A mother and her young son were banned from a Deichmann store in Troisdorf after a dispute over a toy car. The incident sparked outrage from the mother on social media, while Deichmann provided a different account of events.
Mother and son banned from Deichmann: “This is so ridiculous”
In early August, a mother from the Rhein-Sieg district (NRW) took her young son to a Deichmann store in Troisdorf, hoping for a routine shopping trip. However, instead of leaving with new shoes, the two were banned from the store. The mother took to Facebook to express her frustration, calling the situation “ridiculous.” The incident stemmed from her son taking a green toy car, priced at just €5.99, out of its packaging while she was trying on shoes. “I was trying on shoes, and my son was at the TV,” the mother explained. “At some point, my daughter came to me and said that my son had done something wrong.” She found her son in the play area, with a Deichmann saleswoman nearby.
The little boy had taken a toy car out of its packaging to look at it. What the mother saw as a harmless act, the saleswoman saw as a serious offense. “She immediately said that I had to pay for it. When I looked at the car, she started scolding my son, accusing him of trying to steal it,” the mother recounted. She firmly believed her son had no such intention. “I understand that not everyone can just rip open packaging, but he’s a small child. He’s really into cars and didn’t know he was doing something wrong. He just wanted to look at the car,” she continued. “It was only at that moment that he realized he had done something wrong, and he immediately apologized.”
“A small piece of tape would have sufficed”
What particularly upset the mother was the saleswoman’s reaction. “A small piece of tape would have sufficed, and no one would have known that the packaging had been opened. There was nothing wrong with the car; it wasn’t damaged and could have been sold as is. I even offered to tape it back up myself, but she refused,” the mother explained. “She didn’t even look at the car.”
The saleswoman’s lack of understanding and harsh attitude left the mother baffled. According to the mother, other customers even intervened, asking the saleswoman to be more understanding. However, their pleas were ignored. The situation escalated, and the saleswoman eventually issued a ban on both the mother and her son. When the mother tried to lodge a complaint with Deichmann, she received no response beyond an automatic reply, which she found unacceptable.
Deichmann explains the drastic measure
A spokesperson for Deichmann, Christian Hinkel, confirmed the ban when contacted by wa.de. However, he provided a different version of events, stating that the situation involved more than just a single toy car. “According to our colleagues on-site, the child repeatedly unpacked and pocketed toys in the store. The mother refused to pay for them,” Hinkel explained.
The ban was issued after what Hinkel described as an “emotional discussion” between the mother and the saleswoman. He emphasized that Deichmann only issues bans in the “rarest of cases,” but in this instance, it was deemed an appropriate response. After reviewing the incident, Deichmann stood by the decision, stating, “We do not tolerate unfriendly behavior towards our customers at Deichmann. High customer satisfaction is of utmost importance to us as a family business.”
Despite this, Deichmann acknowledged the incident as a learning opportunity. “We assure you that we will do our best to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future,” Hinkel added. He noted that Deichmann plans to further train its staff on how to better handle customer interactions to avoid similar conflicts.
