Note: Updates to the blog are at the bottom if you like to get up to date if you have read the original blog already.
A week ago I sent this complaint to Asda after the bad customer service & bully tactics from 2 member of staff. I have removed names for privacy & added some more photos to illustrate my letter of complaint.
A week ago I sent this complaint to Asda after the bad customer service & bully tactics from 2 member of staff. I have removed names for privacy & added some more photos to illustrate my letter of complaint.
To
whom it may concern at Asda,
For
near on 4 years since I moved to Colchester I have been a regular
customer of the Colchester branch of Asda despite being on the other
side of the town & have a Sainsburys practically on my doorstep.
I had preferred to go to Asda due to the good facilities, products &
prices. I had very lil to complain about other than the occasional
driver parking the Asda delivery HGVs with trailer on the shared path
& never needed to write directly to head office with a complaint
& I was quite happy to keep on visiting & shopping at Asda,
right up until last week.
Last
Tuesday 17th January 2017 I popped in to collect my new pair of glasses &
pleasantly pleased they were ready a week early, they were done with
a coating to darken the lenses in sunlight & known as transition
coating. They looked OK & as it was dark when I collected the
glasses I had to wait until daytime to truly try out the glasses.
Unfortunately they proved to be ineffective to use in daylight when I
used them on Wednesday as the transition tinting was slow to respond
& did not go dark enough in sunlight to make them useful to use,
especially when cycling & not like my existing pair I have been
using for over 2yrs. So I called the opticians early Thursday Morning
to let them know & spoke to a member of staff who was quite good &
offered to see what they can do if I drop them in on Friday. I said I
would as I have a train to catch at the nearby station & have to
be quick about it so not miss the train. So I went to Asda to drop
off the glasses for them to be looked at on Friday morning & this
is when the issues I really have with this store occurred.
As
I had just a few minutes to drop off the glasses before getting the
train, I had lil time to mess around so I wheeled in my folding bike
with pedals retracted to show I had no intention to cycle it &
used it as nothing more than a method to carry my fully loaded
panniers like a trolley. I didn't rush in & cause any issues with
customers, I went straight to the opticians & asked to speak to
the person I spoke to but he was busy so the young lady serving me went to deal
with it & took my glasses with her to speak to him. Then I had
a Security guard came up to me & requested I leave the
premises as cycles are NOT allowed in the store. I asked where this
is signposted as I saw no such policy, only one visible on the doors
are for Dogs. The security guard refused to say & told me
to leave. I said I would as soon as I have finished with the issue
with my glasses & wouldn't go until it is sorted.
The Security guard then
exceeded
his authority
& went to the young lady, took my glasses off her & handed
them to me & told me to leave! Again I asked where is this ruling
posted as there is no such policy, again he didn't say & said it
is company policy & I had to leave. So I requested to speak to
the store manager & he escorted me to customer service till by
the entrance to discuss this & delaying me. A bloke with no hair
or visible name badge then showed up claiming to be the store manager
as I asked him if he was the store manager & he said yes & he
also told be to leave with the bike as it is private property &
is company policy, I asked him where it displaying this policy &
again no-one could tell me.
In the end I had to leave as I had a
train to get & been delayed enough by these 2, still have the
faulty glasses & I am thoroughly pissed off with these 2 members
of your staff for exceeding
their authority & treating me like a petty criminal for a bogus
policy that is not displayed & lied to by a bloke claiming to be
a store manager when it is a female manager! At
no time did I give any abuse & asked for evidence of this bogus
policy & not once was I treated with respect or as a valued
customer or shown any evidence. All they had to do was let me finish
dealing with the young lady at the Opticians & then speak to me
afterwards, but no they wanted to make an example of me in public by
telling me to leave as if I had broken the Law.
So I took this up with
the twitter team whilst on the train as @2_Wheeled_Wolf on Twitter &
the nonsense I got from them was no better, claiming it was company
policy due to Health & Safety & Hygiene.
Again this is just
more lies as there is no policy, has nothing to do with Health &
Safety & utter nonsense trying to claim its hygiene issues. After
all it is no more unhygienic to wheel in the lil folding bike with
panniers on than it is to use a shopping trolley, a pushchair, a
wheelchair or even one of your own trolleys. Even the use of Scooters
& Heelies are frowned upon by customers but not stopped by your
staff for these same claims.
HSE
have already had to diss this myth of Health & Safety when Tesco
tried it a while back with someone else, see following link:
& it is clear then when Tesco did this they were in the wrong &
admitted it. See link:
& I also have taken my bikes into stores before elsewhere in
Argos at Tollgate & Tesco in Highwoods, the staff at Argos even
encourage it.
I don't normally bring my other bikes I use for shopping into the store when at Asda as they are large bikes so to carry the shopping.
But the folding bike is little & as I didn't have time to mess around to unload it, lock it up & carry the heavy bags with a walking stick which I wouldn't have needed to do in the first place if glasses were working correctly.
But this one time I had
to wheel it in as I would if it was a trolley & there was no need
for staff to lie & treat me as a petty criminal. If I did that
myself to a customer, I would be sacked on the spot by my manager.
So
on Tuesday 24th January I will be going back to the store again to return the glasses
& be requesting a full refund as they do not meet the
requirements of the prescription I have paid extra for the transition
tinting, I will not give them the chance to correct it as I will not
give any more time & money to a Store or company that treats
customers like I have been treated. I'd far rather pay the far higher
costs to a company that makes the glasses correct first time &
give me the time & effort of a pleasant sale, so I be getting my
glasses where I got my last pair.
And
if this company want my further business or anyone else's that know
me, I suggest the REAL
store manager see me on Tuesday & speak to me with more respect
than I had before & I will see if I am happy with what she says
before I decide to continue my custom with Asda. I await your
response by email which this complaint will be sent.
Sincerely
yours.
And since sending this letter of complaint to head office via email a week ago on the 22nd, I have returned the reading glasses & got a full refund as I am not going to give my earnings to a company who treats their customers like this. As it is the staff in the Optician Dept & Customer Service till at the entrance are all appalled by how the 2 staff I am complaining about treated me & how badly they handled a non-issue; Store Manager is off sick when I went to the store on the 24th so never met up with her, so I have left a copy of the complaint with customer services to give to the real store manager & a copy to the Optician dept so they know the complaint has nothing to do with them. And so far Asda has not got back to me from head office or the store.
Update 11th March 2017
Eventually Asda did reply to my email & said the following:
Of course this is nonsense & I replied with the following email:
Of course I did get a reply which was no better:
Thus my response:
Since then over a month has passed & not heard from them since my last email & I have not heard from the Store Manager. I guess they rather not have my business or address properly the fact they exceeded their authority so I guess bullying customers on bogus rules that aren't displayed anywhere is OK for them.
Meanwhile I have been looking elsewhere of examples, here's a small shop that's happy to let bikes into their shop.
And a shopping centre with a small entrance that can clearly display a sign which Asda can't seem to do on 2 doors around 4x the size of this one.
Update 11th March 2017
Eventually Asda did reply to my email & said the following:
Of course this is nonsense & I replied with the following email:
Of course I did get a reply which was no better:
Thus my response:
Since then over a month has passed & not heard from them since my last email & I have not heard from the Store Manager. I guess they rather not have my business or address properly the fact they exceeded their authority so I guess bullying customers on bogus rules that aren't displayed anywhere is OK for them.
Meanwhile I have been looking elsewhere of examples, here's a small shop that's happy to let bikes into their shop.
And a shopping centre with a small entrance that can clearly display a sign which Asda can't seem to do on 2 doors around 4x the size of this one.
