We all sympathise when mistakes are made but sometimes it’s the way they are handled that can make all the difference.  The Top Ten Bingo Club in Billingham, Teeside is getting some bad press right now over their decision not to honor their mistake and now the Gambling Commission will be the ones to decide the outcome.

When Lynsey Dickenson hit on house at the club, she was very excited to see the screen show a wonderful prize of ￡5,000.  She tehn was given a prize winner’s document by a staff member that also stated that amount.  The problem arose when she went up to collect her winnings and was told that it should have said only
￡1,000 and that’s all they would give her.  Needless to say, Lynsey was disappointed and angry with this result.

“I was over the moon when I won, really excited, I’d never won anything big before.  The board definitely showed ￡5,000 and I am convinced it was announced for the same amount although they deny it.  What’s more, a member of staff even signed a document, called a Prize Winner’s document,  for ￡5,000.  Now I have made a complaint and it is going to go before an independent third party.”

No matter which way the commission decides on this, Top Ten Bingo Club is certainly getting a lot of negative publicity over this.  When a similar glitch happened to Foxy Bingo last year, the company honoured the mistake rather than make a customer upset.  They didn’t legally have to and apparently Top Ten Bingo feels that they are not obligated beyond the apology they issued but the question is what is the goodwill of customers worth?