Disabled Wycombe man slams Asda after delivery nightmare

Philip Ward can’t use his right-hand side and he suffers from loss of memory, speech impairment, fatigue, shakes and pains due to the brain damage caused by a stroke in April 2021.

When the 59-year-old ordered his usual £65 fortnightly shopping from the High Wycombe Asda store on Tuesday February 15, it was dumped on the hallway floor outside his apartment door.

Mr Ward, who relies on a walking stick and is unable to bend down, lift or carry heavy items said: “When I tried to pick up some of the stuff I fell over and passed out.

“I was out cold and it could have been a lot worse, I’ve been to hospital after falls outside.”

Mr Ward's shopping included dairy and frozen items.

“How did they think I was going to pick it up?

“And Asda say in their spiel if you’re not happy with your order please let the driver know while it’s being unloaded, but how am I supposed to say that when he has just dumped it all on the floor and disappeared.

“Asda really needs to sort out the way they’re delivering to disabled people.

“The driver said ‘I can’t come in because I don’t want to die from Covid.’

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“But the fact that he’s talking about it to me from three feet away, he didn’t get the irony of that.”

Although he wasn’t wearing a face mask during the delivery, he would have been fine with doing so, Mr Ward claimed.

Usually his shopping was emptied on the kitchen table, and while it takes him ages to put it in the cupboard, at least he can get to it, Mr Ward said.

After recovering from his fall he waited for his neighbour to come home, so from 12.20 until 5.15pm the shopping waited on the floor, Mr Ward said.

“So all the frozen stuff was pretty much ruined, you can’t re-freeze it and a lot of it was warm.”

The ordeal left Philip Ward angry at how Asda delivers to disabled customers.

Mr Ward, who has received benefits since the stroke left him unable to work as master carpenter, tried to contact the Asda head office and called the store in High Wycombe several times.

His email never received a response and, while a junior staff member tried to offer a small refund, Mr Ward knows “a fob off when I’m getting one.”

“He was really out of his depth trying to help me and he said he’ll ask his manager to put £10 on my account.

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“But it was never my intention to get money out of them.

“I just want them to acknowledge they’ve made a mistake, that this is not the way to treat customers.

Asda spokesperson replied: “We deliver to nearly one million households every week and if customers require additional assistance to unload their shopping they are able to make that request when they order their shopping.

“We are very sorry for not meeting our usual high standard for Mr. Ward’s delivery but we are pleased he has accepted our gesture of good will and we look forward to delivering to him again very soon.”