Hawke's Bay First Division Lotto winner wants compensation after ...

A Napier woman who claimed a First Division Lotto win at Napier Pak’nSave wants those responsible for delays in sending the ticket to pay interest for the time it took to receive the money.

A woman who handed over a $125,000 First Division winning Lotto ticket to the supermarket she bought it from began to assume it had been lost when it hadn’t arrived at Lotto headquarters after three weeks.

What initially was a week of euphoria for Shirley* after finding out in-store at Pak‘nSave Napier that she’d won the biggest prize of her life then turned into a fortnight of extreme anxiety.

Pak‘nSave Napier and NZ Post both say they followed their processes with the ticket, which was handed over to the store on September 11 and arrived in Lotto’s hands on October 3, “to the letter”.

But Shirley wants those responsible for the delay to front up and, at the very least, pay for the roughly $360 in lost interest she would have accrued.

“It’s the principle of the matter,” she told Hawke’s Bay Today.

‘Shouting and whooping’

On September 11, Shirley went into Pak’nSave to check her ticket. A staff member put it into the machine, which stopped suddenly.

“It was halfway through, the staff member opened up the machine and put it in a bag, and that was it. The machine didn’t make any noise or anything like it did when you win a bonus.”

The next thing Shirley knew, the staff member was telling her she had won the $125,000 prize.

Everyone around her started “shouting and whooping” about the win, she said. She was delighted and knew immediately she wanted to invest the money.

“The staff member called up Lotto and I had to talk to them, and they said it would be five to 10 days.”

After waiting 11 days without winnings, Shirley said she knew something was wrong.

“I kept looking at my bank account every day and nothing had happened.”

Shirley rang Lotto on September 22, and was told they had “all their investigators looking into it”.

That same day, she went to Pak’nSave and spoke to another staff member, who Shirley said told her NZ Post that had made the error and that it “wasn’t the first time this had happened”.

After more back and forward with Lotto and Pak’nSave, she asked to speak to Napier Pak‘nSave’s manager.

“They took my name and number, but I still haven’t heard anything from them.”

The money eventually landed in Shirley’s account on October 5.

Shirley said she’d got a friend to calculate interest and it would be 6.05 per cent per annum, which after tax worked out to be $119.98 per week. The roughly three-week gap meant she’d lost approximately $360.

Shirley told Hawke’s Bay Today she believed her local Pak’nSave incorrectly followed processes.

“When I talked to a Lotto staff member, they said what was supposed to happen was that they take you aside somewhere private to fill out the green prize claim form,” Shirley said.

“They’re then supposed to ring the courier straight away, and the Pak’nSave staff member didn’t.”

Foodstuffs spokesperson Emma Wooster said they were aware of the situation and acknowledged the delay, but said the team followed the process “to the letter”.

“[This involved] verifying the ticket as being a winner in the Lotto machine before putting the ticket in a special courier envelope and locking it securely away, awaiting the Lotto NZ-appointed courier.

“The store immediately contacted the courier company to arrange collection, which would normally happen on the same day. When the ticket wasn’t collected, our store team proactively contacted the courier a number of times and made Lotto NZ aware of this,” she said.

An NZ Post spokesperson said a courier arrived at Pak’nSave to collect the item on September 11, but was unable to scan the $125,000 winner into their network as the courier ticket and barcode was not located on the outside.

“As no scanning was able to be done, the courier left the item there.”

On October 2, a Pak’nSave staff member went to NZ Post’s Napier customer service counter in Taradale Road at 8.41am with two items, including the one containing the ticket forms.

“The staff member questioned why the item had not been uplifted on September 11 and was told the ticket [and barcode] were missing, so the item could not be accepted into our network.

“The item was then scanned into our Napier depot at 9.09am on October 2 and delivered the next day (October 3) to Lotto’s head office in Remuera Road, Auckland at 1.56pm.”

A Lotto spokesperson said the usual process for a winner is that when a customer checks a winning ticket, a ‘lock’ is put in place for any prize over $5000 on the store’s Lotto terminal.

After talking to Lotto, the retailer will then guide the customer through completing the prize claim form.

The form is then put into a pre-addressed satchel and the retailer organises an NZ Post courier to collect it and deliver it to the head office for processing and payment.

Lotto NZ corporate communications manager Sarah McCormack said Lotto received the documentation on October 3 and processed the prize claim on October 4.

“We’re thrilled for our $125,000 Lotto winner in Napier, but are sorry they had a less-than-ideal experience in getting the claim paperwork through for processing,” she said.

“We regularly check in with our retailers to ensure our Lotto NZ and courier pick-up processes are being adhered to and monitored, so our winners can always enjoy their prizes as soon as possible.”

She said safeguards involved parties included having the retailer and the customer each retain a copy of the prize claim form.

A tracking number is also attached to the prize claim by the retailer prior to collection by NZ Post.

“We follow up with any unclaimed prizes after a prescribed period.”

Wooster said it was obviously disappointing there had been a delay, but reiterated the Pak’nSave Napier team followed the correct Lotto NZ process and went above and beyond in trying to get the ticket collected.

“We would like to congratulate the customer on their win and want them to know that their winning ticket was always safe and sound with us.”

*Hawke’s Bay Today has agreed to change the customer’s name to Shirley to protect her privacy.

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in late January. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community.