27/08/2026
Thank you to everyone who has left comments or contacted us about this matter. We also understand that many people may not have fully understood our previous post.
We would therefore like to explain what happened from beginning to end. We sincerely hope that this can bring the matter to a close. If the lady concerned is willing to resolve this in a reasonable and respectful way, we would be more than happy to do so. We want to provide you with better service, and we also hope that our staff can receive an apology.
The incident occurred on 25 August 2026.
Before the lady arrived, some of our equipment required urgent technical repair. The repair lasted approximately 30 minutes. Because it was an unexpected repair and we expected that it might be completed sooner, we unfortunately forgot to turn off the OPEN neon sign and did not put a temporary notice on the door.
This was an oversight on our part, and we apologise to all customers who may have been affected or inconvenienced by this.
At approximately 10:20:25am, the lady arrived at the store. When she found that the door was locked, she began banging on the door.
At that time, our staff were communicating with the technician regarding the repair. Of course, looking back, it would have been better if we had been able to speak to the lady at that moment and explain what was happening.
At 10:24:03am, one of our staff members opened the door while seeing the technician out.
By that point, the lady had been waiting outside for 3 minutes and 38 seconds.
Our staff member explained that urgent repair work had been taking place. However, the lady interrupted the explanation and began verbally abusing the staff member.
Our staff member still attempted to provide her with banking service. However, because she was angry, she repeatedly used highly offensive language, including words beginning with “B” and “F”, to express her anger and direct abuse towards the staff member.
At that point, the staff member declined to continue serving her. Another staff member also declined to serve her because of the language she was using.
The lady then left the store angrily while continuing to swear.
She later returned to the store, asked for the staff member’s name, took photographs, and then left again.
Later that afternoon, the lady posted a complaint in the Facebook Wellsford Town NZ Group, together with a photograph of our staff member. That post was subsequently deleted.
She then made another post without the photograph, which attracted a large number of comments. Many of the comments that remained on the post were negative towards our staff member.
Afterwards, we received a phone call from the lady, telling us to go and look at the post and see how many people disliked our staff member.
We attempted to respond using this account, but discovered that the account had been removed from the group.
We also received a complaint from the lady directly, as well as complaints submitted to NZ Post (don't know why）and Kiwibank. At the same time, we also received complaints and communications from people who were not directly involved in the incident.
We have since provided our head office with a full account of the incident, together with the relevant CCTV footage and audio recordings, and have explained what occurred.
We would also like to make one point very clear:
At no time during this incident did our staff verbally abuse or insult the lady.
We have CCTV footage and audio recordings relating to the incident. We have also retained screenshots of the relevant posts and comments, and we reserve our legal rights in relation to this matter.
We fully understand that customers have every right to expect a good standard of service from us, and we always want to do better.
We acknowledge that we should have turned off the OPEN sign and placed a temporary notice on the door while the urgent repair was taking place. We also apologise to the lady for the 3 minutes and 38 seconds that she was left waiting outside without an explanation.
However, regardless of the circumstances, verbally abusing another person or using one’s influence to place pressure on others is not acceptable.
Our staff are here to serve the community, but they also deserve to be treated with basic respect.
We have apologised for our part in what happened, and we hope that the lady will also apologise to the staff members involved, no matter how late that apology may come.
We sincerely hope that this matter can now come to an end.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this and to those who have contacted us.
We hope you all have a good day.
