Several shop customers have been charged twice for goods purchased using chip and pin following a technical problem with the Bank of Scotland’s electronic point of sale system.

The bank, which is owned by Lloyds Banking Group, said that a small number of customers had been affected by the hitch.

A spokesman said that customers would have their money reimbursed by the end of today (Wednesday) at the latest.

However, some businesses have complained they have had to deal with angry customers who mistakenly believed they had been overcharged by the shop where they had bought the goods.

“Some people have come to the shop very angry about it, because they think it is us who have charged them twice,” Chris Parton, owner of the Highland Soaps Company’s shop in Fort William, told the BBC. He added that his shop had made two refunds to appease angry customers.

Businesses also say there was no procedure in place to advise people who have the machines that there was a problem.

The Bank of Scotland said that the PDQ machines are used by around 20,000 merchants in the UK. However, while the bank confirmed the technical issue was a UK-wide problem, it said it had not affected its whole network.

A spokesman said: “Yes, we have had an issue where a small number of customers who have used these payment terminals have been double charged for their purchases.

“We have fixed the problem and will make sure any customers affected are reimbursed in full by tomorrow at the latest.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 8:47 am and is filed under Banking, Credit Cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.