Dear Sir,
I have been a customer of your store at Talegaon since it was started. Today evening (18/9/09) when I needed to use the urinal while in your shop, I was told by the security person and supervisors that it is only for the staff and not for the customers. Manager Mr. Asif Khan was not available in the store. When I contacted him on his mobile, he said he could allow me to use the toilet but it is not for customers as per company rules. He said he can allow the customers to use the toilet on case to case basis. He also mentioned security reasons for this. Next I called your customer care and was told that there is no such rule and this usually does not happen. Later on I got a call from customer care that customers are allowed to use the toilet with permission from the staff so that they can make sure that water is available in toilet and it is clean. When I asked him whether they can put a notice with that effect he was evasive.
Now I have got few questions for you:
If customers can use the toilet why the staff does not know this? Why everyone I spoke to was perfectly sure that it is not for the customers? They happily allowed me to go away after I returned the groceries picked up from shelves and gave me all relevant numbers but kept saying it is the rule. They also provided me the complaint book but which did not have a carbon paper in it. So I could not take my copy.
Why staff has got more privilages than the customers? On what basis the manager wants to decide whether the customer is entitled to use the toilet? In what way the security of the store is threatened if customers use the toilet?
I am sure many ladies must be visiting your store everyday. Some of them must be in need to use the toilet once in a while. Do you want all of them to go to manager and ask for permission to use the toilet? Why it can't be freely available?
Why the management cannot ensure that the toilet is always clean and water is availble? Why they have to check it before customer can use it?
On behalf of customers who do not have time, energy and resources to follow up on such seemingly trivial issues, I demand that:
A notice should be put on the door that toilet is available. A sign on the toilet would be much better. All the staff should be aware that they cannot refuse the customers basic facilities.
It is no use to offer apologies and then do nothing about the root cause. If the Aditya Birla Retail cannot treat its customers humanely, why should we prefer your stores over corner shops?
I hope something is done about the issue at earliest.
Thanking you.
Dr. Vijay Vaidya
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