We went to The Range in Paisley on the 30th of September looking for a light shade.

There were six of us, me, Tracy, the wee one, my nephew who’s also a wheelchair user, and his mum and dad.

We took the lift up to the second floor to look at the Christmas stuff – even though it was September.

My brother in law and I were chatting when a staff member came up to us and explained the lift would be up and running soon.

We were a little surprised, explaining we’d just used the lift. It seemed to be crossed wires or something but we shrugged it off.

On our way to leave, we saw two girls, one in a wheelchair, Sarah, and Becky, sitting before the lift.

Yeah it was broken, and an engineer had to be called.

Shit happens right?

We waited around for a good 20 minutes, getting updates from the staff here and there. We all joked about it, because that’s what you do.

It was nobody’s fault.

A lady suggested we sit in the closed café.

Again. Fine.

Tick followed tock, like in that old Guinness advert and before we knew it, it had been an hour.

We asked a staff member if we could be given a drink, not unreasonable considering our extended imprisonment in the store.

It was hot and uncomfortable, it’s the least they could do.

This is where we discovered that staff apparently can’t even fart without asking for authority from the manager – who happened to be on their day off.

I explained that I’d be taking a drink from the cabinet if they didn’t give us one.

I felt this was reasonable, given the incidental incarceration all of us were experiencing.

Yet, this seemed too much.

I won’t lie, I just took a bottle from the cabinet. I mentioned this later to a staff member – to give them the chance to challenge it. They didn’t.

Surely in any reasonable world, where a group of people are inconvenienced (read trapped in your store), the logical thing to do would be to make sure they’re taken care of.

I know The Range didn’t break the lift, but we also didn’t ask to be on remand in the range.

Eventually they appeared with some bottles of sparkling water, but I have to ask why this was such a challenge.

You know what you do when other humans need help?

That’s right.

You help.

It seems the management at this store, and I have to assume other stores, is built on a culture of fear. It’s pretty apparent that autonomy is not championed here.

If I was to be in the position of the staff members, I’d have been offering tea, and drinks even if it was just from the staffroom to make the situation a little more pleasant.

If you make us feel comfortable and cared for, this absolute joke of a scenario would actually be funny. We’d have laughed it off.

But they didn’t.

A common sense approach is all that was needed. Why everything had to be run through an absent manager is beyond me.

Our next update was that the engineer was on site, but the lift was making a terrible noise.

They were going to call the fire brigade. I explained clearly that I was upset. That there was an element of comfort lacking that would have helped. I also explained that I’d be writing this post and contacting the local paper.

The staff member, advised they’d raise it with head office and offered me their details. I declined because I can just Google it.

I was very agitated at this point, having to compose myself. The staff member returned, and explained the lift was fixed. THANK F*CK.

I wasn’t excited about being thrown over a fireman’s shoulder, though I’ve no doubt it would have been both frightening to experience and hilarious to witness.

I got in the lift and the engineer remarked about how he was at the store often for this issue and how cheap the lift is.

“The cheapest of shit”

The same girl who informed us about the lift being operational, waited downstairs.

She apologised for the inconvenience again, I made clear that I was upset, but not with her, with the situation and wished her a good night.

We made to leave, with the one £1.50 item the wee one picked up but there was a massive queue. There was a customer service desk, so we went there.

Surely they would just serve us there given we were trapped in the building for 90 minutes?

They weren’t going to.

Sarah was before me at the desk, asking for a discount on her purchases, again reasonable.

One of the staff members, whose name I have but I’m withholding for now, proceeded to argue with Sarah that they had looked after us and that we should have asked if we needed help!

What?

Added to this, she explained she was sorry that Sarah felt that way, but she has another job to do. Clearly we weren’t on her list of priorities despite being stuck in the store against our will.

Maybe it’s just me but when there’s an emergency, you make that your priority!

I tossed the one item we had onto the counter and left the shop. It was literally the only way I wouldn’t explode.

This company should be ashamed of how their vulnerable customers are treated and of their management structure which clearly deters staff from helping others in any meaningful way, I’ve never seen employees made so redundant.

I’ll put my complaint and we’ll see what they have to say about it.