Supermarket giant Tesco have been slammed for driving through a rural Highland village where it cancelled deliveries -- to get to another town further away.
Steve Bernard, 61, cares for his 90-year-old mother full-time and has relied on the supermarket's home delivery service for groceries.
The supermarket chain's store more than 60 miles away in Wick, Caithness, had been sending a van driver to Steve's home in Strathnaver, Sutherland.
But recently the supermarket has taken Strathnaver off of the route despite the vans delivering to Altnaharra -- around 13 miles south of his home.
Steve described the customer care from the supermarket as a "farcical pantomime".
He said: "You can imagine my shock when a Tesco delivery van later passed my house.
"I stopped the van and asked the driver where he had been delivering. He happily told me he'd just made a drop at Altnaharra, some 13 miles south of my address.
"So Tesco vans still appear to be driving up and down the Strath - it's just that they won't now stop at our houses.
"The Tesco customer care is like a farcical pantomime."
Steve has struggled to get a regular delivery service to his home, and on one occasion was asked to meet a van outside a public toilet several miles from his home to collect his groceries.
He added: "They have officially stopped delivering to the Strath so I am left with a 90-mile round trip, which is very difficult because of my caring commitment to my mother."
A Tesco spokesman said Strathnaver was not now in the postcode catchment area for deliveries.
He said: "Strathnaver is not in the catchment and deliveries here stopped.
"However, we have been working with the customer to try to help a find a delivery option, including looking for addresses which are in our delivery catchment.
"We have, by exception, tried to help out the customer and made some deliveries to the customer in Strathnaver, but this isn't possible on a regular or ongoing basis.
"Hence we have tried to work with the customer to find a solution in Bettyhill, which is in the catchment."
The spokesman was unable to explain why the vans were still travelling through the community to get to Altnaharra, which is further away from the Wick store.
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