Store bans family after phone gaffe (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

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Store bans family after phone gaffe

10:30am Friday 25th April 2008

comment Comments (27) Have your say »

By Lewis Cowen »

MUM Kerry Hughes and her family have been banned from a shop because an assistant put too much credit on her daughter's mobile phone card.

Ms Hughes, of West View Crescent, Devizes, was astonished when she got a visit from Maria Johnson, proprietor of the nearby Hillworth Stores, on Saturday and told that if she didn't cough up the whole family would be barred.

Ms Hughes said: "First, I got a call from my 14-year-old daughter Casey to say she had gone into the shop to have £5 put on her mobile phone but the assistant had made a mistake and put £50 on.

"She said the assistant was refusing to give her the card unless she paid £50."

Casey eventually got her phone back, but Mrs Hughes said: "Maria came round and asked if we were going to pay the money and when I said, no, it's your mistake, you have to sort it out, she handed me a letter."

The letter said: "You are banned from entering the store. If you ignore this and enter the store, our staff have been instructed to ask you to leave.

"If you do not leave, they will call the police. We hope you will not put our staff in this embarrassing position."

A handwritten postscript adds: "Please may we come to some agreement over the £45?

Heather made a mistake, which is easy to do.

Could you pay £5 a week over nine weeks or could you take my phone, which has £14 on it and let me use up the £50, then swop phones again?

"If not, then I will have to ban the whole family from the shop."

Mrs Johnson said: "Granted it was our mistake, but I have offered them a number of options, which they are not willing to take.

"If the bank overcharges you, you get your money back. What chance have we got?

I have spoken to the phone card company and there is no way they can rectify the mistake.

I have no option but to ban the family from coming into my shop."

Ms Hughes, her partner Chris Searle and their five children: Dale, 16, Casey, 14, Billie Mae, eight, Declan, four and 13-month-old Chadley will not be allowed into their local corner shop for the foreseeable future.

Ms Hughes said: "People are going to think we have been barred because we have done something wrong, such as shoplifting. In fact, we have been banned for no fault of our own. I cannot tell you how angry that makes me feel."

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Your Say YourGazette

spooks, calne says...
11:24am Fri 25 Apr 08

I have no option but to ban the family from coming into my shop."

THATS IS JUST DAFT .IT WAS THE SHOPS MISTAKE,the girl asked for 5 and you put 50 on it.to ban the whole family for something that was your mistake is petty .ever heard of customer service????

www.calnetalk.com

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blonde with brains, Chippenham says...
12:44pm Fri 25 Apr 08

I agree with Spooks, If it was the shops mistake they shouldn't punish the family as it wasn't there fault. I'm guessing the shop has never heard of or have good customer service!!!

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Tmazo0, DEVIZES says...
1:25pm Fri 25 Apr 08

I totally agree! the family should not be banned.
Maybe there should be a little more training given to staff, it's not hard to check the amount before pressing enter! It is unfortunate that the owner knew the purchaser, if she didn't she would not of been able to arrive at the home demandig the money back or suggesting she should take the phone.

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mjhudston, Chippenham, Wiltshire says...
2:30pm Fri 25 Apr 08

I think Hillworth stores are just embarrising themselves more and more.

The store made the mistake and now are picking on the family.

The shop could learn a thing or two about customer service.

I think Maria Johnson, needs to wake up and really think about her attitude to customers, because I think it is appaling and really un-professional. I occasionaly pop in that shop, when passing, well I think I will take my business elsewhere, so not only has she lost the regular business from the Hughes, shes lost mine as well.

May be we should start a trend and tell her.

And for Ms Hughes and her family. There are plenty of other shops that will top up your mobile phone.

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sticky, chippenham says...
3:05pm Fri 25 Apr 08

Shop -I don't think that you have done yourself any favours here, I expect that you will lose far more than £45 after this publicity! Did you know that a complaint successfully resolved will bring you extra custom, but an unresolved complaint will lose you at least 7 customers, and that's if it's not advertised in your local news paper!

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Don, Devizes says...
4:06pm Fri 25 Apr 08

There are never two sides to a story, are there ...

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Grant, Marlborough says...
5:03pm Fri 25 Apr 08

A friend of mine lives on Hillworth rd.
They told me they once paid £15 for a gas top up card but when they got home found there was only £5 on the card.
Did they get a refund from Maria?
No.
They now shop elsewhere....

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Dave, Down under the Plain says...
5:18pm Fri 25 Apr 08

Err why not just pay her back the money? Its like finding cash and not giving it back to the owner. Then again the store seemed to have managed this hopelessly.

The store could open a £45 tab and the family could work it down with purchases.

They really want their heads banging these two.

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keyfob, wilts says...
6:15pm Fri 25 Apr 08

..but she didn't WANT 45 quids worth of mobile phone credit so she can't be expected to pay for it.

If you could take the credit back off the phone then fair enough, but you can't - so tough on Hillworth Road stores.

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keyfob, wilts says...
6:16pm Fri 25 Apr 08

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Grant, Marlborough says...
7:30pm Fri 25 Apr 08

Most shops have a sign saying something like
"Please check your change as mistakes cannot be rectified after you have left the shop"
This cuts both ways doesn't it?

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Tmazo0, DEVIZES says...
11:20pm Fri 25 Apr 08

I think many customers will go elsewhere, not only is it an expensive shop, on top of that you don't know what your going to end up spending in there with mistakes like this! And i certainly WOULD NOT pay it.
And to Miss Hughes and her family, we are all behind you on this one.

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donteventhinkit, Corsham says...
8:34pm Sat 26 Apr 08

well now this is how it works. The shop pay for a paypoint machine to be in the store and all monies for the machine are taken from the stores takings and given to paypoint. The whole system is an expense to the retailer but the idea is folks can do there shopping and pay for whatever bill phone etc in once place.Now when a staff member makes an error they should reverse the transaction on the paypoint machine immedietly using the supervisor card and the number on the paypoint reciept its not hard it takes 2 minutes max. If the staff or management or whoever had any sense this would have been done and the correct amount added to the phone.Obviously nobody has a clue what they are doing in that store my advice is stay out of there and spare yourself some grief.

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expewsey, devon says...
10:23pm Sat 26 Apr 08

use the sparshop in bath road thy are much nicer

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matmite, trowbridge says...
11:55pm Sat 26 Apr 08

new signage required 'no customers will be served unless they bring in two forms of i.d. (one photographic) and the names of 2 next of kin, along with acceptance of liability forms, (available behind counter) and sample d.n.a and iris recognition data. also full credit check history needs to be made even if paying cash. please beware that this may take a day or so so purchases of goods with less than 24hrs use by date can not be considered, any failed buyers will be reported to the fbi so ruling out a visit to our freind mickey mouse.'

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bill, tilshead says...
10:59am Mon 28 Apr 08

Are we not missing the point?
Were have the moral standards and honesty gone, what would you do if your kids picked up a purse with £50 in it, report it or tell your kids its ok to keep it?
Your child comes back from grannys and instead of the normal £5 note she normal gives him/her when they visit, she has mistakenly given out a £50 note, tell the kid its grannys fault and you can keep it?
You sign a cheque for to much money, would you be happy if the retailer kept the extra, due to the fact that its your fault? What message are we sending out to our children, not the right one I think, dont blame the children, No blame the person who tells them its ok to do it.

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spooks, calne says...
4:57pm Mon 28 Apr 08

bill wrote:
Are we not missing the point? Were have the moral standards and honesty gone, what would you do if your kids picked up a purse with £50 in it, report it or tell your kids its ok to keep it? Your child comes back from grannys and instead of the normal £5 note she normal gives him/her when they visit, she has mistakenly given out a £50 note, tell the kid its grannys fault and you can keep it? You sign a cheque for to much money, would you be happy if the retailer kept the extra, due to the fact that its your fault? What message are we sending out to our children, not the right one I think, dont blame the children, No blame the person who tells them its ok to do it.

The difference is you would give it back .no doubt the family would gladly give it back .

Why should family pay for the shops mistake?
Then for the shop to ask the family to pay them back is disgusting.

if you rang up tesco and placed a order for 50 quid worth of shopping and they delivered gave you a bill of 100 pound would you pay it?

i certainly wasnt.
she asked for five pounds on her phone not 50 .

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dave, chippenham says...
11:19pm Mon 28 Apr 08

bill wrote:
Are we not missing the point? Were have the moral standards and honesty gone, what would you do if your kids picked up a purse with £50 in it, report it or tell your kids its ok to keep it? Your child comes back from grannys and instead of the normal £5 note she normal gives him/her when they visit, she has mistakenly given out a £50 note, tell the kid its grannys fault and you can keep it? You sign a cheque for to much money, would you be happy if the retailer kept the extra, due to the fact that its your fault? What message are we sending out to our children, not the right one I think, dont blame the children, No blame the person who tells them its ok to do it.

I wholeheartedly agree with bill's comments, this family's refusal to come to some sort of arrangement with the shop sends completely the wrong message out. It doesn't matter how the mistake was made they are quite happily using their phone with top-up that as not been paid for, no doubt having a laugh at the shops expense. The sooner we as a society start to teach children higher moral standards the sooner this world will be a better place to live.
Also i thought we are supposed to be supporting our small local shops, these are quite often run by local people already battling against the huge supermarket chains, without support from the community they will not survive, perhaps then you could all complain because you have to travel that extra mile along a busy main road to get your pint of milk and loaf of bread.

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Dave, Down under the Plain says...
9:55am Tue 29 Apr 08

Exactly.

It's a depressing tale of life in Britain these days.

And quite why we need family photographs I don't know.

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bill, tilshead says...
1:21pm Tue 29 Apr 08

some people have high standards, some low, some no standards at all.
gladly pay it back? is that not what all this is about not paying it back. as for the tesco's thing what would you do if you ordered £50 worth they drop off a £100 worth and asked you to pay a £100, i would tell them i only order £50 and they can pick the rest up at their expence, as i did not order it, simple is it not, and i can sleep at night felling happy that i have not ripped off a fellow human, but all some people see is just a company, not the fact its someones livelihood, small shops find it hard going without free loaders. just pay for what you have not to much to ask is it?

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bill, tilshead says...
1:36pm Tue 29 Apr 08

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keyfob, wilts says...
6:01pm Tue 29 Apr 08

Huh?

You can't expect people to pay for something they haven't asked for.. that's got nothing to do with moral standards?!

However - turning up at someones' house demanding payment or you'd be barred from the local shop is, quite frankly, an extremely odd and creepy thing to do..

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happy harry, Devizes says...
7:12pm Tue 29 Apr 08

I'm with Bill and Dave(s) on this one. Basic moral values etc etc. Is there no real news?

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fumble, Devizes says...
7:57pm Thu 1 May 08

This is not about the fact that they didn't pay the money back (for something they didn't ask for); I had little sympathy for the owner last week but her letter in today's newspaper shows she really doesn't understand that the shop was totally in the wrong (their error, terrible customer service, etc.) I spend far more than £50 a month in the store but will no longer shop there. I feel the owner's attitude is awful; people on this forum have stated that the family are at fault and claim this reflects society's greater ills. I really don't see this - they are being victimised by the owner, the daughter must feel very upset by the pub licity and this is all through no fault of their own. I hope the owner feels this is all worth it; I'm sure they will see a major fall in profits.

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Dave, Down under the Plain says...
9:36pm Fri 2 May 08

...she doesn't look too upset in the photo.

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Rog, says...
9:20pm Sun 4 May 08

I agree, why should the girl's family pay up? And as for the refusing to give the card back I would say hell, keep it. Top-up cards are worth nothing since they are registered to the number they add credit to and it is so easy to walk down the shop down the road, ask for another top-up card, register that and use that instead.
And as for the owner, what chance do you have if you tell the police you've banned a family from your shop if your employee screwed up? The police will only say it's your problem, so deal with it.
Enjoy the publicity.

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fumble, Devizes says...
7:23am Mon 5 May 08

The owner could have handled this so differently. If she had explained the situation but accepted responsibility she could have got some good publicity. A magnanimous act may have got more people on her side and, possibly, the family may have felt more inclined to contribute towards the cost of the credit (remembering it was the shop's error). I hope they don't make a similar error in the future but, if they do, I hope they deal with it a bit better.

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