wilkinsons madness

7Mir7

hi martin hi everyone else!

one of my friends was refused service of tealights in wilkinsons this afternoon can you believe it! i thought it was a joke at first they were just tealights for use in some candle holders at home.
at the till the moody old bat said that id was required as it was think 25. since when did you have to be 25 to buy a tealight!!!!!!!!!!!! my friend didnt have id and got angry till lady also got angry and called a supervisor who said my friend was drunk so they couldnt serve him and that if the till asks for id they have to get id.
they even called a security guard who told my friend she had to leave the store and said he also thought she was drunk and had to provide id!!!!!!

does anyone know the address to complain to and what rights my friend has thanks.

Helix

Your friend doesn't have any rights, a store can refuse to sell to someone for any reason - as long as its not discriminating (Age doesn't count).

Trixi

Was your friend drunk?

photome

What rights do you think your friend should have?

The store asked for ID, she didnt have any.

getting angry didnt help

was she drunk

PS

i get asked for ID in many stores in the USA, mainly when buying alchohol so slightly different but I am over 50

Valli

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/advice-business-sfsum1.cfm

no mention of candles on the TS site.

However, as has been said, any store can refuse a sale.

stevemLS

Age is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 (Section 4).

So, in the absence of legislation controlling the age at which stuff can be sold, as is the case with alcohol, knives, etc, or some other objectively justifiable reason Wilkinsons may well be practicing unlawful discrimination.

7Mir7

hello no my friend was not drunk. that is interesting about the law i will look it up and make a compliant.

browneyedbazzi

stevemLS wrote: »

Age is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 (Section 4).

So, in the absence of legislation controlling the age at which stuff can be sold, as is the case with alcohol, knives, etc, or some other objectively justifiable reason Wilkinsons may well be practicing unlawful discrimination.

Service wasn't refused because of the age of the customer - it was refused because the customer was unwilling/unable to provide ID.

Also, you need to consider the Equality Act as a whole and the following section is quite relevant:

s13 (2) If the protected characteristic is age, A does not discriminate against B if A can show A's treatment of B to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Wilkinsons could easily argue that preventing potentially dangerous items from coming into the possession of children is a legitimate aim and therefore applying a think 25 policy to those products is proportionate.

eta: also OP, think 25 doesn't mean you have to be 25 to buy a product. It means if you look under 25 you'll be asked to provide proof of age to show you are old enough to buy it (18 for most things). It's a fairly common policy operated by many retailers.

McKneff

7Mir7 wrote: »

hello no my friend was not drunk. that is interesting about the law i will look it up and make a compliant.

You have nothing to complain about.

DevCoder

Hmm a compliant complaint?

7Mir7

i do because staff said my friend was drunk when she wasnt and also the refusal to sell something normal that thre is no reason to refuse. what is anyone going to do with a tealight!