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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Kris Gourlay

Edinburgh Currys 'sorry' after husband has to rescue disabled wife from faulty lift

An Edinburgh woman says she was left housebound for 11 days after her mobility scooter was heavily damaged during an incident in Currys last month.

Frances Corbett and her husband Andrew, from East Craigs, told how they were visiting the Currys branch at Fort Kinnaird on January 29 when the front of Frances' mobility scooter was ripped off while getting stuck in the disabled lift.

After grabbing his wife from the scooter, hero husband Andrew says he confronted one of the team at the store about what happened.

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He said he was told to call customer services when he got home and they told him to go back and speak to the store manager the next day instead.

When Andrew visited Currys the next day, he says he was told the manager was the same member of staff that he had previously spoken to.

Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Andrew, aged 59, said: "I had to pull my wife out of the lift as it tried to continue going up.

"It could have been a really bad situation. It was one of those lifts where only the two walls either side and the floor move up and the strap within the lift got stuck on my wife's scooter, ripping the front to pieces. The steering was completely broken and we couldn't use it."

Since the incident took place, Frances, aged 68, says she has been housebound and unable to make her own way around as she suffers from COPD.

During the period in which she has been immobile, she had to attend a family funeral in a wheelchair that Andrew borrowed from a neighbour, otherwise she probably wouldn't have made it.

Andrew says he is now in limbo and out of options as nobody is willing to help him out.

He continued: "When I phoned customer services, they initially hung up and then when I phoned again they told me to go back to the store. Once I done that, I ended up speaking to the same member of staff that I had already dealt with.

"My daughter actually took to Twitter to complain about their customer service and they replied to her, but not us. She doesn't know exactly what happened so it's difficult to resolve the issue.

Frances has been left housebound since the incident took place. (Callum Moffat)

"I'm getting seriously frustrated with the whole situation, I don't know what more I can do as the scooter is currently away and waiting for parts to become available to fix it, she's only had it four weeks."

Andrew said he kept a record of all the dates and times he contacted Currys, as well as pictures of the damaged scooter and even has a witness of what happened.

As the couple live in a flat below pavement level, Andrew usually has to drag the scooter upstairs to get out the building, but without the scooter, they have been left helpless for almost two weeks.

Andrew added: "We should be given some sort of compensation for Frances sitting here for 11 days now and the fact that for such a big company, the incident report book obviously hasn't been used as they're saying there is no record of it.

"It could have been a child in a buggy caught up in the same sort of incident."

A Currys spokeswoman said: "There is no greater concern for us than the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers, and we want to ensure our stores are accessible for everyone. We’re sorry to Mr and Mrs Corbett for the poor service they received and for any inconvenience caused.

"We are currently investigating the matter to ensure we’re providing the appropriate resolution and support to both Mr and Mrs Corbett. We can confirm that the store followed standard procedure.As a way of apology and for the inconvenience caused, we’ve offered Mr Corbett a gift voucher as part of a goodwill gesture. We take these claims very seriously and are reviewing the incident data. Our team remains in close contact with Mr Corbett to ensure a full resolution is made.”

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