The PR handling at UK supermarket Waitrose has come under fire this afternoon for its failure to respond to comments on its Facebook page about the treatment a woman and her disabled child received in-store.

The first posting on the story occurred some 19 hours ago. Waitrose commented on the posting, saying that it was trying to find out “exactly what happened between the customers involved”, but hasn’t commented since then on a number of posts on the page asking for explanations.

The company has however responded to posts on the page that don’t concern the matter, such as one woman’s request that boxes of a dozen large eggs be stocked in her local branch.

The company’s social media silence has been picked up on across social networks, and its failure to respond publicly to the allegations beyond its initial action has drawn strong criticism. Companies such as Toyota and ITV have previously found that delayed responses to social media crises can have long term consequences for a company's brand.