Reference Number: 710652

On the 5th March 2022, I had gone to purchase airtime with my Ackermans account at the Ackermans store in Viljoenskroon that afternoon just after 13:00. Upon concluding my purchase, I accidentally left my wallet on the teller counter as I was leaving the store. Fortunately the store was able to quickly find it just a few moments after I had left. I only realized a bit later the following day that I had forgotten my wallet with them as I now needed it to go make a purchase; by then they had closed and I was unable to call the store to ask if they had seen it. On the Monday morning pertaining to this I then proceeded to call the store to inquire as to whether that had seen my wallet on the counter, and the manager, who had answered the phone said that they indeed found a wallet that day, however, someone already came to claim it that very Saturday afternoon. Confused by this I then proceeded to go to the shop a bit later as I was still at work during the time. When i again got there and asked the staff at the tellers they all confirmed that they indeed saw the wallet. They proceeded to call the manager as i presumed they had passed it onto her for safekeeping, while that was going on the one teller asked as to my name and surname, to confirm as to whether that was what was in there as my license, identity documents, Ackermans card and other documents were in there as well as foreign currency money notes for which she confirmed that indeed this was my wallet they had found. The manager then came and again said that they found the wallet and then "someone" came that afternoon came to claim it. At this moment I was still puzzled by the fact that "someone", of which they cannot identify nor describe came to claim a wallet in their store, a wallet that had countless amounts of things that could have been used to identify the owner and verify them as the rightful owner to the wallet and the content. When i asked they said that the person said that their drivers license and Ackermans card was inside the wallet and that for the store was sufficient for them to hand over my wallet to the person. Dissatisfied by this, I then called the customer care line to lay a complaint about this inconvenience that was caused to me and also the sheer lack of disregard the store had regarding this matter, even when I got to the store. I recieved the titled reference number and was told that my matter will be attended to within 3 - 5 working days. I was then called by the store manager on the Friday, stating that she's "sorry" that she gave my wallet to the wring person and then the story changed to that the person had claimed to be my brother and that was the basis for them handing my wallet to them. Still annoyed by her poor leadership and client service skills i proceeded to again, call the call centre to follow up on this and get someone to call me so that this matter can be dealt with accordingly. The lady I spoke to said that a division manager tried calling me and then proceeded to ask me the most convenient time for them to call me of which I stated this to them, however I have not received any call from anyone from the head-office and its bordering the second week now. I am highly dissatisfied with the way this matter has been handled. Firstly, all my belongings that were now handed over to a complete stranger that in turn compromises my information, and especially since upon my first call to the call centre, the lady I spoke to said that the store was supposed to have contacted them to report this so that they could trace me and inform me that I had misplaced my wallet, not only that, the sheer disregard, irresponsibility and poor leadership your manager has in the handling and resolving of this matter from the store aspect of this matter and just how the head-office has also handled this matter is just highly inappropriate and says a lot about the brand and how they regard us as customers. I would have understood had they not found the wallet and therefore that would have been a loss to me, but in this case this has been a huge, costly inconvenience to me and I feel it should be handled accordingly by Ackermans. I need this matter properly attended to and resolved for me as this is just highly unprofessional for a company as huge as this....!!!!!!!