AS a blind person with special needs, I recently telephoned customer services at Tesco in Ely, advising that I would be arriving the next day with Dial-a-Ride at 10.30am and would like someone to show me around the store and that I would require a wheelch

AS a blind person with special needs, I recently telephoned customer services at Tesco in Ely, advising that I would be arriving the next day with Dial-a-Ride at 10.30am and would like someone to show me around the store and that I would require a wheelchair.

The man who answered the phone was unable to get in contact with either of the offices this concerned to arrange this but said he would make contact with them, make the arrangements and confirm it with me. I heard nothing more.

The next day my disabled friend and I arrived at the store where nobody knew anything about my request. There was no wheelchair available and I was taken to sit on a chair in the shop to wait while a lady that was allocated to take my disabled friend and myself took her around in her buggy. I waited for 15 minutes, getting colder and more distressed, and made my way back to customer services and requested to see the store manager. The manager was not available the deputy manager came down and said there was no wheelchair available and as soon as one was available it would be given to me. Some 20 minutes later my friend returned with her lady who then went off to her coffee break. My friend was so annoyed and I was so upset that she wrote a list of urgent things I needed and took it to the desk and demanded that someone go and gather the items from the shelves.

The lady who was allocated to the job did her best, but I came away with virtually nothing. The whole thing was a total waste of time and distressing for me.

Tesco staff seemed not to care. If it was not for my friend, I would still have been sitting in that chair waiting.

I usually order my groceries online, but my sight has become so bad that I can no longer see the computer screen. This was the first time I had been to Tesco in Ely and I was treated so shabbily that it will probably be my last. The whole attitude of indifference from the members of staff has left me feeling very angry.

LINDA FRANKLIN

Downham Road

Ely