Life Is A Lottery

[SIRandyraven]

We live in Switzerland and thus buy uk lotto tickets that span 8 weeks when we visit uk.
On holiday in Cornwall and pop into Truro Sainsburys and have with me a few lotto tickets to be checked for winners.
Two people manning lotto checkout ' booth and Sainsburys male assistant takes my tickets to till and scans them. I hear the machine bleep and print out something and he shouts across , you have won two lucky dips , Wednesday or Saturday. I call back Wednesday please and he then hands me lotto tickets.
As I leave I think hold on, I'm sure I had a £25 win and it was on my birthday. I check on phone lotto application and my regular two lines I have played since lotto started show a win of £25 on my birthday.
I return to till and question the ticket scan he did. I ask to see my losing tickets , that he has chucked in the bin having torn them up without asking me.
So I stand my ground and female assistant starts to empty bin and piece together all the old torn tickets. After 30 minutes my tickets that supposedly lost are not in the bin. They check till and not in there either. Female assistant now goes to sescurity to review video. While she is gone chap who checked ticket keeps telling me he knows they were losers blah blah.
Anyway while we wait for her to return, I then check all the weeks results on phone app and discover two more £25 wins so they owe me £75.
Anyway we agree that video shows him chucking tickets in bin ...but where are they ?
So we leave and also leave my mobile number and if they find till up £75 at end of shift they will call me. 30 minutes later mobile rings and guess what ?
They have by a miracle now found my so called losing ticket and owe me £75.
So we return to Truro Sainsburys store and manager gives me money owed and a cock and ball story of how the tickets were in till , but he missed the display saying it owed us £75 because the lucky dip win display over wrote it ...err yes right.
So be warned folks always check tickets yourself.
If it was not for me remembering winning £25 on my birthday and thinking if only it was the big one, I would have taken his word for the win and left their till £75 up :-]
I told manager I was very annoyed and he gave us a £25 Sainsburys gift card as hush money lol

[SIRandyraven]

I did consider contacting lotto , but figured not worth the hassle and plus we are in Switzerland it adds to hassle.

[Psybbo]

Wow! Thankfully I do mine on line

[CrapAtCryptics]

maybe shop elsewhere for your tickets

A side issue if you buy Euromillions in Switzerland I think they tax the winnings so maybe buy those here as well.

[SIRandyraven]

I used to, but now we are outside uk it's against the rules.
You have to be physically in uk when you purchase ticket.
So we do form an outlet and get paper tickets.

[Psybbo]

I hope DTC sees this if he does the Lottery

[SIRandyraven]

Yes lotto winnings here are taxable.
even if I win outside Switzerland I think I will still pay tax on big wins

[SIRandyraven]

When we left uk I phoned lotto and asked about rules.
Chap said you must be physically located in uk to buy ticket.
Lotto chap also said they refused a 6 figure payout to someone who bought ticket online while on holiday in Spain once ....

[ubasses]

They seem to have found a way to block you now if you were outside the UK. I tried to log on in Cyprus to see if I my on line tickets had won anything and was barred.

[Psybbo]

I assume that person has been sacked

[Canary42]

I do wonder sometimes how much of this goes on, undiscovered.

[dieseldick]

same in the bookies ...allways check ur docket

[SIRandyraven]

Didn't seem they were too bothered to be honest , so I doubt it.
The manager was blaming it on the lucky dip wins. He said they made it difficult for the till operator to then see any cash wins ?
To be honest I was fuming at having to go back, but being on holiday I took the cash and got on with our days plans.
Still strange he chucked the losing tickets and did not offer them back to me.
Well they were not actual all losing tickets.
in the pre lucky dip win era , if you heard the till bleep and print a winning voucher, then you had won cash. Now however it could mean you have win a luck dip ticket.

[Canary42]

Incidentally, on the very few occasions when I've asked a shop to check, they've always asked if I want the losing ticket back.

[mikey4444]

It seems to me that you have demonstrated how important it is to stand your ground. Well done for being persistent !

[-Talbot-]

This is a much more interesting story than, Sven's

[CrapAtCryptics]

now there is entry by direct debit - as long as your bank is a Uk one - could that get you around it if you commence that on your next visit.

[SIRandyraven]

Mikey4444 - I did feel a bit of an idiot with a long queue forming at other till , while the girl emptied the contents of bin onto the counter and started to piece together all the torn up tickets like a load of small jigsaw puzzles. Then not finding my ticket. It was easy to spot, it would be for 8 weeks and have my two lines I knew numbers for off by heart.
Then off she went to check video at security desk. I was not allowed to store footage from cctv ....
But I thought , give me losing ticket and I will leave , but she couldn't . The bin was empty no ticket. So where he it gone then ?
I asked them to check till and they said we have and it's not there.
Ok so where is it I asked ?
Female assistant also added comment , oh don't trust the phone app it might be showing wrong winning numbers for week where you think you have won ...err don't think so lol
She verified by printing winning numbers for that week from lotto till.

[Captain2]

As someone who works on the kiosk that includes the Lottery in Morrisons, I can't get my head round this.
All Lottery machines are the same; if someone asks me to check a ticket there is no problem; machine screen says 'not a winner', or 'free ticket for....' or makes a taadaa noise and shows how much has been won. So I don't see how a misunderstanding like that can occur.
I can't see a Sales Assistant fiddling so that 'their till would be £75 up' because a) what does it mean to them and b) they would be in as much trouble with management as if the till was £75 down.
I am not saying , in any way, that this scenario happened but if you took their 'not a winner' at face value and left and they had kept your ticket (and printed receipt) they could have gone to the till when quiet, punched in Lottery Prizes and helped themselves to £75.
Whatever happened it was shoddy and if you had the time and inclination I think you could take it further.

[SIRandyraven]

DD payment ...now I asked about that and you have to be in uk when DD takes place. I asked person at lotto Camalot to confirm what they said.
All a bit weird , but that what they said. Otherwise I would play via DD and online

[Captain2]

I type very slowly! My comments are based on posts up to 20:47 - sorry