word since then.

Has anyone experienced similar? Did you have the same friction?

Sussed out the issue. It was to do with the SMS notifications. The Lotte Mart transaction on 16 March sent 2 sms messages showing the same transaction and the account balance being deducted for the same amount. My account balance according to the SMS's was showing a lot less than it actually was due to this.

I visited a branch last week and asked for a full statement from 01 March onwards. If you do encounter this, ask for statement showing the credit, debit, and account balance columns. Then you can track each transaction against the balance (the statements they printed on an earlier visit were pretty useless).

Checked the statement thoroughly, and it only had one entry for the 16 March transaction. The account balance on the SMS notifications I received since 16 March were wrong from that date until 15 April 2018 (when it corrected itself somehow and corresponds with the statement entries from then on).

If this happens to you: Don't rely on the SMS notifications only. Check a printed statement by visiting a bank (and ask for credit/debit/balance columns as mentioned before). Sign-up for Internet banking when you open account (I didn't, as I was in a rush and it meant filling another form).