PENSIONERS nearly had their Christmas lunches ruined when Sainsbury’s claimed they had no record of their turkey order.

Church warden Nick Thompson ordered three turkeys to feed 60 pensioners at the annual seniors Christmas lunch at St Mary’s Church in Church Green, Witney.

Pensioners from the Witney community and care homes were due to meet for a festive meal at the church’s Winchester room last Wednesday.

Mr Thompson paid £60 for the three turkeys on December 12 and arranged with staff at the Witan Way supermarket to store them in their fridges.

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When he went to collect them on December 16, staff claimed they had no record of the order.

Mr Thompson said: “They asked if I had a receipt, which I did, then they said there was nothing up there [in the fridges] and asked if I wanted a refund.

“Then they asked me if I wanted something out of the freezer. By now it was 7.30pm on the Tuesday and there was no way I was going to be able to defrost turkeys safely by the following day. By this time I was getting quite upset, I wasn’t a happy man.”

Mr Thompson eventually paid £99 for three turkey crowns from the store, which deducted £39.40 as a ‘goodwill service’.

He added: “I had to get up at 4.30am to cook them all.”

The lunch went ahead on Wednesday as planned.

Mr Thompson said: “Thankfully everyone enjoyed what was given to them but it just caused a lot of unnecessary stress, which wasn’t the point of it.

“We try to give them the full Christmas lunch because for some of them it might be the only Christmas dinner they get.”

A similar incident took place on Friday when another church warden from St Mary’s went into the store to pick up 300 oranges she asked to be put aside for the church’s children’s Christingle service, which was held on Saturday.

When she went into the store to pick up the fruit, the staff again denied any knowledge of the order and she was left to gather as many oranges as she could off the shelves.

Team rector, Rev Toby Wright, said: “It’s unfortunate both for the children before Christmas and the pensioners that we look after and care for.

“It increased the stress and we would hope normally Sainsbury’s would make a better partner in the community than that.”

The Oxford Mail left several messages with Sainsbury’s for a response, but no-one from the company had responded by the time we went to press.

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