to write stinking letter to estate agents about this youtube clip

[LesbianMummy1]

I am disgusted at a clip that I have just seen on facebook of a mentally ill woman from the town I live in. She is seen in a local estate agents wandering around repeating herself over and over and is obviously filmed by somebody from the estate agents they are all heard laughing at her as well. Whilst I appreciate that it is hard not to smile she is a woman with a mental health condition not a freak or clown from a circus. Why is it ok to laugh at this ill person. You would not walk into a hospital ward and laugh at ill people there.

will pop into police station on way to gymnastics this morning and see what they say

While I can see it being totally wrong to post on YouTube, I'm not convinced that TYITC would be correct about the Data Protection Act. The DPA concerns personal information, which is held by the organisation (such as staff details, customer details, where there's more than just a 'distribution list', so for example some sort of payment record for a customer).

The individual who is subject of this video is not necessarily a customer of the estate agent, and there's no proof they have any details (not even her name) on record so it would be a wild goose chase to involve the Information Commissioner, and a waste of time when there are serious data misuse issues to investigate.

I'd expect someone in the local Council's Business Development section (which, after all, has a wish for businesses in the town/area to be held up as good examples) and/or staff at the Chamber of Commerce, to be likely bodies that would accept a complaint and make strong representations to the firm.

Do go down the Trading Standards route first, asking them who deals with the DDA, and whether a business is breaking any rules on posting such a vile video clip online.

Also, if you can, see if you can download a copy. There are a few add-ons for browsers like FireFox, which can do this (I think), so you have a copy as proof (and take a screen shot of the browser - use ALT+PrtScreen and then Paste in image editing software like MS Paint (on the Accessories menu on Windows).

It's worth having copies that you can write to a CD, if you want, so you could anonymously submit a report to the local Police (put some suitable description like "YouTube video clip humiliating a person with mental health problems" on the envelope, and they may take it from there).

YADDDDNBU.

I am glad that you didnt post it - who in thier right minds thinks that this is acceptable. I hope the Police do something.

I would definitely report it to the head office (not the branch manager; would strongly suspect that they're aware of it already).

I would be inclined to find contacts for HR, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Marketing (two and three primarily if there's anything to identify the chain which would have a negative impact). This might seem excessive to some, but I do think that it's better to attack it from various angles if you genuinely want something done about it.

Would also approach adult safeguarding team at the local authority, but they may see it as outside their remit (Estate Agents not particularly having any responsibility for vulnerable adults, other than the default responsibility of being a reasonable member of society).

LM1 if you dont get far with the police let me know and ill pop in aswell (Strength in numbers)

i will have to try very hard to not walk in estates agents and give them a piece of my mind next time im passing!! twats!!

As if Estate Agents didn't have a bad enough name as it is. Idiots.

YANBU...I've seen the clip....why even put this on YouTube? Why? There is nothing funny about it at all!

When I figure out the name of the estate agents I'm going to call them and tell them they are twats.

Right...got them. Can I name and shame on here?

louvert is right, you should contact the head office of the estate agents. I would do it by phone asap.

They are an intendant, so no head office.

Are they a local firm, or part of a nationwide group ? Only asking because some others might by association with other threads have their locality identified via your post... and may not want even the town/city name to be linked to their current location.

It's probably not ideal, especially if action is taken, to highlight their name here, tbh.

Let the manager be blacklisted by the Chamber of Commerce and the Business section of the Council, so they know to warn any future employer about potential 'lack of judgement' and ability to 'blacken the name of your firm' which would be suitable reprimand (though unfortunately, it might have been videod when manager was out of office and put online without their knowledge).

Really need to identify the silly fool who posted it, though with several people laughing, it's a 'joint effort' at tastelessness - the one with the mobile for making a video and the rest for joining in.

To be fair, the girl who is laughing seems to be doing so out of embarrassment, and the other people in the office are on the phone..but they all go along with it. The real knob is the one filming.

Scrub what I said earlier...there are several offices. Apparently they are , "one of the country's leading independent estate agents, with offices throughout Portsmouth and South East Hampshire".

The youtube clip makes it clear in the title which office it is.

Head office is in Drayton...hmmmmm.....

how awful - that poor woman

hope you have luck with the police.

what a scummy bunch of tossers (the estate agents, not police)

lynette i have delt many times with the office in northend and the one in drayton and there customer service is not brillaint!

r you in this area too?

If the police can't assist you, perhaps send an e-mail to Mind asking for advice.

Local paper would probably pick this up and run with it and nicely make a dent in their corporate image as a possible alternative way of hitting back at them.

I thought of that emptyshell, but OTOH, it might lead to more local people viewing the clip and more loss of dignity for the woman. Maybe if YouTube took it down first (but I have no idea how that works)

You can just report the clip as abuse from within the window you watch it in in YouTube I believe and they do pull them pretty quickly if that's the case. It's the flag icon at the bottom right of the play window.

Only know because like most teachers - camera phones can be an utter pain in the rear so always good to know how to get stuff pulled in case you end up on there! (Only come close to happening once with me thank God)

I second reporting to the local press and getting agency some bad publicity; may make the the manager respond quicker than some of the "legal" channels.

Take this further.

How disgusting.

can't believe it social care feel it is disgusting and said I should contact police who have just told me it is not illegal to do this and all I can do contact the estate agents or youtube but I have no proof she is not aware and I am so