It’s a long read but bear with me.

On Sunday the 21st of January, I was at Coldstone creamery Admiralty way Lekki with my girlfriends between 12pm and 5pm. We were the only customers seated there when we went to get ice creams. Our bags were left on the chairs we occupied. When we got back, my bag was gone.

We alerted the staff to narrate the incident and told them we saw one of their staff heading towards our sitting area while we were getting ice cream. They found said staff but he denied taking any bag. Considering where the bag was kept, you’d have to be at our table to see it.
1. First he said he came to clean our table but saw a bag and concluded the customers were still around.
2. Then he changed his story saying he never came near our table but went to clean other tables. How could he have gone to clean already
clean, unoccupied tables? No other customers were using the sitting area.
3. Afterwards he said he came to pack the cups on the table, but we didn’t have any cups on the table prior to getting our ice creams.

I inquired about the security detail I always find in their shops and was told they only stay at the door. I know that’s not true.

Then we asked to see their CCTV footage. The stories became weird at this point.
1. First the lady in charge, Kera said the cameras cover only the cash point. Odd, I was staring at one that had a clear view of the stairs and our seats.
2. When we pointed that out she said they had no access to view footages and only the head office (at Saka, VI) could do that. She claimed to have called them and was told the IT unit weren’t working on Sunday. I still don’t understand how that works.
3. Shortly after another female staff (didn’t get her name) came to apologise for the theft and assured us the video footage was being watched beginning when we came into the establishment. We asked if we could view it too and was told it was ‘confidential’. Even banks allow customers with grievances view their CCTV footage. So we told her to start at 2pm instead of 12pm.

Again, Kera who claimed the videos could only be viewed from the HQ came back and we asked her if she found anything. She asked who’d given us that information and we pointed to her colleague, who came back to deny what she said about the viewing. The whole thing became suspicious like these people were hiding something.

We told them the police would get involved and the story would be published online. It’s increasingly impossible to trust companies these days.
Kera pleaded we give her till Monday to give feedback on the video.

By 3pm on Monday she called me to say, “I’m sorry but the camera wasn’t recording anything. We found out the memory crashed.”

It took them 7hrs (between 8am and 3pm) to ascertain the memory crashed and their CCTV wasn’t recording a thing on Sunday. Are they saying we can’t even be assured of customer safety in their premises; is that how little we mean to them? I wonder if the story would be the same if someone had robbed them.

My friend even sent a message to their Instagram account, saying if a response wasn’t given we’d make this issue public, and they promised to forward the case to their customer service unit and an agent will contact me. They requested for and received my number and email address on Monday 22/01/18 night and I still haven’t been contacted.

I took the case to Maroko police station on Tuesday 23/01/18 and gave a statement. The manager of Admiralty branch was issued an invitation by the DPO. Someone named Chuks confirmed receipt of the IV, yet they never showed up.

My lawyer wrote to their head office on Wednesday detailing the issue, actions taken and further steps we’ll take. Still, we received no feedback from them. I’ve been informed they were advised not to comment on the matter at the branch. Classic.

Everything so far feels like an elaborate cover up by a company with something to hide. All we asked for was a view of their cctv footage to see what really happened. All we’ve got so far are suspicious stories. It’s so disheartening that they have handled this case like it’s nothing. I have valuable items I consider priceless in that tote bag and Coldstone Creamery (Eat N’ Go ltd) is behaving like it’s a non-issue. What’s stopping me from suspecting this might be a regular occurrence where customers mysteriously lose items and the company hides behind a liability clause?

It’s been a very frustrating week, and still I’ve been the only thing holding back my friends from spilling this story online before now because I wanted a clean resolution. I’ve been very civil; going through the appropriate channels to get this resolved but the company has proven it prefers to play dirty by feeding us lies and frustrating our efforts. Perhaps I’ll learn to be more dramatic and cause a scene in the future.

Getting this kind of treatment from a favourite brand is extremely disappointing. You can do better than this.