It's cheap, it's big, it's Asda. Asda has to be the cheapest supermarket in town. It has a great range of non-food goods too, clothing, electricals, toys and games, books etc, which is great. There's a hot food counter which does hot chickens and pizzas made to order, and a coffee shop too. What's not great, in my experience, is the fresh food. It doesn't tend to last long before it goes off - i'm talking greengrocery and meat here. In fact i'd never buy meat again from Asda, especially chicken breasts which i've had several bad experiences with now. But on a positive note, it's great value, has lots of checkouts including self-scan ones and is noticeably cheaper than Sainsbury's or Tesco for a weekly shop. read more

Asda, hmmm im not a fan, the last time i was here i abandoned a shopping trolley 1/2 way though a shop, as they didn't have the brands i needed, and such had to go else where anyway, so got it all elsewhere. They do seam to specialise in their own brands, rather than stock a wide range of other brands, and seam to stock mostly middle of the road brands, with no higher end stuff in most categories. They do have a large homewares department, thanks to them being part of the wallmart group. This covers seasonal (i did get some nice Halloween bits in here last year), clothing, home electrical and wares, and entertainment. The name that they once had for selling top 40 books cheaper has dwindled the range of books has stayed high for a supermarket, but pricing has come up and now quite often isnt that competitive. read more

WoW! Lots of bargains to be had and yes they do 'beat the rest' . Very busy on this easter weekend.

The events started on Sunday, October 30th, When my partner and I arrived at the store around 3:30 pm, for our weekly shopping. Realising we did not have a lot of time left until the store is closed, we spitted so that each one of us would pick up items from different sections in the store. At around 16:05, I was already making my way to check out and I looking for my partner, when I heard a lady screaming and my partner's voice. The screaming was very loud and inappropriate enough to actually assist me in finding my partner, only to find her being humiliated by a store employee. When I asked what was happening, the store employee went on to scream at me to the point where it was difficult for me to understand her words. From what I was able to understand, the employee insisted that the store was searched for customers and had been already shut, and that she only found out we were there after, suggesting we were hiding. She additionally insisted that we would leave our stuff behind and leave the store immediately all expressed while screaming. yelling at us and using improper vocabulary. Since I usually do not listen to people who scream, I took myself and my tearful partner to see what was really going on, only to discover that in fact, the store was still open, people were still paying, unlike what the screaming woman had said. I then went forward and demanded to see the store manager and the woman, only to be approached by a man who introduced himself by the code name Ash no full or last name were given, the store manager; Ash reassured me he would take care of the employee, and at the same time made a lot of effort to rush us out and tell us to hurry up much possible, in a scene almost taken from a war movie. When I insisted he would call the employee and at least ask her to apologize to my tearful partner, he initially refused, but when I said I would not leave the store until this issue is dealt with, he disappeared for a minute, and came back claiming the employee had probably gone home. When I asked for her name, he said he did not know her name. I cannot see how it is possible to be a store manager and not know an employee's name, or be cover the whole store searching for an employee with an unknown name. He then added there was nothing he wanted to do to resolve the issue and seemed to generally have taken the issue lightly.I then demanded he would write his name on a paper, which he did. The story continues when I called ASDA's customer service on November 2nd, and demanded for a resolution. After a short conversation with a customer representative, I was promised that the store would be contacting me on the same day with an apology and a proper resolution. No call or resolution had been provided by the time I was wrote this letter. Instead, I found myself calling ASDA on a number of occasions to ask if an action was going to be taken, once again, only to be told that it was very surprising that the store had not called yet, and a promise that the store would call within 30 minutes, within 2 hours, within the afternoon and so on. To make things less serious, When I asked what would happen if the store didn't contact me, I was told that that factor is not taken into account since the store would definitely call me this time Meanwhile, I have discovered other things, The employee's name is still unknown to Ash or to any of your customer service representatives, Ash is in fact, NOT a store manager as he pretended to be. It was also Ash who promised that someone would contact me, where in fact it is unknown whether he actually informed anyone about the situation.Ash had mentioned that my complaint is unimportant and not worth 1000 pounds or so, therefore he would not take my demands seriously.Obviously, the woman had not only treated us badly, but lied to us by insisting there was no one at the store, that it had been already closed, that the registers were already closed, and that someone had gone through the store to make sure there was no one in it. In addition, not only I had never been contacted as promised, ASDA Basingstoke decided it would be best and appropriate to contact me on Saturday at 9:00 am in the morning today. I was asleep and I woke up thinking it might be an emergency, only to miss the call and discover who the number on my telephone belongs to. Since I had been already woken up, I contacted ASDA to report only to be promised that the store would contact me surprisingly they never did! I am only forced to believe the issue is on a personal level, and even as bad as discrimination, as both my partner and I have distinct accents and were were clearly lightly by the store and since nothing has been done even though one of the customer representatives went out of his way to contact the store and ask them to contact me back. Once again I do hope our issue will be taken seriously this time since it has been 9 days and will probably be 11 by the time this letter is read. read more

I am bitterly disapointed with the service offered for home delivery. I have been a customer of Asda for many years and for the last 2-3 years have used their home delivery service with no issues. However, a month ago I did not receive my Friday delivery at the time allocated and after half an hour of waiting for Asda to call and explain, I had to call them where I was told in a very off hand manner that 'it was on its way'. No apology was offered. Half an hour after that I was contacted supposedly by the driver telling me he had broken down and to call customer service and they would rearrange my delivery and give me a £10.00 voucher off my next lot of shopping. I rang customer services who told me that they could not rearrange my shopping but they would cancel it and I would have to book it again. When I told them that was not good enough and that as they had let me down THEY should be prioritising my order for the next morning. But no, I was told I would have to rearrange and I was not offered anything as compensation not even the £10.00 the 'driver' had mentioned. After a heated discussion where I pointed out that there was actually no customer service being offered and there were no places left for Saturday - then she decided that she could not help me as their system was down. Obviously a lie because she did not say that 10 minutes previously when I first called. I cancelled the order and have not been back to ASDA since. In fact because they let me down I ventured into Liddel and discovered how much cheaper it is to shop there and how much nicer and helpful the staff in the store are. Then talking to a friend later on it turns out that she also had a delivery due on the same night I was let down, but she was told that the driver had been in an accident and she could not have her shopping. She gave ASDA the benefit of the doubt and ordered for the following week, where guess what? She received another phone call telling her the driver had been in an accident and she would not get her shopping! She told them to get their stories sorted out as that was the same lie as used the previous week. Needless to say she no longer shops at ASDA. I hate the fact that they have lied to me - I dont know what the real issues for not being able to deliver shopping to Basingstoke on the that evening (and other evenings from the sound of it) but I would much prefer for them to tell me the truth than to find out that I have been lied to and then told to sort their mistake out myself. I have also seen ASDA on Watchdog - so I gather they are not doing very well country wide. I think I will stick with Liddel from now on. read more