An enraged grandfather yesterday stormed out of a Dublin HMV store with three games in hand after staff refused to accept his voucher. The Irish Independent reports that Eric Nolan purchased a €40 HMV voucher for his grandson for Christmas and was attempting to spend it on three games.
However, when staff said they could not accept the vouchers, as per Deloitte’s ruling, Mr Nolan refused to take no for an answer and pressed the point. When he failed to hand it over he decided to leave the store with the three games – Euro Truck Simulator 2, The Sims 3 Town Life and Rail Simulator – in hand.
Security staff followed him down the street but were unable to persuade him to hand the games back.
"Somebody has made a conscious decision not to pay out on vouchers and it's despicable," Mr Nolan stated. "HMV have taken hundreds of thousands of euro from the Irish people this Christmas and we shouldn't put up with it.
"We are a nation of sheep – but I was determined to win this."
In essence, of course, Mr Nolan is correct. It’s easy to excuse policies such as the refusal of vouchers as simply ‘a part of the process’ but it’s not. It’s a deliberate, planned strategy designed to save the retailer money at the cost of its customers.