What was the error?
I was trying to pay my Toolstation Trade account. First screen said i had balance of 467.12. clicking through to pay it off, it says my balance was zero..
massive customer confusion..
risk of missed payments
unnecessary support contact
What would have been a better experience?
obviously this is a very basic issue and shows that it has not been tested
add a validatin to ensure that if the two balances don’t line up there is a warning to customer withe error message and help
in this case there should be a button for help quickly.. which prepopulated my account information..
ERRORX – CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FAILURE REPORT
TS Trade Club – Incorrect Account Balance Displayed at Payment Stage
Category: Website / Account Management / Payment Processing
Severity: High – Financial information inconsistency
Customer impact: Potentially misleading account information
1. What happened?
A customer accessing their TS Trade Club account is presented with an outstanding credit balance of £467.12.
The account dashboard displays:
- Credit limit: £500.00
- Available to spend: £32.88
- Outstanding balance: £467.12
However, when the customer selects Make a payment, they are taken to the payment page, which displays:
- Balance: £0.00
The customer is therefore presented with two completely different balances within the same account journey.
2. What is the error?
The account dashboard correctly indicates that £467.12 is outstanding, but the payment page displays a zero balance.
This suggests a potential failure in the transfer or synchronisation of account balance information between the TS Trade Club account platform and its payment provider, Ecospend.
The precise technical cause requires investigation.
3. Customer experience impact
This creates confusion and undermines confidence in the accuracy of the account information.
A customer could reasonably conclude that:
- They have nothing to pay.
- Their outstanding balance has already been cleared.
- There is a problem with their account.
- They cannot make a payment against their outstanding balance.
It also introduces unnecessary friction into what should be a straightforward payment journey.
4. Expected behaviour
The payment page should automatically retrieve and display the correct outstanding balance from the customer’s Trade Club account.
In this example, the payment page should display £467.12 rather than £0.00.
If the payment facility is unavailable or unable to retrieve the balance, the customer should be clearly informed rather than presented with an incorrect zero balance.
5. Suggested resolution
- Investigate the integration between the TS Trade Club account platform and Ecospend.
- Establish why the outstanding balance is not being passed through to the payment page.
- Ensure the payment amount defaults to the current outstanding balance.
- Introduce validation to prevent a zero balance being displayed when the account has an outstanding debt.
- Test the complete customer journey across different account balances.
6. ErrorX observation
The customer should never have to question which of two conflicting balances is correct.
This is a relatively simple customer journey, yet a breakdown between two connected systems creates uncertainty at the precise moment the customer is trying to make a payment.
The opportunity is not simply to fix the technical integration, but to ensure that the entire customer journey delivers consistent, accurate and trustworthy information.
ERRORX – Turning customer experience failures into improvements.