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Original poster

mean people at Homebase!!

16 replies

Carameli · 18/02/2007 17:09

Hi,

just had to tell other what happened to my dh and dd(3.5yrs) yesterday afternoon at Guildford Homebase. They were looking around at a few things and dd needed to go to the toilet so dh asked if there was one she could use as she was quite desperate.

Was told by the manager she could not use any there, not even a staff one as they were worried about people vandalising them.
I could not believe it when I heard this as have often been out and allowed to use staff toilets with a desperate toddler. Have I just been lucky?

I think it was so horrid of Homebase to be like this.

OP posts:
2shoes · 18/02/2007 18:01

i suppose if they let people use staff toilets the they become public toilets. we had this happen at the library once.
should have let him use one of the display ones

2nervesleft · 18/02/2007 18:11

They should be able to use a bit of common sense. Taking a 3.5 yr old and training her to say she was desperate for a wee in an extreme way of getting access to the loos to vandalise them!

Did he let her wee in the aisle?

Original poster
Carameli · 18/02/2007 21:31

no he got really angry with the manager and then took her to burger king. DD managed to hold on bless her heart.

OP posts:
JanH · 18/02/2007 21:42

Yep, that sucks. If they were really concerned about vandalism (FFS ) they could have escorted your DH and DD and hung around until they'd finished.

Complain to Homebase's HO!!! Customer Service page

wheresthehamster · 18/02/2007 21:43

Some toilets are not covered by h & s rules for members of the public. E.g. having to go through a stockroom or warehouse, things like that.

JanH · 18/02/2007 21:46

They should have a public one really, or make sure they are sited near to a public one - but as this manager didn't have the nous to quote H&S I doubt if that was the reason!

MerlinsBeard · 18/02/2007 21:50

in all the shops i have worked in the "public" aren't insured for all areas in the store. If your DD has hurt herself in the toilet and she wasn't insured to be in their in the first place then the shop would get in serious trouble

DimpledThighs · 18/02/2007 21:51

I will go to B&Q tomorrow in protest / support - I hate this mindless unhelpfulness!

lazyline · 18/02/2007 21:55

If there are only staff toilets, then they are not covered by the insurance for the general public.

lazyline · 18/02/2007 21:56

I don't think that it's company policy to make sure new store sites are located closely to public lavatories!

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 18/02/2007 21:56

it is most likely to do with insurance. also the staff toilets might be located in an area where the public are not allowed, eg a warehouse or similar.

and while it is frustrating, if they allow it for one toddler they have to allow it for all and where do you draw the line?

LaylaandSethsmum · 18/02/2007 22:01

This happened to me in a shop once my response was " If you don't allow her to use your toilet then you will be mopping up wee from your floor, she cannot hold on she is only 2"

Needless to say they let us , begrudgingly , use their manky toilet with lots of huffing and puffing!!

JanH · 18/02/2007 22:02

If it was insurance/H&S, why didn't he say that, instead of talking about vandalism?

Aero · 18/02/2007 22:12

Sorry, but I think there's an element of disgression and common sense to be used in cases like this. Someone could have escorted them and waited to escort them back, which has happened to us in both B&Q and Tesco where there are no public loos. If it'd been me with ds2 (in learning stage), I'd have been annoyed and taken him outside and let him go against their wall. Haven't quite got the nerve to let him go in the aisle. I've already had a customer service issue this week (although not with homebase). Our local homebase have also closed their public toilet due to vandalism, but luckily there's a Toy's R Us across the car park.

irishbird · 18/02/2007 22:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lazyline · 19/02/2007 07:34

I used to manage a store (a small one though, so no-one in their right mind would assume that we had public toilets) and we got people asking to use them all the time. It was very definitely a no-no as far as head office was concerned and there was no way I would have liked to take the repurcussions of letting an uninsured person upstairs, through the staff areas and stock room full of hundreds of thousands of pounds of stock, into the (grotty and dingy) staff toilets.

To add to this, I also had several people say to me regarding their toddlers - "they are really desperate, if you don't let them use the toilet, they will do it in their trousers or on the floor." I would tell them that unfortunately, I wasn't allowed and inform them of the nearest pulic toilet (close by). Lo and behold, they were still there in the shop, as long as 15 minutes later, browsing away, with their "desperate" toddler.

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