Man angered by Tesco disservice

Sunil Peck

A disabled customer has spoken of his anger and upset at a supermarket’s failure to explain a “discrim­inatory” incident in which it refused to serve him alcohol.

When Jamie Beddard, who has cerebral palsy, tried to buy some beer at the Newington Green branch of Tesco at 10:30 one December morning at the end of last year, the deputy manager refused to serve him.

Mr Beddard said: “A long queue formed behind me, as I questioned why I was being refused. [The deputy manager] told me the alcohol might not be good for me. I asked if I was not being served because I was disabled. He replied that I was putting words in his mouth, and that that wasn’t what he meant.

“I’m still none the wiser as to what he was trying to say, and what his grounds were for not wanting to serve me.”

Mr Beddard added: “As a 46-year-old, I don't need a Tesco employee telling me what I can and cannot buy.”

Mr Beddard was able to make the purchase after another customer in the queue bought the beer for him, with money supplied by Mr Beddard.

After email exchanges with several members of Tesco’s customer service staff, in which Mr Beddard said Tesco tried to stone-wall his complaint, he was eventually told that the store Area and Operations Manager had investigated the incident and found that the deputy manager had wanted to offer some assistance to carry the beer.

Meanwhile, another customer who complained to customer service about Mr Beddard’s treatment was told that the deputy manager had refused to serve the beer because he believed that Mr Beddard was intoxicated.

Responding to an email in which Mr Beddard vented his anger and frustration at the confused and contra­dictory reasons he’d been given, and in which he asked to see CCTV footage of the incident, Tesco said that no further action could be taken as there was not enough evidence to support either Mr Beddard’s or the deputy manager’s account of the incident.

Commenting on the Tesco investigation, Mr Beddard said: “The suggestion that I misinterpreted an offer of assistance for a refusal to serve is clearly contrived, and blatantly untrue and offensive. Of course the CCTV footage would have cleared this up, but it’s surprisingly unavailable.”

When asked about the circumstances in which a Tesco manager would refuse to serve alcohol to a customer, a spokeswoman said: “Our staff receive extensive training in the selling of alcohol and we take such incidents very seriously. We have investigated fully with the store and it appears that there was a misunderstanding at the till for which we have apologised to Mr Beddard.”

Tesco has offered Mr Beddard £50 compensation, an amount which he says is inadequate given the time, energy and anger the initial incident and subsequent enquiries have caused.

He said that the matter would have been closed had Tesco apologised immediately after the incident.