ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP

Copy of e-mail received from M. Wootton:

Shortly after Christmas myself and Wife went to our local Lidl store as usual, and as usual we had to ask the store Manager to open the height restriction device they had installed at the entrance (my Vehicle is too tall to access their car park) 

Normally this isn't a problem, Normally the duty Manager was very helpful she would get the key open the height restrictor and let us in, on this particular day the usual Manager was not on duty, the Manager (Male) said he did not have a key and there was no key and never has been. 

We pointed out that we use this store every week and there is a key in fact it has to be opened for deliveries and I have also seen that happening on many occasions. 

The Manager then turned his back on us and refused to speak any further we asked for the phone number for head office on several occasions at first he continued to ignore us and eventually said he did not have it . 

We then left the store, my wife contacted head office that took all the details including the Managers names and promised to get back to us, to date no one has. 

The Manager was rude unhelpful and our perception is the Company don't want our custom, we told the person at head Office until we got an apology and assurances that the Manager had been counselled about his attitude we and our immediate family would no longer shop at any Lidl stores . 

The only reason the Manager responded after he turned his back on us was because a group of customers had gathered most of which could not believe his attitude. 

Our perception of Lidl is they do not want our custom, in addition the way we were spoken to on the day, which as I said has not been dealt with satisfactory confirms our perception.

The Store address is Brocklebank road London Charlton SE7 7SX.

Oddly I have looked at their Website with a view to formally complaining by E-Mail and there is no facility to this, all you get is a phone number, and of course when you phone that number all we got was lip service. 

Needless to say we have not shopped at any Lidl store since this incident

Editors Comment:

When we received the e-mail on the left hand side from Mr. Wootton we felt that they had received a rather unsatisfactory service from Lidl and we agreed that we would publish his complaint on our website, but somehow there was a niggling thought in the back of our mind that all was not as it was painted and we decided to ask Lidl to look again at Mr. Woottons grievance before we would publish his complaint.

Lidl replied by return of post and assured us that they had contacted Mrs. Wootton on the 15th January 2008 within 20 minutes of her contacting their Customer Service Line and that they matter has now been satisfactorily dealt with by their Office and that Mrs Wootton was happy with the outcome.

When we passed this on to the Wootton's and when we asked Mr. Wootton to confirm that their complaint has been settled we regretfully had no response from Mr. Wootton and it was not until we applied some physiological pressure that Mr. Wootton came back to us and sent us the following e-mail.

On the 15th of Jan my wife phoned Lidl and complained, she was told they would look into it and get back to her .

They only got into touch with us after I wrote to you in May , they  phoned my wife to say that the Manager concerned has been dismissed and that all Managers at all of their stores have been instructed that when asked by a customer they must open the height restrictors and they apologised over the phone for the inconvenience this caused us.

A couple of days later we got a letter saying that we could show this letter at any Lidl store and we would get 25% off any purchases .

I cannot send you the letter I do not have a scanner.

Our thanks goes to Lidl who have acted swiftly and efficiently to deal with this complaint and who have accepted full responsibility for their store manager