This is long but only illustrates my disappointment with Asda. I have been an Asda customer, both instore and online for many years, and other than the very occasional hiccup, without problem. However yesterday evening - Saturday 05 October - I had the most awful checkout experience that I have ever had from any store. I am a female pensioner in my 70's and 'shopping' is not new to me. However the woman who 'served' me yesterday is a very poor example of staff that you employ and does your reputation no good. Firstly, not only was she coughing without covering her mouth, ( it was too late for me to move elsewhere as there were few tills open and there were other people behind me ) and therefore not just over the belt but over peoples shopping - and not just mine - and frankly the check out supervisor should have removed her - but she proceeded to almost throw my shopping, mainly food and perishables, down the belt so that it pilled up at the bottom with some items upside down or on the side. I didn't have space at the end of the till area, or time, to get my many shopping bags in place to even begin packing my shopping away. I kept gently pushing things back so I could at least begin to pack. Eventually after 30 items she held back - this was established by checking the receipt later and seeing there was a sub total. Had the checkout operator been a very young or new employee who perhaps wasn't aware that customers don't want their goods pilled up in a jumble I could understand. Actually I have found that most young staff members are very careful and considerate. This woman wasn't young but mature and was displaying considerable annoyance that I wanted to pack my shopping properly and not upside down and in a mess. Her 'bad mood' was clear. I might be 'old' but I'm not slow. I'm careful and don't want my shopping damaged and spoilt. Not a big ask. One of the items I was buying was a Dettol antiseptic spray bottle refill at £2.00 - heavily advertised as being eco friendly so as to avoid buying new spray bottles at £1.00. When I selected this squeezy pack I noticed that one on the shelf was leaking from the screw top .... this I removed from the others and placed to one side and tried to find a staff member to report to ...... no one in sight. Being aware of the possibility of a leak, and having read the pack instructions that the contents were concentrated and care should be taken when handling and that gloves should be used, I returned to the fresh produce area and got one only small clear plastic bag to put the refill pack in. ( I have noticed that some shoppers pull quantities of these bags from the dispensers and take them .) Common sense - food and chemicals don't mix. However, the checkout operator removed this pack from the protective bag and moved it to one side. I asked her politely to please put the item back in the bag. She refused and said she would charge me for the bag .... a single small biodegradable clear plastic bag being used to protect my food in case of contamination. Not a problem for the use of common sense. I said I wasn't prepared to pay for the bag in the circumstances and also expressed my surprise that Asda charge for these bags. I asked her to get the manager as I wasn't happy with her response. She then proceeded to lecture me that it was company policy. (Tesco don't charge for these little bags, neither do Sainsbury's, Lidl, Aldi ) That Asda have to pay for these bags, ( that may well be but so do we the customers ) and that I should bring my own bags - I had about 6 large bags with me. She then continued by saying that she didn't use any plastic and then told me that I shouldn't. Asda seem to have a policy in this particular store to give a new 10p bag to customers if the bag you have seems to be damaged ..... contradiction of bag 'sales' there. She then decided to tell me in a very superior manner that she had recently bought an expensive dress and wasn't 'given' a bag. Had she perhaps bought a bag , to put her expensive item in it would have been plastic ... this I know because I had earlier bought something of value from that very same store she mentioned earlier that afternoon and the bag I bought and was offered was plastic !! People in glass houses springs to mind. However, by this time the queue behind me had built up with most of the waiting customers agreeing with me that it was ridiculous and that common sense should prevail. I asked again for a manager and she refused - said she couldn't ( or wouldn't ? ). I said I wasn't at all happy or impressed and that I would go to the customer service desk and ask for the manager myself. The checkout operator was rude, arrogant, condescending and self opinionated. She very much overstepped the mark and I was displeased with being spoken 'down to' and lectured as how I should shop and her attitude. At no time was I impolite to her, it's not in my nature. I was firm in asking for a manager but I was unhappy with how I was treated and was not prepared to ignore it. With hindsight I should have refused to buy the Dettol refill and I certainly won't be doing so again in Asda. I went to the customer service desk and spoke with an extremely helpful and polite young lady who despite ringing many internal phone numbers and putting out calls for a manager no-one arrived. After 20 minutes this was adding to my annoyance and in the end I asked for a head office number that I could complain to. This I was given, again with the upmost politeness and apologies. As I was about to leave the store a young lady appeared who I stopped and asked if she was a manager ... she said no but was answering the call out and said she would help. I explained what had happened at the check out and she was most concerned about the attitude and non-service that I had received and also the complete lack of common sense by the woman in question. This young lady said she was completely unaware of any policy to charge for the small bags, especially in a circumstance such as this, and that she would certainly have done exactly the same to prevent her food, or anything else, being tarnished by 'chemicals'. She assured me that the woman in question would be spoken with - details were taken from my receipt - and that the company valued customer response, good or bad, to help them in future. If Asda staff were all as good as the young lady on customer service, and the young lady who actually answered the request for a manager, (The actual duty manager put the phone down when asked to go to the customer service desk - no brownie points there. ) then bad or poor staff problems would go. Not good Asda, there's a lot of competition out there and customers vote with their feet. You are not the only supermarket I shop in. A phone call was made by myself to Head Office customer service on the 6th October and I am pleased to say that I was happy with the response I received although I would question the comment made that it is Government policy to charge for small biodegradable bags ..... there are a great many shops, small, large and huge who do NOT charge for these bags. Being PC is not always PC !! As an extra to add to my unfortunate checkout experience, I noticed when talking with Head Office, that right at the end of my receipt I had been charged twice for a same item that I only bought once !! Yes, my fault for not checking yesterday evening when at the desk, but probably just as well as that would have been even more irritating to sort out at the time ....... surely it wouldn't have been, can't have been, deliberate ??? Overall, customer service good, in store really good, checkout experience - never to be repeated hopefully.