Teresa Hunter: Know your rights when the truth gets stretched

Published on Saturday 4 July 2009 14:41

HUCKLEBERRY Finn coined the expression "stretcher" for someone with, shall we say, a selective approach to the truth. I found myself reflecting on his words last week and what they could imply about the popular high street shop, Poundstretcher.

Huck is talking about his author the irascible Mark Twain, who he accuses of "mainly telling the truth".

That's nothing, he says, because everyone lies. "Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another."

But do they? Well, Poundstretcher seems to think so, although its own handle on verisimilitude is, in Huck's vernacular, a trifle hifalut'n.

I can't pretend to be convinced that last week's white paper "A better deal for consumers" is anything more than a PR stunt to make it look as if the Government is on our side (see page 9). It comes from Lord Mandelson's department, for pity's sake.

But it does seem that our everyday dealings with organisations from banks, retailers and energy firms to schools, hospitals and local authorities are always an uphill struggle.

Which brings me back to Poundstretcher. We departed for our recent holiday in the UK, ill-equipped for the fabulous picnic weather which followed us. So we found ourselves in a Poundstretcher buying a range of picnic paraphernalia including chairs.

The shop was busy and with arms full of chairs, my husband handed over his card, paid and we departed.

Now how many times have these pages warned you to always check your receipt? We didn't get round to it until the next day, when two picnics had passed. On the bill we found an item for 22.50 we couldn't account for.

We wracked our brains, and although everything else we had bought was properly receipted, we had no recollection of purchasing anything else and certainly not for 22.50.

Remember, this is Poundstretcher we are talking about. The chairs had only cost 3.99 each ( I know, what cheapskates). Our minds boggled as we tried to think how you could possibly spend 22.50 on a single item in Poundstretcher.

Knowing it is important to report an error immediately it is spotted to preserve your legal rights, we called the store, where a helpful young man implied there was no problem. "Just come in when you can and we'll sort it out."

If only life were that simple. It was my husband's card, so not foreseeing any problems, this rock of reasonableness went back to claim the refund on his own. He explained what had happened, whereupon the assistant ran the code on the receipt, beside the offending item, through the scanner, and said: "You bought a vacuum cleaner. The 22.50 is for a vacuum cleaner."

He politely explained that he did not buy any vacuum cleaner, and the store had made a mistake. The receipt identifies the cashier who transacted the sale. She was on duty so was accordingly quizzed. Yes, she said, she quite clearly remembered selling a vacuum cleaner that day.

A model of equanimity, he didn't ruffle, but merely repeated firmly and politely that he didn't buy a vacuum cleaner, whereupon he was told, "I'm not calling you a liar, but the receipt says that you did."

Had I been in the shop, by this time I would have been banging the desk and shouting. The whole scene was preposterous. By now a crowd was forming, all enjoying the embarrassing spectacle.

He, though, remained calm, saying afterwards: "I didn't care what names they called me, or who heard. I wasn't leaving the shop without a refund."

There was a stand-off for a bit, while both dug in. Finally the deadlock was broken when the assistant said she would refund the item "as a gesture of goodwill", making it clear she wasn't obliged to. She repeated "goodwill gesture" several times in front of the other customers to ram home the point.

Now, I would never have spent another penny in that shop, but the rock of reason is made of sterner stuff. Before leaving, he remembered he wanted to buy something else – no not vacuum cleaner bags – so went back into the store.

As he did, he passed the greetings cards, and recalled, on an impulse, he had thrown a card in the basket last time. I never saw it, and am guessing, as our anniversary is coming up, it was a special Poundstretcher anniversary card!

So he took the card over to the assistant, who ran it through the scanner. The price came up. Guess what? 22.50. Which must make it the most expensive anniversary card I've ever had.

I'm told the assistant's face was a wonder to behold. But even then she insisted, legally mistakes only had to be refunded if spotted before you left the shop. Wrong again.

To be fair to Poundstretcher, when I contacted the head office, a spokesman could not have been more apologetic first for putting the wrong code on the card, and secondly for the way the shop responded.

We all make mistakes, so I'm happy with that.

As Huck might have said: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."