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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be annoyed they wouldn’t sell the false nails to me?

207 replies

RhodaCamel · 15/02/2020 14:13

Dd (12) and I have just got back from a shopping trip.
We popped into B&M, I purchased a few bits and dd had chosen some body butter and a pack of false nails for herself. She was purchasing them with some pocket money so I made my purchases first and paid up and dd popped her bits in the conveyor belt so she could pay for these bits herself.
The lady at the till looked at dd then called over the manager. I was stood next to dd and asked what the problem was. The manager said she needed proof of ID to show if dd was over 14 (no label in false nails stating this). I said ‘She is 12, is it because there is glue in the pack?’, they said yes and I said I understood, no worries I’ll buy them. The manager came back with ‘No, I can not sell them to you as your daughter is standing with you and we know they are for her’, wtf!! I then said ‘Well, that’s ridiculous but ok. I’ll sent dd back to the car and I’ll go back round, pick up a new pack of nails and pay for them myself’.....’No, we won’t sell them to you today as we know they are for your dd’!!!!!!
WTAF?? I totally understand there must be rules, regulations and policies to safeguard vulnerable people etc but is this not taking it to a completely new level, FFS!!

OP posts:
Mummyrowland · 17/02/2020 06:47

Strangely this was something I thought about the other day. My daughter actually managed to buy some nails with glue herself just before Christmas and she was 11. I was surprised

janj2301 · 17/02/2020 07:36

I used to work in a petrol station, had this all the time with cigarettes. Not allowed ro sell to someone we thought was going to pass then to someone underage or who could not prove their age

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/02/2020 07:47

@Ellejelly Your link uses alcohol as an example It's clumsily written but it does state quite clearly that it applies to all age restricted items

This is when an adult attempts to buy age restricted products on behalf of an underage person

Ellejelly · 17/02/2020 07:58

@CuriousaboutSamphire
Yes but it is only an offence with alcohol not for any other age restricted products
I probably worded my initial post badly but I meant it isn't illegal for a proxy sale unless it is with alcohol

FishCanFly · 17/02/2020 08:12

YANBU. They were ridiculous

Aderyn19 · 17/02/2020 08:19

This country treats adults like children. It's ridiculous. Same as when the supermarket can only sell you two packets of ibuprofen. If someone was serious about harming themselves, they'd just buy from every shop in town. If your DD was going to snuff glue, I doubt she'd choose to buy it with her mother present. Or does the law believe that in purchasing this for her, you are somehow enabling her to do it?
Time to let adults get on with adulting - for ourselves and our children.

sashh · 17/02/2020 08:23

OP

Why didn't you ask them to remove the glue?

MumW · 17/02/2020 08:28

I once had to id someone to sell them a plastic baby knife and fork set. The lady in question was about 20 but it flashed up on the till - we had a laugh about it.
Also had an argument over having to give an address when selling a tv. The man got arsey saying he was taking it abroad so it didn't matter.

WatchingFromTheWings · 17/02/2020 08:35

The supervisor was called who had a child in the same school year as DD and whe therefore KNEW she had to be over 18 AND knew that DD doesn't drink (her friends used to tease her until she passed her driving test then she was suddenly very popular indeed) Still the answer was "no"

I work in food retail. My DS is almost 20. All my colleagues know him, and know how old he is. They still have to ID him. If a member of the public/police/licensing people see staff not following the 'Think 25' policy our company operates they WILL get pulled up for it. My son knows better than to attempt to buy alcohol without taking his ID.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 17/02/2020 08:46

Ellejelly can you put up a link for that? I can't find anything that restricts the act to just alcohol. All I have found uses the umbrella term "age restricted goods"

Breathmiller · 17/02/2020 09:11

I think the laws have gone too far the opposite way.
I get it's not the assistants fault as such but some stores take it too far in what they ask the assistants to look for.

I got id'd at 43!! In asda, buying a bottle of wine with my weekly shop. Now its often said I don't quite look my age but I don't look remotely 25!

My 26 year old daughter was with me one day in Tesco when we were buying a nice dinner. She grabbed a bottle of wine and said she would treat us. But she forgot her id at the till. So I was refused to put it in my shopping. Again I know its not the assistants fault as they have to protect themselves but the law of think 25 means anyone under 30 can't buy alcohol without id these days. Which must be a pain if you're rushing in somewhere and have forgotten it.

B&M are quite strict. My husband popped in to buy 2 ales he couldn't get elsewhere and just happened to have our 16 year old son with him. They refused to sell to my husband despite there being no indication that they were for our son.

annamie · 17/02/2020 09:15

Why didn't you ask them to remove the glue?

Why would this occur to OP?

LolaSmiles · 17/02/2020 09:32

Some of this thread explains precisely why schools spend more time than is reasonable having to deal with parents who think the school rules don't apply to them/their DC.

Some of the attitudes towards staff being jobsworths, wanting to be awkward, refuse shopping if they won't break the law are ridiculous.

msgreen · 17/02/2020 09:41

False nails are horrible, really horrible and on a 12 year old ????

DelpheDaisy · 17/02/2020 09:47

Maybe I have strong nails because I've used glue ones for years and when I want to take them off, I just tear them away from my nail slowly, they cone off. No ripping my actual nails off, no need to soak them in something to dissolve the glue.

sweeneytoddsrazor · 17/02/2020 09:47

That is not the case at all @Ellejelly. I have already said on this thread about a test case from Camelot that happenedin my store 2 weeks ago. That would have been a proxy sale. So therefore that is lottery, cigarettes have also been tested as proxy sales in our store. Every year as part of our ongoing training we have to do a legal refresher and proxy sales are covered in this.

mummy2oli · 17/02/2020 09:59

I was once refused to buy a scoring doo dvd for my son 🤷‍♀️
Morrison’s computer had it flagged as a 15 even though the disc was labelled as Universal. The lady refused as she said she knew it was for him and not me. Even went as far as a manager who still said as the computer told them it was a 15 and they knew it was for my son I was not allowed to purchase it... even though the box was clearly a cartoon scooby doo dvd which started at the time it was universal, and it was obviously an error in their system. No common sense at all!

mummy2oli · 17/02/2020 10:00

Scooby doo not scoring

JessicaBlack101 · 17/02/2020 10:45

When did things change? I remember buying fake nail kits with glue in then when I was young.

Is there a glue sniffing problem I am oblivious to?

syskywalker · 19/02/2020 01:48

They are bloody nuts. I’d have returned everything I just bought and gone somewhere else. Most false nails don’t even have real glue in them but are like little sticky things. And for alcohol etc it’s called challenge 25 if you look under 25 which is also ridiculous and shops being ridiculously unreasonable as the law states 18! Even on tiny packs of 4 chocolates which is probably not even real champagne but flavouring, Nevermind it’s not physically possible to even get tipsy from alcoholic chocolates as you’d be sick before you ingested enough. The glue law is meant to stop glue sniffing and pretty sure nails don’t even have enough of that. And still I see under 16 year olds drinking energy drinks which they shouldn’t have been sold and that is actually harmful.

syskywalker · 19/02/2020 01:54

Although even if you have your kids with you, the law states that in your home they can have alcohol, from a certain age! So this is it’s a proxy sale is all bull just because they are with you unless you say it is so.

katy1213 · 19/02/2020 02:04

The nanny state really is getting ridiculous. Once you get your wine - or your nails - back home, are you supposed to keep them under lock and key so no under-18 can access them?

glasgow357 · 19/02/2020 02:14

False nails for toddlers?! Are you sure about that?!

MickCarter · 19/02/2020 02:28

Like these @glasgow357

www.primark.com/en/categories/beauty/make-up/kids/kids-false-nails/p/127213054

Lots of other brands/shops/types available though.

In Primark they’re in with the kids hair bands/trinket type things usually.

WaterOffADucksCrack · 19/02/2020 12:50

I’d have returned everything I just bought and gone somewhere else What a childish thing to do just because you think rules shouldn't apply to you!

The law is what it is, if you don't think you should have to abide by it maybe live elsewhere? It's always the people behind the till who are just doing their job as instructed who get it in the neck. I don't miss those days. Being threatened because someone who looks underage doesn't have I'd. Having a whole basket of shopping tipped over my til and the apparent human being walking off so I have to put it back or get someone else to. Then I may have a queue and I'll get it in the neck again because people had to wait.

Your need for age restircted products is not more important than the job or potential fine of the person selling it.