daughter was asked to leave homebase because she's under 18?

[whatisgoingonitw]

My daughter and her friend (both 15) went shopping yesterday and nipped into Homebase as my daughter wanted a plant and her friend wanted a heated blanket. They were approached by a member of staff who said “what age are you both you don’t look old enough to be in here” they replied 15. The member of staff asked them to leave as you need to be 18 to shop. My daughter is very straight forward and says how it is, she told the member of staff no as that is not true. The girls continued to walk around the store and they were followed by this lady who works there. They got to the till and paid with no issues the employee at the till didn’t mention age. My daughter told me this when she got home and explained the employee was rude and followed them around the store as well as giving them “dirty looks” I rung the store today to speak to a manager as that customer service is not okay. He told me you do infact need to be with an adult 18+ to shop. Is this serious? I can’t find anything on the website.

What’s to stop an adult grabbing a tool either? Perhaps we should have a blanket ban on adults too? Especially as there are more adult violent offenders in prison than there are child offenders in touch offenders institutions.

Items for sale to only over 18s, or which are ‘dangerous’, are usually locked and require a store assistant to retrieve it. No justifications whatsoever for the utterly non-existence non unaccompanied teens rule.

According to online sources such as this,

"The UK’s Equality Act 2010 does prohibit discrimination on grounds of age, but not in relation to provision of services for under-18s. This exception effectively protects the right of shops and businesses in the UK to exclude from their premises anyone under-18."

Or maybe she’s just switched-on enough to know that a store claiming to have such a policy would have the sense to clearly indicate it at the door? Presumably the shop assistant could have indicated this if (as would surely be likely) there were any confusion? Sounds like the assistant knew she didn’t have a leg to stand in so pathetically trailed the girls round the store to make some sort of point that was immediately undermined by the cashier!

Sounds to me like OP has a rude and entitled DD who thinks she knows better than everyone else but we’ll agree to disagree

What’s with this “you have to have a notice on the door”?

If a shopkeeper wants to ban children or particular children (or adults) they can do so however they like, sign or no sign.

Sounds to me like you're jumping to conclusions based on your own prejudices and inability to see things from outside of your own very narrow experience, but that's me basically doing the same thing so what do I know! .

Putting up a notice would save an awful lot of time and energy though, wouldn't it?

Sure, but that’s the shop’s choice.

‘My own very narrow experience’ ?

I have a teen DD and there’s no way she would act like that to a shop worker. She was challenged when travelling unaccompanied on a local ferry service with friends aged 15, despite it being clearly allowed on the website and having all necessary documentation. All it took was a quick explanation and a phone call to me, no rudeness or ‘know it all’ attitude necessary. OP’s daughter is going to have a very hard life if that’s how she deals with any situation she doesn’t like. Hostility gets you nowhere

It's a bit (a lot) more sensible to have a notice and inform people of the rules, surely.

Why do people have to guess?

Of course, they then have to accept that people will question it as they'll feel they're being targeted. They will also have to accept that they cannot have it both ways and then accept money from those people, that is proof that they have no intention of enforcing said rule and so the rule de facto does not exist.

I've asked Homebase and there's not a policy excluding under 18s from stores. Managers do have the right to exclude people at their discretion but on age grounds. There is an over 18 policy for online shopping. But not in stores. This young woman and her friend were able to complete their purchases despite a misinformed member of staff getting confused about in store and online shopping policy differences. I hope they receive training. I have found some of the contempt towards young people here quite alarming and unfounded. They were buying a plant and a blanket! It really isn't teenage girls I'm scared of! Blimey!

Well it makes sense. Heavens above - every supermarket is plastered in ‘Think 25’ signs and everyone already knows that policy!

In this instance the policy is weird, apocryphal and unsupported by their own cashiers, so a sign (even a small one) seems like an obvious minimum.

It seems to me that OP’s daughter was treated poorly by an officious member of staff. There’s no evidence that the daughter was rude (perhaps she was though - none of us were there 🤷‍♀️).

It just seems as though, if you insist on basic courtesy towards teen girls, it brings out all the ‘Vicky Pollard’ comments. It’s just part of the expected landscape of casual, endemic misogyny I guess.

Which law would that be?

And why do you think customers have to accept what they are told by badly trained customer service staff?

Age is irrelevant.

If I think a salesperson has got something wrong, I will push back. That isn't being rude or hostile and it makes no difference whether you are 55 or 15.

I've asked Homebase directly today and there is not a policy precluding under 18s from shopping in store. Managers have a degree of discretion but can't discriminate on age or other protected characteristics. I have no idea where this rabid 'the rules is the rules' nonsense came from. Certainly not Homebase 😀

But you can’t just assert that your dd conducted herself significantly differently from OP’s! You weren’t there for either encounter; neither were we!

In this case, as we’ve now had clarified, the girl was right. So she did know better. There’s no evidence she used rude language or anything like that.

Why is it wrong to challenge a shop worker?

So if she bought a kettle and it didn't work, and she took it back to the shop and the retail assistant refused to change it/refund/whatever the lawful remedy was, you'd tell her it was rude to challenge that (wrong and unlawful) policy and tell her to lump it to #be kind?

As if.

The idea that just because the cashier served means "there is no such policy" when the manager has confirmed it and there is evidence of similar policies at similar shops is clearly flawed logic. On balance of probabilities the manager and store worker were right.

It also not the case that such a policy is against the law. Lots of service providers can and do restrict the engagement of children, based on suitability (eg comedy show with adult content or, as seems to be the case for policies at similar shops, health and safety). Whilst OP has not confirmed if the manager explained the policy that doesn't mean it's somehow illegal. You don't have some inalienable right to shop.

Wether this girl was rude or not we don't know. But it doesn't appear she was right.

I have no idea where this rabid 'the rules is the rules' nonsense came from

MNers have very odd viewpoints.

Companies are always right and can do what they like

Consumers are always wrong

Small businesses are poor hard up entities which need support

You need to RTFT - she was right. I also explained the Equality Act point about being allowed to exclude under 18s some pages back.

But it wasn't.

Thank you for further explaining my point for me, you point of view is solely based on your experience of one child and your assumption that by questioning the rule, OP's daughter was rude and a 'know it all'.

In this case OP's daughter's attitude got her served in a shop she was asked to leave, that sounds like she's doing something right. She has her plant. In the same situation your daughter would leave without a plant and have to find another shop that would serve her or go home empty handed after her wasted trip. Which of these two scenarios sounds harder and ends with someone getting nowhere?

This is nothing to do with refunds, that’s a completely different situation. Stop making up scenarios in your head

It's not a rule unless it's written down. That's in the definition of what a rule is.

If you have a rule and don't display it, don't be surprised if people break it.

Correct. Plenty of other shops where you can buy plants and blankets, I very much doubt it would be the end of the world. If they don’t want unaccompanied minors in their store that’s their decision, fine by me! The ability to shop in Homebase (or anywhere) isn’t a god given right