Facebook helps Manitoba man get $1,000 prize store refused to honour

A Manitoba man took to Facebook to let people know Mark's clothing store refused to honour a $1,000 prize he had won. After thousands of views, the store decided to honour it after all.

David Still was out shopping on Christmas Eve with his girlfriend when he dropped her off at Walmart and decided to go to Mark's clothing store to spend a gift card he got for his birthday. His girlfriend also gave him a $10-dollar coupon that came with a flyer.

He spent about $60 at the store on McPhillips Street and handed the cashier the coupon. That's when the cash register flashed a message that said he had won a $1,000 promo card.

"And it came up 'winner $1,000'. People in the store were congratulating me, I didn't know why," said Still.

The cashier congratulated him and told him that her manager was not there so she would have to call another store. Still said the cashier phoned other store managers and could not get answers as to how to handle the prize.

Still was then told that someone would contact him later that day. Still got a call from someone at the McPhillips store and was told that someone would contact him after the Christmas holiday.

'Take it or leave it'

On Boxing day Still received a call from a manager in Calgary. The manager told him that the IT department was looking into it and that there was no promo going on, Still said.

"He phoned just to let me know that there was a computer glitch and I had not won a $1,000 but he was willing to give me a $100 gift certificate," said Still. "I wasn't very happy about that. He more or less told me I can take it or leave it."

Still then told his family about what had happened and they encouraged him to send an email to Mark's and to local media, as well as post his story on social media.

Still does not have a computer and does not have social media, so his son, David Still Jr, shared the story on his Facebook page. The post now has nearly 4,000 shares. Many of the comments on the post showed support for Still and called on Mark's to honour the prize.

On Wednesday morning, Still received an email from the same manager in Calgary stating that they would in fact honour the $1,000 prize and apologized for the confusion.

In an email a spokesperson at Mark's said: "This came as quite a surprise for our customer and our store staff because Mark's was not running a $1,000 promotion. We looked into it and found out there was problem with our system which created an error."

"We apologize for keeping our customer waiting. Today we reached out to let our customer know that Mark's will absolutely honour this award because it's the right thing to do." 

Still is grateful to hear that they will give him the gift card, but said he shouldn't have had to go to the lengths he did.

"I would have preferred not having to go to the press or even sending an email to them saying how disappointed I was," said Still. "I just want to get this over with, go for a shop."

Still said the company told him he would receive the gift card by Thursday. He plans to buy some things for his sister in-law, niece, and son.

Still will continue to shop at the store and hopes that this kind of thing doesn't happen to anyone else. His advice to others who may face the same situation is "don't take no for the first answer that's for sure," he said.