My complaint:
At about three o’clock on Tuesday 5th September I walked into one of your shops:
23-25 Rose Mount
Oxton
Birkenhead
Prenton
CH43 5SG
It was the first time I had been to this shop – and I guarantee you that I shall never set foot inside there again. The behaviour of one of your employees was absolutely appalling. I am fifty-six years old and have never been treated this way in a shop before – nothing even remotely close to it. I remained consistently courteous and polite throughout the ordeal, but was met with an absolute torrent of hateful screaming abuse from the man on the checkout. I’m left with the strong impression that the person in charge of this shop is mentally deranged. Let me explain the circumstances to you.
I needed Post Office services, so I looked around for a counter but I couldn’t find one. Then I saw a sign which said something like ‘Post Office services please queue here’. So I walked up to the sign. There were arrows pointing forwards on either side of the sign, so I walked forwards. Then there was another sign about three yards ahead. I stopped there and waited patiently as the man on the checkout was dealing with some customers. After he had finished dealing with his customers he seemed to be doing some paperwork, so I waited until he had finished, then I waved my hand to catch his attention and said, “Could I have Post Office services, please?” He replied, “The Post Office is here, mate.” I had been expecting a separate counter for the Post Office, around the corner perhaps, but there was none.
Then I walked back to the checkout and said that I wanted to deliver a parcel, the man said, “You can’t.” This puzzled me. I asked him if it was possible to deliver a parcel, as I thought the shop was also a Post Office. Again he said, “You can’t” but this time added, “You can’t deliver it, but we can deliver it.” I’m not sure if this was supposed to be some sort of a joke or if he was being deliberately difficult with me. If it was intended as a joke, it fell completely flat.
I thought it best to say nothing about the non-joke and so continued about my business. The first question he asked me about the parcel was how much the goods inside were worth. I found this a bit odd because I have delivered many different parcels in many different countries but have never been asked this question before. I asked if the value of the goods inside affected the cost of delivery, he wouldn’t give me a straight answer on this point. So I asked for ‘recorded delivery’.
I have been living out of the country for some years, I have only recently returned, I didn’t realise that ‘recorded delivery’ doesn’t exist anymore. He rattled off a whole load of options at the speed of a machine gun, which meant that I didn’t catch them all. I said the parcel wasn’t urgent so asked for “second class signature” which was, I think, one of the options he had offered.
It was at about this point that the man simply exploded. He started screaming at me at the top of his voice, calling me “stupid” and an “idiot”. I simply couldn’t understand what his problem was. He then came out from behind the counter ranting something about the ‘queue here’ signs, all the time berating me with insults whilst waving his hands in the air and hitting the signs (if you have video installed, this will all be recorded to verify my complaint).
I remained calm and tried to continue to get my parcel delivered. Again he asked me about the value of the items inside the parcel, so again, I asked if it would affect the cost of delivery – this started him off on yet another torrent of abuse. To try to bring him back to his senses I asked in a calm voice, “Do you shout at all your customers like this?” It didn’t work. He snapped back, “Only the ones who are idiots!”
Eventually, I told him the value of the goods as he clearly wasn’t going to process my parcel unless I did. In return I asked for his name because I intended to make a complaint about his behaviour. At first he remained silent before saying “Dave”. I asked him for his surname – he refused to give it, he said, “There’s only one person called Dave in this shop!” (‘Damned right,’ I thought.). He also said that he didn’t care if I made a complaint because the management would never believe a “stupid idiot like you”.
I tried further to get his surname, so I said, “If you’re not afraid of me making a complaint, then you would give me your surname.” He remained silent.
The man in question was in his forties with greying hair. He was of medium build and quite short – about five foot seven, I would say. He was slightly overweight and wore silver rimmed spectacles.
Now I am worried that my parcel will not be delivered. I’m worried that perhaps I should have received some sort of receipt for the parcel (I received nothing).
I urge you to look into this matter, to be honest, I fear for the safety of people entering this shop.
Yours,
Ian Spriggs
Suggested solution:
When the company apologises and terminates the employment of the lunatic concerned. I am not interested in financial compensation. I am not interested in free stuff.
