Aldi Grocery UK

I am contacting you today to relate two unfortunate, troubling, and serious incidents that have occurred in the Aldi Greenock store. For many years I have been a very satisfied customer of Aldi, and I advocate for your business. I spend hundreds of pounds shopping on a weekly basis, not only for myself but also for two other families.

Over a year ago, while in the Greenock store, I needed to use the customer toilet. As I entered, I saw that there wasn't any toilet paper. When there was a break in between shoppers, I approached the male server to ask for toilet paper. I was shocked by his rude, dismissive response. He told me I would have to wait. I stood by as he served three more customers. After a pause, I repeated the request, mentioning that I needed to use the toilet. His irritated response was that no one was free to bring toilet paper. At that point, feeling a sense of urgency, I took a pack of rolls from the shelf. As I was about to enter the toilet, he abruptly stopped dealing with a customer, snatched the pack from me in an aggressive, threatening manner, and accused me of shoplifting! Other customers nearby were noticeably embarrassed. One gave me a pack of tissues from her bag which enabled me to use the toilet. I found the store manager to relate the incident. He simply shrugged and said, 'As soon as we put paper in, customers steal it.' There was no apology.

After such a troubling incident, I felt unable to use that store. Instead, I shopped at the Port Glasgow or Renfrew branches, even though these locations are less convenient for me.

However, today at 12:30 pm, after a lengthy absence, I decided to use the Greenock store. As I approached the till area, I saw the aforementioned male. From his body language, I assumed he remembered the previous incident. He was engaged in a conversation with a colleague beside the only functional self-service till. In front of me were two customers at the only till open. The conveyor belt was completely full. Eventually, there was an announcement that the adjacent till two was opening, with the male in question opening the gate. As I moved my trolley towards the gate he shouted, 'You wait to use that till,' beckoning to the woman who had been in the queue behind me. Incidentally, the conveyor on till one still had no space for me to place groceries. I protested that I was next in the queue which was confirmed by the woman behind me. He pushed my trolley back. I asked him to serve me, but he refused. I told him his attitude was a disgrace. If he would not process my order, I would leave my shopping in the trolley and walk out of the store, which I did.

This second shocking incident left me shaken and caused significant inconvenience to my plans. I have never encountered such aggression and a downright lack of respect in any retail situation. To continue employing servers free to behave in such an uncontrolled, unacceptable way, I'm sorry to say, does great damage to the reputation of Aldi.

Beryl Harrison

After speaking to Aldi customer services twice, and emailing the above to the given address twice, there has been no response or even an acknowledgement!

I write to officially complain about one staff member at your branch in Bedford, whose attitude has become rude and totally unacceptable. This marks the third instance within the last six months, I believe, where she has falsely claimed that a product was not scanned at the self-service checkout. When alerted, she would then start to apologize, stating that the alert was due to the product being moved to the packing area, which, of course, is precisely what should happen after scanning a product.

While it's completely understandable that the technology might act up sometimes, I believe her responsibility is to first ascertain the reason for the alert before addressing the customer. The incident happened again today, around 8:55 AM, only for her to begin apologizing once more. Insinuating that a product has not been scanned when it has been is not only insulting but highly embarrassing. She should first verify whether there has been any mistake on the customer's end before jumping to conclusions.

Although I accepted her apology, I felt it necessary to speak to her store manager, a Mr. Kruger, about the situation. Perhaps he could arrange for additional training for his staff. It took him a few moments to process my message, and I found it appalling when he accused me of being aggressive for pointing out this evident shortcoming of his employee. He wouldn't allow anyone to threaten his staff-- how, he couldn't explain. I found such a comment to be highly insensitive, protective, and defensive.

Nonetheless, I made it known to him that he was free to interpret my words as he saw fit, but I would not tolerate such unprofessional service.

It would be beneficial if you could ask him to provide evidence of my alleged aggressiveness and threat. I find it surprising that an elderly woman, around 70 years old I estimate, thanked me for speaking out. She too found the staff member's attitude shocking at times. She said she would have loved to give me a hug for speaking up and I said thank you, explaining that I felt someone needed to address such unprofessional service if this is now the norm in terms of customer service from the store.

Regrettably, I couldn't talk to her at length as I had already apologized, explaining that I needed to go see my daughter before heading to work.

Could you please address the manager and the staff member's behavior? A word of advice for the manager is to be mindful of his words, as he doesn't know who he might be talking to, and he shouldn't use his privileged position to silence a genuine complaint or deny a customer's basic rights.

No one deserves to be accused wrongly or spoken to rudely, and I expect an apology from him, as his actions this morning were highly intimidating.

I look forward to hearing from you.