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.

Evidence this, please?

Do you have children? Only asking because I want to know.

Wrong!
On all counts. RTFT.

OP has hilariously now said she was on a wind up anyway. (see her last post) so it's slow handclap time all round really.

So it was all a windup?
Charming.

Were you there?

And before you start. I love teenagers. Teach 300 of them. They're like quicksilver and they keep me alive. They feed my soul.

None of which is relevant.

The TL:DR is: shops can let who they want enter. OP has said it was all a windup.

I'm pretty sure the wind up OP is referring to is her telling people to shove their opinions up their arses but I might be wrong. OP wasn't really involved in the winding up until last night, we wound each other up perfectly fine without her input until then!

Hi, back on here to update. Homebase manager rung me this morning as I was told he would ring me back after he speaks with the member of staff as what she said was true in regards to no under 18, but his staff still have duty to carry out appropriate positive customer service. Which she didn't , he had said the staff member apologised she didn't mean to come across as rude she just wanted them to leave due to the policy. I had asked the manager is there any other reasons why they were asked to leave? He said "no, it's down to being under the age of 18, if you look under 25 we will question & ID you" so there we go, the manager confirmed that the employee said there was no issue with them in store other than their age.

With me saying it's a wind up. I didn't mean my post, I meant replying to the idiots on this thread. Winding them up, giving them what they want to hear.

There isn't a policy precluding under 18s. That's a fact. I've not seen any evidence the young woman was rude. Provide empirical evidence. Teaching 300 children would suggest a very small primary. It might be better for the children you teach if you relied on evidence rather than fantasy.

I thought it was perfectly clear what you meant when you talked about a wind up, but @BlindurErBóklausMaður as a late comer may not have seen your previous posts as they were deleted so didn't have enough information to make an informed opinion, still did it though! That could be the tagline of this whole conversation!

If they told you there's a policy excluding under 18s, they're lying. There isn't.

I guess they mean a policy specific to that store. It doesn't explain why they still took the girls' money but I hope OP suggested they put up a notice at the door! It would save everyone's time, energy and embarrassment. People get the wrong impression when someone is asked to leave a shop, they assume wrong doing as evidenced here!

Even if that store has a no under 18 policy, it's still shitty to throw out a couple of nicely behaved kids, who were genuinely shopping and not wandering about the knife section! It's just that staff member throwing her weight around because she thinks she has a little bit of power.
"Didn't mean to come across as rude"? I suspect the only thing she's sorry about is that the kid she picked on has a mother willing to advocate for her and not some stupid sap who will meekly tell her to obey every 'official' who bosses her around.

Does it have a section on social etiquette and humility for beginners? Maybe we could all pitch in for the greater good.

The poster said she teaches 300 teens. But you decide that she teaches at a primary school…And then you’re abusive. 🙄

As to the ‘lying’ manager, the OP’s now been told twice by him that they have a ‘no u-18s’ policy. I don’t know why that shop runs that policy, nor do you. But it clearly does.

Sounds to me like the store was responsive and sensible about it all when the OP raised it with them.

Here we go again, of course you on your high horse know better than the store manager 🤣 Come off it

Their central customer service team said that this is not their corporate policy and they would like to speak to the management of the store where it happened.

If it is still important to you then you might want to get in touch with them directly.

I see very young staff in these shops, wonder if this age discrimination applies to them. I rented at a very young age but was welcomed and encouraged. Shame this is happening. Our daughter looks young for her age and is frequently asked for id . She’s never had this happen in a diy store or she would have reacted just like the op daughter. Polite but strong female.

The manager is protecting his staff..
I too think she didn’t want kids in because of past shoplifting/ fooling around (kids in general not yours)… she followed them round making sure they didn’t misbehave…
If it was indeed store policy surely she’d have told the checkout person not to serve them because they were only 15??? Not just walk off and allow them service! Very odd indeed.
I don’t think your daughter was rude either… it makes me sick that kids are still expected not to stand up for themselves…. Many a time I’ve had to complain to school because teachers won’t let my DD give reasons for things happening… (she’s got a disability and some teachers have damn right discriminated against her and then used ignorance as an excuse!)…. But if they’d let her talk rather than telling her to shut up they’d have realised she needed actual fkn help! (As in medical emergency help!)
They say kids have no respect these days… I’m surprised with the contempt they’re often shown by adults!

I’m NOT surprised that should say

They can enter into contracts for "necessaries" such as utilities and food.

They absolutely can get a rental at 16, usually through the council but I've seen it plenty times, they can marry and have kids too

Not actually true, as many care leavers have to do just this, albeit with support.

They're not toddlers ffs!!

That can’t be right. They can join the army, get married, and be offered a housing association property at 16, all of which would require them to sign a contract.
*Scot here - think marriage law in England may differ

English 16 year olds used to be able
to ‘run away’ to Scotland to get married or get married at 16 with parents permission in England but this has recently been made illegal.