Couple give shopping alert after TV clanger

TRACY MILLS with her replacement TV

A ROYTON couple have warned shoppers to check purchases before leaving a store after their brand new TV turned out to be a broken old set.

Tracy Mills and her partner, Paul Wright, from Rochdale Road, Royton, bought a 42in flat screen, plasma Samsung television as part of a £750 package from the Curry’s store in Elk Mill on November 22.

When they removed the polystyrene package at home, they discovered a cheaper, two-year-old LCD television with a 4in long crack on the screen.

Ms Mills (37) said: “Once we had paid for the product, a staff member brought the unopened box out of the warehouse.

“As it wouldn’t fit into the back of our Fiat Punto, we took the television covered in its polystyrene casing out of the box and into our car.

“At the time, we noticed the clear plastic bag containing the wire and the plug was ripped, but we were assured by the staff member that there shouldn’t be any problems and to bring it back if there were.

“It was only when we got home that we realised there was a pellet-shaped hole and 4in crack on the inside of the screen.”

When the couple took back the TV, they were left stunned when the store manager said the TV listed on their receipt was not the one they had brought back into the store.

Ms Mills said: “It was a totally different TV, and a couple of hundred pounds cheaper.

“We were told there was nothing they could do and to contact Trading Standards.”

Ms Mills, who feared she would lose the paid amount, made a formal complaint to Curry’s and informed Trading Standards.

However, after the Evening Chronicle contacted Curry’s, a replacement TV was delivered.

Ms Mills said: “We won’t be shopping again in Curry’s.

“We’ve had to go to extreme measures to sort this out and the whole process has left us both physically sick.

“I’m very cross over how an old TV was found in new packaging.”

A spokeswoman for Curry’s said the company was investigating the matter.

She said: “We obviously are very sorry that the customer has had a problem with the TV they purchased.”