RUDE Manager as Dischem Glenfair and no resolution from customer care in 2 months

I phoned the complaint line and spoke to Dawn twice (Thursday 22/02 and Monday 26/02) , I am still awaiting response and am making this complaint as I have not received reply on my last email (which was sent in February) and I am very unhappy with the results given and feel that this matter has not been resolved.

I am a 4th year dietetics student in dietetics. We were given an assignment to find gluten free alternatives for crackers and chips for patients with gluten intolerance's or celiac's disease (other groups in the class had other foods to do). We needed to go to Dischem and Checkers to find alternatives to present to our class not only for the assignment but also to be able to use in practice when advising clients on gluten free foods. We have done this previously, last year at Woolworths and the year before that regarding infant formulas at Clicks.

On Thursday 22/02 we (my group partner and I) visited Dischem Glenfair in order to find the alternatives we required. Having done this previously and never having had issues at the stores we immediately started. We were wearing our scrubs (uniform). We were in the isle but made sure not to be in any customers ways or obstruct them in any way. My partner opened her laptop to see what information we needed whilst I took photos of the products and their prices. One of the store workers approached us and asked if we needed help. We explained what we were doing. She asked if we had asked the manager for permission. I explained that we did not know that we needed to do this but would she just make sure it was okay. She then returned and told us the manager had said we did not have permission and needed to leave the store (Please note this lady was friendly and we understood where she was coming from). We then asked if we could speak to the manager because there was obviously just a misunderstanding.

When we approached the manager we told him that we were dietetics students and explained what we were doing. He told us we had no common decency and we should have asked permission (he was immediately rude and condescending). We explained that we did not know we needed permission to look at the products and asked if we could go look at them. He said no and "get out of my store". We then asked if we could phone our lecturer so that he could speak to her (again assuming that perhaps he did not understand the situation). He stated that he had no interest in speaking to our lecturer and once again told us to leave his store. I asked if I could just go back to take photos of the products as we need them for our assignment. He said no. I then said that its fine we would leave but I would be contacting head office due to his absolute disrespect. My partner asked for his name to which he rep**** "Stephan, just make sure you spell it correctly".

We then went to Checkers to get our products from there (where we spoke to the manager who could not understand why we were even asking to look at their products). We had to get the Dischem products online which doubled the time our assignment took.

We are extremely unhappy regarding the entire situation and the utter disrespect with which Stephan spoke to us. At the very least we expected an apology from the manager and even though the customer care representative apologised on his behalf she was not at fault and thus had no need to apologise.

I am still awaiting feedback regarding this matter