To think this father was being unreasonable over heating a baby bottle in a bakery?

[MiniEggsMmm]

I work in a bakery and yesterday it was really busy. This father came in with a baby bottle full of milk and asked (his tone was demanding) if we could heat it. I politly said to him that we aren't allowed to heat baby bottles of milk due to health and safety.

He then asked for a bowl of boiling water so he could heat the bottle himself. I told him we aren't allowed to do that either due to health and safety either.

He was really angry and demanded to see the manager. The manager came out and this man was really angry and was shouting at this point saying "you begrudge my little boy a warm bottle of milk you tight b@stards!" The manager explained that if we gave him a bowl of boiling water and he knocked it over himself or worse still, the baby, we would be in so much trouble. Plus we could get sued for something like that.

I suggested to him that he bring a flask of boiling water and a jug to heat the bottle in in future and told him that's what i used to do. He then shouted "oh fck off you stupid btch!" at me and walked out.

I wasn't being a jobs worth, this kind of thing really is a health and safety issue and unfortunatly, people will sue for anything these days so you just cannot take the risk anymore. Plus we had a shop full of customers waiting to be served.

oh, well that changes things imo.

I presumed he was a customer, sitting at a table, having ordered stuff for the rest of the family from the bakery.

In that case he is a complete and utter twunt who deffo should have come better prepared.

Or at the very least taken his family to somewhere where he was going to buy something.

(not that he ever wasn't a twunt for talking to you like that...)

Even if you are caught unawares, that doesn't make it someone else's problem

He couldve gone to a cafe or similar and they would have been more able to help him.

And sorry, I disagree with smallWhiteCat - In a previous job, an employee fell over a chair SHE had been sitting on and had moved, and she successfully sued the company because she hadn't been trained not to do it

Of COURSE it was her own stupid fault, but the company still took the wrap AND suffered a plethora of copycat cases from other employees who realised it was an easy pay out.

And regardless of any of that: There is no reason to curse.

OP - YANBU!

Chequers, you are right. Bad language is abuse, but seems to have become acceptable in the world now.

I hope he scraped his car/missed a bus later in the day.

BTW I must say that we were never refused access to a toilet when ds was little, even tho' he made a habit of needing the loo whenever we went to a shop/library/wherever.
I think he's been in more staff toilets than a commercial plumber

I dont know I never asked the ins and outs of her insurance.

Even if she did have insurance and they payed out, her insurance premiems would go up alot after an incident like that i would have thought.

Absolutely, his behaviour was outrageous and he should have been refused service for that reason alone, but with regard to the general policy of not giving hot water:

• Yes parent's responsibility to make sure they have what they need for their child.

-Yes bakery perfectly reasonable to refuse to provide a service they will not be paid for. -Not reasonable to pretend the reason they don't want to give out free hot water is H&S, when they are perfectly happy to sell you the same water in a cup/teapot.

H&S regs get blamed for an awful lot, when really it's that the companies/people involved don't want to help.

Message withdrawn

The bakery i work in is a take-away only shop. I think the only thing we could have given water in would have been a metal mixing bowl.

I think thats what happened Minieggs.

Or her insurance wouldn't pay out for something like that

I work in a supermarket and we all had to sign 'working at height' forms as there are chairs upstairs that we sit on at breaks.
So incase we fall of a chair we cant sue them

H&S has gone crazy.

how old was the baby?

No you aren't

"See here silly man"

PMSL, a grape!!

I might go into work and slip on a grape tonight.

sweet jesus. i hope he doesnt win anything.
i may have to move country if he does.

Grapes are a part of supermarkets. I have often trod on one. Never slipped over just squashed them on my shoes and all over the floor.

good point, that they can sell hot pots of tea, but can give out a pot of hot water.

also this thread has made me wonder, what the other customers said and how they reacted?

myshimoo it is now against the law for any shop/cafe/restaurant to refuse you access to a toilet if they have one, they should have let yout LO use it

The OP- i can also see it from both sides but agree that the way he spoke to you was V bad

Did he think you could put the bottle in the bread ovens to warm it up

Of course he was a twat! Whatever the rights and wrongs of H&S etc, it's a bakery not a cafe. Would he go into a petrol station and ask? Or a florist. Very unreasonable.

Then he wasn't a customer and hadn't a leg to stand on. I rest my case...

Coffeenchoc - her exact words to me were: "Sorry we don't have insurance for the publics use of staff toilets"?

I was so I turned and said "well he'll just pee on your floor!"

She shrugged and mumbled "sorry!"