Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

to refuse to serve a man with a weird skin condition?

100 replies

weebump · 24/03/2009 22:31

Now, before I get jumped on, I am putting myself into the shoes of this shop assistant who refused to serve my sisters FIL. Here's the scenario:

FIL has a badly disfigured face. He also has a flakey skin rash thing on his hand. He was buying something in a well known chain store and just about to hand over his money when the woman at the till said, "Sorry, I can't serve you". He's a bit deaf, thought she had said something else, asked her to repeat it. Again she refused to handle money from him. It was because of his hand.

FIL, starting to feel a bit anxious about this now, noticed the big queue behind him and felt really embarrassed. They all started to back away from him.

He asked to see the supervisor. She came along, saw what the situation was and responded. She said the woman on the till had every right to refuse to serve him.

FIL left the store, wobbly with embarrassment and rage, but frozen in stiff-upper-lipness.

Was she right to refuse him? Can you believe she did this, and her supervisor backed her up?

OP posts:

DaisyMooSteiner · 25/03/2009 09:56

weebump - please let us know what happens with this.

madlentileater · 25/03/2009 19:27

I can imagine your FIL might not want to make a fuss....but maybe he would do so for the sake of other people?
stuff like that really shouldn't go unchallenged.

nickytwotimes · 25/03/2009 19:31

at this.

Like ShonaSpurtle further up, I worked in retail and wouldn't have given serving someone with a skin condition a second thought! A customer is a customer.

I would complain to the store manager and to their Head Office. Disgusting.

pointydog · 25/03/2009 19:35

I think that is completely out of order.

I'd get in touch with the shop and explain.

Idrankthechristmasspirits · 25/03/2009 19:48

i hate this sort of behaviour. dd has severe guttate psoriasis, she can be up to 90% covered at times.
When she was about 3 we were chucked out of a playground by a group of parents because they thought they could catch it.
We still have to deal with comments etc now.

I would want to batter this woman if i had been there.

tattifer · 26/03/2009 11:29

I doubt that your FIL would want to make a fuss but if you change it slightly and she's refusing to serve someone in a wheelchair, or blind etc I think you'd have a discrimination case. Where you'd go with that would depend on what kind of recompense you wanted. A letter to the managers/owners of the business should at least get you a heartfelt apology. I'm sure you had the patience and were angry enough you could sue for damages.

wotulookinat · 26/03/2009 11:39

that's an awful thing to have happened. Did the shop worker then rufuse to touch anything at all in the shop in case he had touched it while browsing? What a narrow-minded unthinking person she must be.

tengreenbottles · 26/03/2009 15:55

Breathtakingly ingnorant ,there is no other way to describe what happened to your poor FIL. I am a nurse and imagine the outcry if i rufused to touch someone who had a skin condition or HIV or hepatitis a,b,c,d,e,f etc . I dont always wear gloves when i touch people either ,although i always wash my hands between patient contact ,gloves are only necessary when you are going to come into contact with bodily fluids or if they have something that is contagious through skin to skin contact .
You really need to complain about this ,if only to raise the knowledge/awareness of your FILs condition.

IwantPeace · 26/03/2009 15:59

I have bad excema which is very bad at the moment. It looks like a rash on my arms and hands.On my face and neck it looks like I've been burnt the skin is so raw.

I am to the core.

Please do complain, to help others and make sure this doesnt happen again, please complain

bubblagirl · 26/03/2009 16:09

v unreasonable i had many customers with skin conditions come in when i worked in a shop never once refused them served them smiled nicely and made them feel as they should like the rest of us

disgusting and your poor FIL i hope he knows not everyone is so disgusting he deserves better than that

Mung · 26/03/2009 16:13

Absolutely disgusting. How ignorant and rude. I really hope he is going to take it further.

hifi · 26/03/2009 16:16

as if the poor man hasnt enough to worry about.

SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore · 26/03/2009 16:20

Complain to their head office. That is disgusting. Your poor fil.

Sassybeast · 26/03/2009 16:47

Stunned and disgusted on his behalf. Why on earth did no one in the queue speak up ? I would be naming and shaming them!

duchesse · 26/03/2009 16:54

Appalling, truly appalling. Your poor FIL.

Lizzylou · 26/03/2009 17:02

That is so awful, poor man. How utterly humiliating for him.
Pls find out which store it was, that is no way to treat people.

Kimi · 26/03/2009 17:03

Casserole · 26/03/2009 17:25

I'm so so shocked and fucking angry on his behalf.

Name and shame the store - maybe one of us can post a template letter and we can all email their head office it!!!

BASTARDS

londonone · 26/03/2009 17:34

IF it was because of his skin condition then it was unreasonable, however there is no evidence AT ALL in the OP that this was the reason. Did the shop assistant give this as the reason or have you just assumed this is the case?

Who knows why she refused, as a shop you have the right to refuse to serve people for all manner of reasons, we do not know what the reason was?

Also the shop assisstant herself could have a condition that makes her more susceptible to infection etc. WE DON'T KNOW what the situation was

Natt82 · 26/03/2009 20:33

that awful - i feel so bad for people with skin conditions as they are rarely contagious but so obvious in cases. DS1 has skin problems but luckily under his clothing mainly. My FIL was banned from our local swimming pool because he has psorisis and they said he would infect the water and scare the kids!

I would definately complain

Original poster

weebump · 26/03/2009 21:31

londonone, you're quite right. I wasn't there. I heard this story from my mum, so that's why I can't name the store. She was outraged on sis's FIL's behalf, as am I. He's a bit deaf too, so it's possible he misheard. But he made the shop assistant clarify the problem thinking he had misheard, and unfortunately he hadn't.

My interpretation is that she saw the flakey skin, and his disfigured face and thought "Flesh Eating Disease!!!". In fact his face is disfigured due to an operation to remove a tumour, giving him a bit of a 'caved in' effect, and the condition on his hand has since cleared up, I didn't even notice it myself.

I wish I knew what store it was for sure. I'll ask my sis next time I see her. Then we can bombard them with complaints!

OP posts:

joeninetee · 08/06/2009 16:14

Can a shop assistant legally refuse to serve a customer without good reason in any situation?

jalopy · 08/06/2009 16:26

Poor man, it's enough to make you weep.

AnitaBlake · 08/06/2009 21:16

This happened to me, when an employee of a well-known energy firm initially refused to enter my home on the basis that I had 'chicken pox', it was psoriasis. It hit me hard because mostly people don't notice or comment. I was off work sick with stress athe time, so I had a major flare-up.

It's not on and it's not ok. I would have been mortified, the matter NEEDS to be taken further.

womma · 08/06/2009 22:04

How can they discriminate against someone with a skin condition? Idiots. Your relative is definitely in the right and should name/shame in local papers and complain to senior management. What a disgusting attitude! YANBU by the way.

Flip

1 2 3 4