Mum's shock after being charged £47 for two bags of pick and mix at Winter Wonderland

A mum was left in shock after she was charged £47 for two bags of pick and mix at Cardiff's Winter Wonderland this month.

Healthcare worker Rhiannon Brown, from Mountain Ash, visited the event with her husband and two children last weekend.

One stall, belonging to the Great British Fudge Company, was selling pick and mix sweets and Rhiannon explained how her kids asked if they could get some.

But the mum wasn't expecting the bags to total just under £50 for two.

FreespiritCityscapes/Alamy Stock Photo

"We know full well that you're going to spend money when you go to these places," Rhiannon told Wales Online.

"We try to go to Cardiff's Winter Wonderland every year. This time round, we just went for a little look around and the kids wanted to go on some rides.

"We bought 40 tokens for £40 for them to have 20 each, then we had crepes which were £7 each - pricey but again we expected it.

"Then, as we were walking out to leave the Great British Fudge Company was there all lit up and it looked amazing. The kids run to it asking for sweets, so I said okay. I helped my youngest to do hers and my husband said don’t go mad on the sweets - it’s £2.79 for 100g.

"We both made sure the kids never went overboard. The bags were nowhere near half full, but nobody knows what 100g of sweets looks like. As my husband was paying, my little girl started eating the sweets so I couldn’t have put some back if I wanted to."

Media Wales

The company have since offered Rhiannon a full refund and said they are working on ways to improve their service.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the confectionary business told WalesOnline: "We can confirm we have now been in touch with Rhiannon Brown when she responded to our appeal to please contact us about her complaint with regards to her experience when purchasing 1.6kg of sweets for £47.00 at our unit in Cardiff.

"Rhiannon has explained to us that she was aware of the price displayed of £2.79 per 100g, but was still shocked at the final price when weighed. She also explained that she chose to pay for the goods so as not to disappoint the children and because they had already started eating them.

"We would never have forced anyone to pay for something they did not want or were unhappy with and would have accepted, as many have said they did, if she left the bag or asked for some items to be removed.

"We are unable to confirm from the image you sent what that amount of sweets would have been as this is just one bag and as Rhiannon explained her children had already started eating some of the items."

Ian Pilbeam/Alamy Stock Photo

They continued: "We can confirm that the scales are checked and set with no way to adjust them once we are set up so for the total to be £47 this would have been just over 1.6kg of sweets in two bags.

"We have offered Rhiannon a full refund, and explained that we are already working to improve our service so we can avoid issues going forward: clearer signage explaining weighing and pricing to customers, retraining our staff to be able to offer better assistance to avoid similar incidents going forward, adding some pre-mixed priced bags minimise issues and lines waiting to weigh sweets.

"We are very sorry that Rhiannon felt she was obliged to pay and hope that she accepts our offer to refund."

Topics: Life, Food and Drink

Lucy Devine

Lucy is a journalist working for Tyla. After graduating with a master's degree in journalism, she has worked in both print and online and is particularly interested in fashion, food, health and women's issues. Northerner, coffee addict, says hun a lot.

@lucedevine