School leavers hoodie is wrong

[Namechangedforthispost18]

We ordered a school leavers hoodie for our dd, at a cost of nearly £20.
The PTA were in charge all proceeds going to the school, we recently changed DD surname however old surnames is now a middle name.

So we asked for previous surname and new one to be on it so the kids in class would know who it was and it would have the new surname we legally have to use on too.

The front has the initials on and is correct, both surnames.

The back is completely wrong.

They've left out punctuation within her name, and it only includes her old surname.

The school are claiming it is the PTA's fault, PTA are claiming it is a data protection issue (although it was handed from 1 person to the next to another) and that they couldn't clarify names however we confirmed it via facebook and have screenshots, we are not the only one to have a child with an incorrect name on the hoodie.

The pta and school are refusing to recall the hoodies or communicate with us or update us. Yet they've updated another parent and told them the wrong name will be scraped off and the right one stuck on top (it will look shit).

AIBU to expect all hoodies to be recalled and corrected? Her friends will have the wrong name on.

Also we the leavers are wearing theirs but the children without correct named hoodies have had them taken and are left out. This is causing other kids to laugh at these pupils.
The pta member who royally f up, her child is blaming the parents for giving her mother the wrong spellings etc and is intimidating the kids.

The school arent touching the issue with a barge pole.

Do I have rights as a consumer?

@Belindabauer - so it just has the school name and the year? No names inside the 18? That's pretty rubbish for the price. I also cant believe how much some schools have charged for these. Ours were £12 this year and are really good quality so I'm actually wishing I ordered two.

School just text me and used the same incorrect spelling of her name too, so it is wrong on their system! The fault lies with the school it seems, school who refuse to discuss the matter.

Fault actually lies with you, as it is up to you to make sure the school hold the correct info. You are telling me this is the only text / correspondence you have received with her name on since being at the school?

We get a print out of the all the info held
every year to make sure it is all correct,as far as i know all schools do this. So it is actually you that has not proof read / pointed out their mistake.

I am one of those poor parents organising hoodies for our year 6 (£15). We aren't a state school and all parents have consented to having children' names on etc so it was easier to get checked.

We sent round a couple of proofs of the names/artwork (so names like Jonathan could be switched to Jon etc. ) as well as double checking the orders.

The number of parents who either ignored deadlines or placed an order and then wondered whether they could change the colour etc was astonishing.

I think I am going to switch off my phone on the day we hand them out.

DD has a fairly short first name and surname that are always being spelled incorrectly. We choose our battles - something not quite right that nobody will bother to read is not worth the upset/embarrassment.

You are missed the point of the hoody.

The point of the hoody is that she wears it NOW, whilst all her peer group are celebrating the end of their primary school years.

The point of the hoody is not that it’s a perfectly printed piece of memorabilia.

Once school finishes and they are in Year 7, they will be too embarrassed to be seen dead in these hoodies no matter what is printed on them.

For gods sake get the ‘wrong’ one back and let her wear it with her friends before you make this total nightmare her lasting memory of primary school forever more

Have read most of the thread and as a printer who has done tonnes of leavers hoodies I think it's a shame. If any of our leaver clients were unhappy in this situation I'd have it fixed in 5 minutes of them being in my shop. A liquid can be used to take off the incorrect vinyl and new vinyl pressed on. It doesn't look crap, the old vinyl is literally peeled off without a trace and new applied.

However, if it's cheaply screen printed you'd need a new hoodie but I'd be surprised if this were the case.

If it's a local business it'd be worth going in and explaining the situation, I'm sure they'd want to help you. Hope your dd is ok

Oh gosh. I've just read the rest of the thread. Your poor dd. I'd be happy to print her a custom (free) hoodie of her own to celebrate leaving if she wants, pm me if she wants one

Such a kind offer.

You can’t beat that op!

Yabu and these hoodies are cringey. In 6 months they'll have binned them.

Jesus the PTA can't win!! We were asked to come up with tokens for P7 leavers to do. We did tea Towel projects (draw your own face and first name underneath). Sold them for a fiver, cost us £4 plus time to collate etc "why are you doing tea towels sure noone uses them or keeps them why aren't you doing hoodies like the other schools"

So we did hoodies. Kept it at £12.50 a goodie (cost us £11.50) got complaints why no tea towels these are not appreciated.

In the same breath got complaints surnames were on the hoodies.

So said we'd stop the hoodies. Got shite because we were stopping the invaluable rite of passage hoodies.

So did the hoodies again with first names only. Got shite because first names means nothing in a big school and they can't believe we did away with surname. It's a disgrace and has ruined our leaving experience.

The we got shite from parents for the turnaround time from the company used.

That was the point I resigned from the PTA after 6 years. I got told by a parent who does not a lot "but I don't understand why you're resigning, you still have kids at school benefitting". I asked if she'd like to join the committee then with 3 kids at school

"i couldn't possibly have time for meetings I'm just too busy I have 3 kids ". Yeah, I know, me too!!!

This is the reason the rage is lifting off me as I leave the PTA!!!

frecklemcspeckles I feel your pain. I have worked in a school for 14 years and these last five have seen a massive rise in demanding and unreasonable parents. I’ve now resigned because I just can’t be bothered with it anymore. I just wish parents would stop whining about trivial stuff and appreciate that teachers, school staff and PTA members are human! Entitlement is so unattractive!!

I totally agree @hudson123 I feel for the teachers with some of the crap they have to put up with over tiny things.

When my son got a leavers hoodie we had to go online and fill in our own child’s name, choose size etc. So that way any mistakes will have been ours or the print company. Surely the best way to do it.

Perfect solution. My school asked form tutors to put desired name/nickname and size onto a shared google doc. Child then asked to check spellings of weird nicknames (secondary school, Chloe wanted Koko, for example). Much easier, especially for teachers who know the children well.

Tell the school to do a visible shared doc next time.

Yes, being on the PTA is shit. I helped a lot over the last 2-3 years. We have no moved to private schools and I have sworn never to volunteer now Im paying.
The things the other parents thought was reasonable to say to a volunteer class rep was astounding.

When I did them the checking took an age, the prototypes were back and forth from the printers 7 or 8 times.

We had a team of people checking that all the names were there and that they were spelt correctly.

We even asked the pupil to come and check their names.

To my knowledge there were still 4 names spelt wrong.

It was a ball ache of a job and I have refused to do it since.

Leaving high school is an achievement?! Focus on making sure the name on her GCSEs is correct

This is why it's hard to get people to volunteer. FFS.

It's crap like this that is the reason that our school will be without a PTA from September - we've had enough. Everyone wants to moan - nobody wants to help.

Underparmummy - we still need volunteers in a private school, but then yours is the attitude of 95% of the parents.

This has recently happened with one of my DC. Name spelt wrong on one digit, but right on the other side.

We could complain but that would be incredibly silly as someone has tried their best in their free time to get this stressful job done for all the P7s.

Luckily we have laughed it off and said sometimes life throws us a curve ball. Mistakes do happen.

OP glad you found a solution in the end 💐