"Wheelchair repair"

I contacted the SMART centre for wear and tear repairs for my day to day wheelchair I’m paraplegic. They were very pleasant and helpful as they always are. The person who attended my workplace to fix my chair was less than pleasant unfortunately. I work in a public government building and they arrived at reception which was busy with people, I greeted him and asked where his equipment was as I planned to go into the back of office area as normally happens when I get my wheelchair repaired. The repair person informed me they would be taking my chair away as they didn’t know the area so hadn’t parked conveniently close enough to bring tyres and tools in, so would be taking my wheelchair away to the van. I was concerned and asked if they were taking my chair away, the reply was to quite sternly say that they'd be taking it out to the van with them or it wouldn't be getting repaired.

2 clear choices for me there. So I took them into the back non public area to sit in a chair, and they took my chair and said that they'd be back in 30 minutes. I said trying to be light hearted even though I didn’t feel it I’ll sit here and try not to have a panic attack. They said not to worry, no one was there to see me. I am never away from my wheelchair and found this experience horrendous. An office in the district had a bomb scare and evacuation recently. This and the humiliating way I was spoken to in front of everyone at reception played heavily in my mind for the entire 30 minutes. I don’t think it is acceptable for anyone to take a wheelchair away from their user without positive consent which in my case would be never. I also think the customer service training needs to be improved. To end on a positive they did a good job in repairing my wheelchair and I’m very grateful for service I have always had from the SMART centre.