Mark told radio station 3AW that staff at Melbourne’s Knox City Coles store told his 70-year-old father he couldn’t enter the supermarket without scanning the QR code due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Mark’s father has Parkinson’s disease and has Dupuytren’s contracture, which prevents him from opening his hands. He also uses a walking frame. He didn’t understand what the member of staff was asking him to do.
The staff member told Mark’s father to take out his phone, but he spoke so rudely, the elderly gentleman became stressed and nervous, and couldn’t remember how to unlock his phone.
“He couldn’t unlock it because he was so nervous about what was happening,” Mark said.
The staff member then told Mark’s father to go to the service desk and use the paper-based system, but even that was difficult because of his hand contracture.
“There was no help whatsoever,” Mark explained.
“He felt scared,” Mark said, adding his father was worried he would be banned from the store he usually visits every day.
“He’s got this disease, he’s trying to fight it as best he can. He goes in every day,” Mark explained to 3AW.
“The elderly that don’t know, you don’t treat them like that,” he said.
“It’s not right.”
Coles issued a statement to 3AW saying it has apologised to the customer.
“We were sad to hear of the experience of one of our valued customers,” the statement said.
“We want our team to always make sure we are making it as easy as possible for our customers to comply with QR code and sign-in requirements.
“We are looking into it from a store level to ensure nothing like this happens again.”
Have you or someone you know had difficulty using the QR codes to sign in? Tell us about your experiences.
Coles have that gentleman come back to your store and apologise to him. And in the future tell your staff to have some manners
Hope she or he at Cole’s was reprimanded and all staff to help elderly
My caring thoughts go to this elderly gentleman, there was no compassion or respect shown to him.
The way in which he was treated reflects on the management’s poor level of staff customer-service training. I hope they acted immediately to address this major flaw in their staff training, plus personally apologise to their elderly customer, whilst showing more understanding towards those who struggle with scanning, signing in or shopping.
I thought elderly resident’s are encouraged to be independent and we should be assisting them when needed, this shows bad customer service from the supermarket. All staff should be trained how to speak to customers and also their body language when talking to customers. My heart goes to this elderly gentleman.
I agree Josh. Incidents like this only serve to make the world we live in a little colder .Your point about encouragement I often think about and nobody should be belittled because they are weaker . I blame the top management . That man probably will not go back to Coles. A sincere apology to his face yes and then he might.
This has happened to many age people, and even myself, as the scan was not working.
The staff member started to be rude but soon got told.
My parents-in-law, whose second language is English, asked for the book to sign in at MacDonald’s and was told the staff did not understand them and should return to their country. MacDonald’s was very apologetic, and my parent was given vouchers. It is happening a lot.
What amount of money is Coles offering this man in the form of a gift voucher along with an apology to his face and guaranteed assistance to him and all elderly people / people with disabilities to sign in in the future? This is beyond deplorable.
How Bloody disgusting Coles our staff need retraining and learn all about COMPASSION
What’s wrong with society this makes me feel sad!! How disgraceful that poor man was treated so poorly and with obvious contempt. Aren’t we all meant to help each other in this world.. show some compassion.. caring .. patience and some consideration!! That staff member should have had a warning at the very least. If anybody dared to speak to my beautiful parents like that there would be hell to pay!!
How disgusting that Coles staff don’t have the manners to assist the elderly gentleman . Additionally not all people own a mobile phone especially the older generation why not help him with a manual sign in. The seems to be no compassion for people nowadays.
That is so disgusted of Coles emplyees rudely ttreated orderly. Apologised is not enough, should also compensate him with at least $50 free grocery and home delivery to him.Betty
I just spent 30 minutes with my 87 y o mother in law. How can she understand how to use a mobile phone, computer or QR code. I am 66 and I went to woolworths at St Ives and along with many other customers could not log in. It took me 20 minutes to enter the store to buy some apples and perishables. Amazing isnt it we have all been forced to be tracked where we go, what we buy etc. We have now been forced to possess a mobile phone. There is always an excuse to make us buy some so called “essential item”.
To play the devils advocate, unfortunately most of the time things like this happen to old people it’s because someones called them out for their bs.. Maybe I just overthink things, but we’ve been using qr codes to check in for over a year so don’t you think he would’ve figured this out by nnow? He’s 70 not 90
Oh, come on Dave……did you bother reading what particular health problems Mark’s father actually had.
Show a bit of compassion….