Charlotte Coutts, 22 years old, recently had a miscarriage. Charlotte and her 26 years old husband Dean had to cancel any appointment that they made to spend some time recuperating and grieving for their loss.
One of the appointments that the couple had to cancel was for carpet cleaning. When they notified the cleaning firm that they had to cancel their appointment, they weren’t given an easy way out. Instead, they were berated and insulted for their cancellation, the Daily Mail reports.
Dean, who was speaking with a representative of the firm, claimed that the representative said, “You deserved to lose your baby.”
The Coutts said that they set up the appointment with the company, called Clean Carpets Plymouth, minutes before they cancelled it. That was because Charlotte had to be taken to the hospital.
Two weeks later, the couple received an invoice amounting to 85 UK pounds. The two, rightfully, refused to pay.
Dean also claimed that the representative told him that his wife’s miscarriage was “the best thing that happened” for the two’s not really “worthy of being parents.”
According to Daily Mail, Dean, who works as a fabricator, said, "We didn't even cancel the job at the last minute - we booked the appointment and within 10 minutes of taking it said we could not do it anymore.
He continued, “He said it's fine then a few weeks later we got messages. They were disgusting and aggressive. He was saying we owe him money and he would take us to court. My wife is just in bits, it's terrible for me to see. She's not in the best place."
The Coutts had called the police to notify them about the alleged harassment.
Dean added, “It has not been easy. The trouble is, we went through the miscarriage and this had made it all worse.”
Charlotte was 12 weeks pregnant when she lost the baby. She posted a lengthy testimony on Facebook accompanied with screenshots of the conversations she had with the carpet company.
The post reads:
“I booked an appointment. Couldn't follow through, so cancelled two hours later to the agreement that we would re-book when I could. They messaged me two weeks later asking if I wanted to re-book.
“Unfortunately, I couldn't as I had just lost my baby and got out of hospital a few days prior and it wasn't a priority at that time. So, following that, they told me to read their terms and conditions that wasn't stated when I originally spoke to them saying I owe them the full amount of £85 and because I refused to pay it they are taking us to small claims court.
“Do not book in with these people, all I have had is harassment and evil messages telling me that I owe them more money because I was begging them to stop messaging me. STAY CLEAR!
“ADDED - My husband has just had a phone call from them saying ... ‘that they have come to the conclusion that the best thing has happened to our baby and we're no worthy of being parents.’”
Charlotte named the two owners as Ben and Vikki Harbour. Devon and Cornwall Police said, “We are currently investigating an incident that could fall foul of the malicious communications act. Inquiries are underway.”
The owners of Clean Carpets Plymouth declined to comment.
