Grocery Store Overcharges $258 for Single Lime — Customers Say Price Changed After the Fact

British Supermarket Chain ASDA found itself at the center of customer outrage recently after numerous customers for the chain showed the insane amounts of money they were charged for limes. Claims regarding the overages have popped up on X, and other U.K.-based media outlets chronicling consumers' gripes.

What's strange is that the exorbitant amounts seemed to fluctuate between different customer orders. One customer, Alice, highlighted how they were charged nearly $73 per lime from the popular chain.

She writes that the error resulted in her bank account being overdrawn and that there didn't seem to be an immediate solution in place. Alice also remarks how shocked she was to learn that ASDA was taking its time in getting her money back to her, and that there wasn't a guarantee she'd be refunded for the limes.

She writes in her tweet, which she addresses to the grocery store's official X account: "Asda changed the price of limes to £111 and overcharged my bank card, taking it to overdraft. Called their customer service advisor and they said I have to wait 24/48 hours to find out *IF* they will refund me and further time for refund!"

There were several other commenters who referenced a now deleted post uploaded by someone who said that they were charged even more than Alice was for the limes in their cart. This X user was purportedly charged $258 per each lime.

Another user on the app named Eva said that they, too, have experienced this same pricing error while shopping with ASDA. They penned: "The way this exact thing has happened to me before — why does Asda rate their limes so highly."

One could argue that it's up to the shopper to take a look at the prices of the items they're placing their cart prior to purchase. Although the idea that a single lime would retail for the same amount of a Nintendo Switch is ridiculous and probably an error, ensuring that your card isn't charged would be on the onus of the customer who authorized the charges, right?

However, there was one X user who was convinced that the mistake wasn't on behalf of the shopper. And that Asda's online checkout system must've made an error that overcharged them only after they completed their purchase.

@Lizerenity writes: "People: *When you make an online grocery order, when you hit submit, they charge your payment method. *I promise, those limes were not 394.50 in her cart * Asda has an error in store pricing that caused this. Asda is the problem."

There were others who agreed with the aforementioned assessment, stating that they couldn't believe there wasn't some kind of authorization from a supervisor/manager who could've assessed this lime fiasco to ensure that pricing wouldn't have hit such an astronomically high amount.

X user Claire M. penned: "I'm old enough to remember when Asda was 'no quibble.' This is shockingly bad Asda, you can't expect to charge someone £400 instead of 65p for limes. Surely there has to be a second-level authorization required from a manager for this change in cost before proceeding?"

The Telegraph also reported on the Asda customer who was was hit with the $258 per lime charge. Like Alice, they said that the chain was initially reluctant to issue the refund and that the company's blunder required her to jump on the phone "for hours" to get her money back.

So what was the cause of the pricing fiasco? The answer could lie in what happened to another shopper, Aoife Mah, who said the system wrongfully charged her for 789kg of limes.

Aoife's statement regarding the issue also seems to confirm what another X user stated: that the charges were rendered after the fact. That's because Aoife said they double checked their charges before authorizing them: "I even noticed in advance and phoned them and was assured that my bank had only authorised the initial total cost. Now I am out nearly £200 waiting five days for my refund."

Distractify visited Asda's website to look for loose limes and as of this writing, it seems that the option to purchase them online is no longer available, just a 4pk of limes. Loose lemons, however, are for sale.