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

prowla

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! 

That's not really what-iffery; it's a system which is being trialled and/or progressively rolled out across stores including Budgens, Sports Direct, Morrisons, Home Bargains, Asda, Sainsbury's, John Lewis, Co-op, Waitrose, Next, Tesco, and presumably more.

That certainly covers a lot of places from where you might buy scones.

MeteredOut

This popped up on the BBC site today - thought it might be interesting in relation to this thread

The debate: Are facial recognition cameras in Sainsbury's a step too far?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-bb93a137-9b73-498b-ad8f-f948d6071dee

elsien

Not sure why Sainsbury’s is getting the stick for this when it’s been happening in other shops of other shops for a longer period of time. “Better class of clientele?”
And that’s tongue in cheek before anyone has a go at me. 

MattMattMattUK

I read that article this morning and whilst I agree that it would be useful to have some legislation involved, which largely needs to be an independent process to appeal a ban where it happens erroneously, the rest of the issues seem to be people looking for something to get upset about rather than rational. 

MattMattMattUK

elsien said:

Not sure why Sainsbury’s is getting the stick for this when it’s been happening in other shops of other shops for a longer period of time. “Better class of clientele?”
And that’s tongue in cheek before anyone has a go at me. 

They are just the latest on the list, some people seem to want to find something to argue about and rather than finding a way to implement something in a way that removes or minimises any issues they would rather just be against it as that means they get to shout about it. 

Grumpy_chap

elsien said:

 “Better class of clientele?”

Yes, I am feeling rather peeved the Fortnum and Mason have not introduced this service.  It would be quite pleasing if the camera system notified the relevant counters so that my usual selection was pre-arranged for me by the time I walked through the store.  A very welcome idea that should be adopted quickly, or the likes of F&M will be losing trade to the likes of Sainsbury's if they roll out this service across all their stores.
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