Problems with redeeming Thorntons Melts vouchers

wild_tiger

I had 3 vouchers, i was a bit worried about trying to use them all in the same shop so i used 1 in the union street shop and the assistant just took my voucher and gave me a box happily enough. I took the other vouchers to their Bon Accord shop, the assistant was very rude and gave me a small trial box and told me i could just use one voucher, i told her it should be a big box and she said 'no' i told here yes i'd won a competition, she then made me fill out the back of the voucher with all my details (name/address and phone number) and looked at my id. She was clearly not impressed at me asking for a bigger box. I decided to try to use the other voucher at the original shop with the friendly assistant but once i went back the rude assistant was in the Union Street shop speaking to the friendly assistant so i just walked out again. I was disappointed by the service i recieved over these, my last voucher has to be used by tomorrow but the bus to the shops is £3 so it's not worth me going back tomorrow to try to claim it.

Surfermom

We had big problems in the Newquay store too. My husband and I won 6 boxes in total between us. We both took our first vouchers in individually and had no problem but on Monday my husband took in 2 more vouchers and was refused any chocolates as he had previously won some. He left the shop feeling embarrased and then rang customer services who said of course he was allowed more boxes if he had vouchers. They told him to return in half an hour and meanwhile they would ring the store.
When he went back the manageress begrudgingly gave him 2 boxes but told him she would not honour any future vouchers(we took the other 2 to Truro).
The next day my dad won a box and when he went in there were no Melts on the shelf. He asked about them and they fetched him a box from the store room, they told him they had taken them off the shelf because they had one couple who kept coming in with vouchers!

Needless to say I will not be shopping in that branch again.

Byatt

I have only had a minor problem; when one assistant gave my daughter the small freebie box, but I went back in and changed it.

I have won 5 boxes and have gone to the same shop with my daughter. They never asked for ID. I was ready with a response if they argued with me; 1) if you look at your voucher, bottom right hand side it shows the number of the competition you have won. 2) I was not going to make a special journey to pick up my prizes as I live some distance away so only went when I had something else to do. The vouchers say per person, per competition and therefore I see nothing wrong in claiming them all at once! The important part is per competition and as I said, details are on the voucher (which I have to admit I didn't see until today!!)

tjcp

I had exactly the same problems at the Altrincham branch. They gave me a small box and when I queried it I was made to feel like a liar. I pointed out that it said 200 grams on the vouncher and that it was a competition win and I was still not believed. Eventually they rang the head office and were told that I was correct. Even then the young man was very ungracious.

My partner tried at the Sale branch and had no problems.

Gemsie

I think we can safely assume that there is zero communication between Thorntons head office and their stores! Pretty shocking how people have been treated really.

However, I love the fact that some stores are now hiding their boxes of melts from unscrupulous competition winners. Surfermom, I bet they have your mugshot in the staffroom!

Court

I was able to turn in 3 vouchers plus my freebie sized voucher all in one go today in Greenford. The manager did phone to see if the prize vouchers were real, and they did check my ID, but overall they were pretty nice about it.

It's really a shame to hear how much trouble ppl are having. This is supposed to be fun!

poodledoodledoo

I didn't win on this comp but it saddens me to hear how other MSErs have been made to feel guilty for winning a prize. I'm going to send an email to Thornton's Head Office because I think that it's very bad PR for such a prestigious company. Shocking. If they didn't want to part with the chocs then they shouldn't have run the competition.

missielizzie

I took my first voucher for the mini box to my local store. Was greeted with "can I ask where you got this?" She wasn't rude or unpleasant but I felt a bit embarrassed having to say infront of the queue that it was from their facebook fan page!

Then I won a big box. I happened to be going to Milton Keynes Shopping Centre anyway, so took it with me. I presented it there and the girl took it off me and stuffed it into a carrier bag bulging with vouchers! So they obviously know all about it. She then handed me a box of 3. "Err no" I said, "it was for a large box". I was eyed with suspicion and she took the voucher back out of the bag, handed it to her colleague standing next to her and said "apparently this is for a 'big' box". The male colleague looked at it, asked me for ID and then said to her "you'd better go and get one off the shelf for her". All this made me feel very uncomfortable and like I was pushing my luck or something.

Very odd. You'd have thought with such a big nationwide promotion all the staff would have been well briefed. I used to work in retail, and it was a big part of the job to make sure all the staff knew about the current and upcoming promotions. Odd!

missielizzie

I posted something on Thornton's wall about my first experience and they replied saying they'd like to know the details if anyone had problems.

Does anyone think I should post on the wall the links to these threads. Would that be a good idea or not? I don't want to upset anyone, but I think it would be good if Thorntons knew what was going on. Obviously now we've posted on a forum its here for all the world to see anyway, but if anyone thinks its a bad idea to link these posts on FB then please say. I'd hate to offend anyone (else today! )

wild_tiger

It is disappointing, the 2 shops in Aberdeen i went to are less than a mile apart, one shop no probs, i gave her the voucher she gave me the right size of box, the other shop i get a hard time and made to feel like i was stealing them and to make things worse i now feel sick because i've eaten so many of them, lol