A Leeds woman who tried to visit Primark with her sister was told she was not allowed inside because of her guide dog.
Chloe Tear was visiting the city centre to do some shopping along with her sister and her first guide dog, Dezzie. The pair only finished training together two weeks ago and Chloe had been on the waiting list for two-and-a-half years.
She visited a number of shops in the city, from large chains to independent stores, with no problem at all, until she got to Primark at Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre. There, a member of staff at the entrance told her there were no dogs allowed in the store.
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However, Chloe then told the staff member that it was illegal to refuse a guide dog and so the staff member radioed their boss. It took a few minutes to get a response but eventually they were allowed inside, although there was no apology.
Chloe said: "The whole incident can't have been more than five minutes. It was probably only a few minutes but I suppose the shock of actually being denied access to a shop did make it feel longer.
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"I suppose I was just thinking in my mind, 'what if this manager says no?' Like, where do I go from there?"
While going around the store, Chloe's sister informed her that the staff member was now following them around the shop. Chloe added: "We were quite near to the entrance where we had been refused access at the time, but they almost seemed to be circling us.
"Which, again, was really unnerving and actually, if I was by myself at that point I don't know what I would have done. But I think, even the initial refusal, if I was by myself, would have been a lot more to handle."
Chloe says the whole purpose for having a guide dog is to help her be more "independent", so she can actually go shopping by herself. Having this sort of problem, so early into having a guide dog, is fairly "worrying" for her.
However, according to her, the benefits of having her guide dog far outweigh the negatives. But the problem on access denials is sadly not that rare.
Guide Dogs themselves have an app which helps people to report denials of access. Chloe said she was "grateful" that the app was so easy to use and allowed her to either get support from Guide Dogs or just report the issue and allow them to handle it.
Since the incident, Chloe has posted about what took place on her social media and got in contact with Primark. While she initially messaged on the morning of July 10, she received a response on the afternoon of July 11 which reiterated that the company did welcome guide dogs into their stores and would look into the incident.
Primark said: "We want all of our stores to be accessible for everyone and we're really sorry that a customer was wrongly denied access with their guide dog to our Leeds Trinity store.
"We're following up with our security provider to ensure this doesn't happen again and in contact with the customer to apologise for their experience."
Chloe added: "It is important that guide dogs owners report when they experience access refusals because its only then that companies can, obviously ensure that the proper training is in place, but I also think its also important to acknowledge the amount of work it is for an individual who experiences an access refusal.
"Not all of them will go huge on social media like mine has, but I have literally spent the last two days, all day for the last two days, trying to get in contact, dealing with the media and things like that."
