I was refused entry in a local B&M store today

Pollycat

Renfrewman said:

nero33 said:

Renfrewman said:

nero33 said:

sheramber said:

Renfrewman said:

MattMattMattUK said:

nero33 said:

UPDATE

I have been in regular contact with Facewatch and I requested that they send me all evidence that was held on their system.

I was told they did not hold any CCTV/video of the alleged incident but would now involve B&M who held the evidence/footage.

Facewatch then contacted me same day to say:

"Following our recent communications, I escalated the incident to the Manager of Profit Protection for B&M Bargains on your behalf.

Unfortunately, there is no longer any CCTV footage available for this incident.

In light of this, and considering the information you have provided, I have resolved the matter by removing your record from the Facewatch system.

Your profile has now been permanently deleted, and  will no longer trigger any alerts going forward."

Clearly it is a huge weight off our shoulders and 4 months of stress took it's toll.

Facewatch were extremely professional and courteous throughout and I genuinely felt they were looking to help me from their first reply onwards.  I think they realised yesterday that someone at B&M may have made up an incident and didn't expect us to go through the processes involved in challenging their decision to ban.

It is highly unlikely that we'll ever set foot in a B&M store again.

Many thanks to all of you that took the time to read/reply/offer advice;

A really good result and good info for others in the future who have done nothing wrong. Well done on this!

Something similar happened to me in B&M.  I was stopped in the car park and asked to return to the store as a staff member thought they saw me shoplifting...was happy to do so! I was asked to empty my right hand jacket pocket...I did and it revealed six branded Tesco tattie scones...honestly you should have seen their faces! Did I get upset...not in the least especially as I got £50 of vouchers! Mistakes happen. OP fought for the right to shop in B&M and now that they can refuses to do so...a bit perverse I suggest?

You were given the chance to prove your innocence. The OP was not.

Would You have been happy to be refused entry the next time you went and told you had something in your in pocket you did not pay for when you left the store last time? 

How would you have proved them wrong?
 

The ban did not just affect B&M. It affected all stores who use Facewatch, which could be all the stores in their neighbourhood. 

Absolutely this.

The long term ramifications of this could have been disastrous for me or anyone else put in this situation.

In what way?

Like I said, you were content with a £50 payoff after wrongly being accused of shoplifting.  Obviously a win in your eyes.  Good for you.

But you're still totally oblivious to the long term implications of being effectively convicted of shoplifting by a store and banned - potentially from thousands of other stores up and down the country.

Perhaps you'd think differently if you were unable to enter any store in future to buy scones!

I find it amusing that this gone from one store to ANY store....what iffery in the extreme! 

No, it's not.

Other stores are trialling this technology.

elsien

Sainsbury’s are just starting a trial of it at the moment. So it is spreading to the larger chains.

Renfrewman

A great many 'other' stores are not trialling it. Not disastrous if a few do and occasionally a mistake is made. I was stopped, checked, cleared and compensated The incident is still a source of amusement to me and my friends and family ten years on. I understand mistakes can and will be made. Technology and humans are not fool proof.

elsien

I would suggestion that the difference here is that if  “computer says no” any mechanism to challenge this is more difficult to do. There is much more reliance on technology to make the decisions now then there was 10 years ago, and the safeguards have not kept pace.
Look at how long it took for the OP to get this overturned.

Pollycat

Renfrewman said:

A great many 'other' stores are not trialling it. Not disastrous if a few do and occasionally a mistake is made. I was stopped, checked, cleared and compensated The incident is still a source of amusement to me and my friends and family ten years on. I understand mistakes can and will be made. Technology and humans are not fool proof.

Your experience was very different to that of the OP.
This has been pointed out to you before.

nero33

Pollycat said:

Renfrewman said:

A great many 'other' stores are not trialling it. Not disastrous if a few do and occasionally a mistake is made. I was stopped, checked, cleared and compensated The incident is still a source of amusement to me and my friends and family ten years on. I understand mistakes can and will be made. Technology and humans are not fool proof.

Your experience was very different to that of the OP.
This has been pointed out to you before.

I think we've established that this individual is extremely dull with a limited grasp of the facts as they have been presented!   The £50 payoff has certainly worked!

Renfrewman

Pollycat said:

Renfrewman said:

A great many 'other' stores are not trialling it. Not disastrous if a few do and occasionally a mistake is made. I was stopped, checked, cleared and compensated The incident is still a source of amusement to me and my friends and family ten years on. I understand mistakes can and will be made. Technology and humans are not fool proof.

Your experience was very different to that of the OP.
This has been pointed out to you before.

....and the point I make is that it wasn't disastrous for neither me or the OP. I would probably still be amused if it had taken six months to sort out. In truth it would likely have taken me longer to get a resolution!

Pollycat

Renfrewman said:

Pollycat said:

Renfrewman said:

A great many 'other' stores are not trialling it. Not disastrous if a few do and occasionally a mistake is made. I was stopped, checked, cleared and compensated The incident is still a source of amusement to me and my friends and family ten years on. I understand mistakes can and will be made. Technology and humans are not fool proof.

Your experience was very different to that of the OP.
This has been pointed out to you before.

....and the point I make is that it wasn't disastrous for neither me or the OP. I would probably still be amused if it had taken six months to sort out. In truth it would likely have taken me longer to get a resolution!

Do you not accept that your experience and the OP's were very different?

How can you say that the OP didn't find the experience disastrous?

You have no idea how the OP felt.

nero33

Pollycat said:

Renfrewman said:

nero33 said:

Renfrewman said:

nero33 said:

sheramber said:

Renfrewman said:

MattMattMattUK said:

nero33 said:

UPDATE

I have been in regular contact with Facewatch and I requested that they send me all evidence that was held on their system.

I was told they did not hold any CCTV/video of the alleged incident but would now involve B&M who held the evidence/footage.

Facewatch then contacted me same day to say:

"Following our recent communications, I escalated the incident to the Manager of Profit Protection for B&M Bargains on your behalf.

Unfortunately, there is no longer any CCTV footage available for this incident.

In light of this, and considering the information you have provided, I have resolved the matter by removing your record from the Facewatch system.

Your profile has now been permanently deleted, and  will no longer trigger any alerts going forward."

Clearly it is a huge weight off our shoulders and 4 months of stress took it's toll.

Facewatch were extremely professional and courteous throughout and I genuinely felt they were looking to help me from their first reply onwards.  I think they realised yesterday that someone at B&M may have made up an incident and didn't expect us to go through the processes involved in challenging their decision to ban.

It is highly unlikely that we'll ever set foot in a B&M store again.

Many thanks to all of you that took the time to read/reply/offer advice;

A really good result and good info for others in the future who have done nothing wrong. Well done on this!

Something similar happened to me in B&M.  I was stopped in the car park and asked to return to the store as a staff member thought they saw me shoplifting...was happy to do so! I was asked to empty my right hand jacket pocket...I did and it revealed six branded Tesco tattie scones...honestly you should have seen their faces! Did I get upset...not in the least especially as I got £50 of vouchers! Mistakes happen. OP fought for the right to shop in B&M and now that they can refuses to do so...a bit perverse I suggest?

You were given the chance to prove your innocence. The OP was not.

Would You have been happy to be refused entry the next time you went and told you had something in your in pocket you did not pay for when you left the store last time? 

How would you have proved them wrong?
 

The ban did not just affect B&M. It affected all stores who use Facewatch, which could be all the stores in their neighbourhood. 

Absolutely this.

The long term ramifications of this could have been disastrous for me or anyone else put in this situation.

In what way?

Like I said, you were content with a £50 payoff after wrongly being accused of shoplifting.  Obviously a win in your eyes.  Good for you.

But you're still totally oblivious to the long term implications of being effectively convicted of shoplifting by a store and banned - potentially from thousands of other stores up and down the country.

Perhaps you'd think differently if you were unable to enter any store in future to buy scones!

I find it amusing that this gone from one store to ANY store....what iffery in the extreme! 

No, it's not.

Other stores are trialling this technology.

Sainsbury's and now ICELAND who have just increased the number of stores in the trial!

ThumbRemote

Maybe we should stop feeding the troll.