To expect them to prioritise fixing the disabled toilet!

[JustNeedToPee]

I met my friend at a local supermarket part of a large national chain. Chosen as they have disabled parking, big café area and a disabled toilet. I need that as I use a powerchair and have a bowel condition amongst other things.

When I tried to go to the disabled toilet, I found it completely locked up with a typed up sorry sign on the door!

I had to struggle into the main women’s toilet and wedge my powerchair up against a toilet cubical with the door fully open, to transfer to the toilet and despite throwing my coat over the door frame, people could see and hear me struggling to use this toilet.

I know these things happen sometimes, but the security guard said it had been broken for at least three days!

I asked the man at the customer services if he could prioritise getting the toilet fixed and consider signs on the wall outside next to the disabled parking saying the disabled toilet is broken (AKA laminated printout like the sign on the toilet) if it is broken for several days.

Because the effort needed to off load a wheelchair is draining and I would have gone else where if I had known there was no working disabled toilet. But I didn’t have time/energy to load up my wheelchair and find alternative facilities at that point.

After completing my quick brief complaint to the nice man at customer services, I turned my chair away to return to the café and a woman staff member stepped towards me and started to talking at me with an attitude, which really upset me. Apparently, I shouldn’t expect to find a working disabled toilet at their shop! There was nothing they could do, so why was I complaining.

(I wanted to say Emergency Plumber? Talk to head office? Put signs outside. Let disabled people use the staff disabled toilet, as they must have one!) But what I actually said was that she needed to watch her attitude, as the way she was talking to me was very upsetting to me. She should have more empathy for the situation I was in and not try to butt into an already finished conversation. Then I continued to turn around and went to find my friend.

Honestly the first man was brilliant, actively listened said he understood my frustration and he would feed back to the head office. That is all I expected.

The woman was a complete nightmare, so much so that I am upset hours later.

So AIBU to expect disabled toilets to be a higher priority and also to be upset that woman talked down to me like that?

It is hard enough to get out of the house, as it is! I have only been in a wheelchair for a couple of years, so all this is relevantly new to me

ps. I am not the Poo Troll. Just name changed because of the subject. Mumsnet will confirm I have been on here for years, so ask them if you don't believe me.

3 days over a bank holiday weekend?! From the title and when I started reading I thought it was going to be three months. You're not unreasonable to think that disabled toilets should be a priority, they should be, and sounds like they are treated as a priority. I've seen standard toilets and baby changing units out of order for weeks or months. So I think you're being unreasonable expecting it to be fixed in less than three days over a bank holiday weekend, it's not an emergency. But they should definitely have a sign visible as soon as you arrive and the comments from the female staff member sound rude and unnecessary.

I doubt it even came into their heads to put a sign up at the disabled parking spaces. I wouldn't think of that either, especially as they'd put a sign up at the toilet. I don't think 3 days or more is unreasonable to fix a toilet, especially over bank holiday. It's hard to get plumbers and trades people these days. I'm sure they've tried.

However, what I would complain about it the worker being a cow. Definitely complain about that.

She was rude. No they don't have a legal obligation to provide a working disabled loo but it would absolutely be courteous to make it very clear that the one that they have - and that disabled users are expecting to use - is unfortunately out of service.
Getting it fixed isn't always a quick job. They can't just call the local plumber because complex internal rules govern the way in which the stores can pay for these sorts of jobs (to stop Doreen on the tills getting her mate Bill the plumber extra work). It would probably have to be quoted for and approved and a purchase order raised blah blah. And it's a bank holiday which no doubt complicates matters further. Maybe the issue was a broken light or lock or emergency alarm rather than the loo itself?
A sensible solution might have been for a member of staff to cordon off the ladies' for a short while to allow you to use the facilities in privacy given that you couldn't close the cubicle door.

Maintenance on supermarkets is 9 times out of 10 contracted out to a 3rd Rory such as CBRE, who cover massive regions covering hundreds of miles and potentially many different shops / buildings / companies.

They will then prioritise what needs fixing. A toilet will always fall behind an electrical
or refrigeration type problem.

3rd party. Bloody lack of edit button.

Thank you for all your posts. It was interesting to learn more about plumber contracts, lol

I like the suggestion about asking a staff member to temporarily close the woman's toilet so I can use the facilities without being on display!

I am glad several posters think asking for a temp sign in the car park is reasonable too.

I have to accept I wasn't reasonable expecting the toilet to be mended so quickly over a bank holiday weekend.

Lastly I probably won't go back to this location because I work full time from home and with my kids and husband etc I rarely get chance to go outside our local estate.

I might have a good day pain wise and get to go out once a month and I am not risking being stuck in this situation again. I will try somewhere else where there are two disabled toilets or somewhere that has another shop nearby that has another disabled toilet as backup!

Thanks again 😁

Thank you 😊
Sadly access is often considered to be a special favour, even getting on and off trains for me recently has been a run of assistance staff who act like they're putting themselves out for me to fetch a ramp when they're literally just doing their job.

It's so wrong @drawingmaps - there should be compulsory classes for everyone (& especially those working in public facing roles) that drums into us all that it's not help, it's access & that's a basic right everyone is entitled to.