Rudeness and lack of empathy towards a disabled customer.
About 6.15pm this evening, I went into Asda in Perth (Dunkeld Road) to the customer service desk area to return a disabled badge wallet holder to Amazon. I was standing at the counter in the area where the customers can exit from the store after going through the checkout areas. When she asked what I was wanting, I looked up the QR code on my phone and had the item I was returning in my hand. The Asda employee told me I wasn’t standing at the desk (which was actually about a metre away from me) as she pointed to the lowered part of the counter and then indicated I should walk round to that precise spot. She indicated two directions I could walk around to get to the ‘desk’. After walking around 50 metres I got to the spot she wanted me to be at then she scanned the QR code, printed off a barcode and attached it to the item and put it into a sack. This action took approximately 1 minute. I then asked her why she couldn’t have carried this out at the location I was at 1 metre away and she stated “that’s not the desk”. I informed her that I was disabled and that having to walk the extra distance had increased my pain but she did not appear interested nor did she apologise. I asked to speak to a manager who arrived within a few minutes. I explained what had happened and the manager reiterated that the area where I initially had been standing was not the desk and that if I’d been served there, everyone would stand there and that part of the counter was very cluttered. I again explained that I was disabled and that the extra distance I had to walk had caused me additional physical pain. At this point, the initial employee stated “I didn’t know you were disabled. You don’t look disabled”. I was completely shocked at her rude statement as well as her displaying a complete lack of empathy, lack of disability awareness and with her tone toward me making me feel she disbelieved me. I have never been so angry at how I was treated and I certainly did not feel valued as a customer or even as a human being. Not all disabilities are visually evident but I can assure you that the pain I have in both knees, my lower back, my left arm, shoulder and left hand side of my neck is very real and difficult to tolerate and manage. I believe the original employee needs to go through some sort of disability awareness training and perhaps with the abysmal level of her customer service, she should not be working on the “desk” which is designed to provide CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!








