TESCO have been criticised for driving through a rural Highland community where it cancelled deliveries, to reach another even further away.
Customer Steve Bernard, 61, of Strahnaver, Sutherland, made the discovery after the supermarket chain took the far-north community off its home delivery service.
He found Tesco delivers to Altnaharra, some 13 miles south of his home, and the vans need to pass his home.
The store the supplies come from is 60 miles away in Wick, Caithness.
Mr Bernard, who relied on the service as he cares for his 90-year-old mother full-time, described the situation 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.”
Mr Bernard said he once had to meet a Tesco 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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