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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Posts
    2

    Default Store Opened Bathroom Door While a Customer Was Inside

    My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California

    Within 3 mins. of entering, the door latch to the bathroom that I was using, jiggled. I said nothing, since there was no verbal communication accompanying this jiggle. Less than a minute afterward, I heard a female voice ask someone outside the bathroom “Are you waiting for the bathroom?” A male voice responded, “Yes. I only want to wash my hands.” I then heard the latch jiggle; again without verbal communication from outside. I, then heard a knock; again without verbal communication. In less than a minute, I heard knocking again; again without verbal communication. I, then, saw the door open! Someone peaked in. This person had red on. I heard this person say, “He’s sitting there.” The door, then, closed. I finished using the bathroom, and locked the door while I was pulling up my pants and making myself presentable to leave the bathroom.

    I went to the pick-up area of the coffee counter and waited until I was acknowledged. A man acknowledged me, and I asked to speak to the manager. A woman came over and asked how she could help. I began to explain what had just occurred in the bathroom. She, quickly, began to apologize. I, then, realized that it was she who I had seen open the door. I, then, said that it was very rude of her to open the door of a locked bathroom. She began giving me an explanation as to her actions. She spoke of someone wanting to get in the bathroom, and that the person was concerned that the person in the bathroom was in trouble. She never stated that she had spoken before opening the door. I asked for her manager’s name, and when she would next be in the store.

    Approx. 7 months previous to this incident, the same door at the same cafe was opened after 5 to 6 jiggles of the latch. I complained, at the time, to a manager who said that they had had difficulties with the door opening and that it would be fixed. I thought that the current incident was the same sort of problem, until the current manager started to apologize for opening the door.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    The next time someone jiggles the latch of the bathroom, give them a verbal response whether they give you one or not. That will solve the problem.

    If you are looking for some kind of recourse through the legal system, you don't have any.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    6,808

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    Seriously? If I'm using the bathroom and someone jiggles the door, or knocks....I just call out "I'll be done in a minute!"
    5-6 jiggles at the latch...that tells me someone is wondering if someone is in the bathroom, or if it is locked from inside.

    Working retail...sometimes you get children or teens...who purposefully lock the door as they exit, for their own fun.

    Or you get teens/adults that are having sex. Or sometimes a person "waxing the banana".

    So if you are just using the toilet for the reason it's there....just say "I'll be done in a minute" or something and you won't have the door being keyed open.....

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,666

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    If you fell and knocked yourself out, or had some kind of medical condition, would you want to sue them because they knocked and wiggled the door for three hours and never entered to see if you were ok?

    And this is the second time this has happened to you in the same establishment?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    6,808

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    ^ Another good point.

    Friend of mine is a radio DJ. He had a co-host who liked....an illegal drug. She excused herself for the bathroom...didn't come back for a long time. He put a very long song on....found her passed out from an OD on the bathroom floor. Call ambulance.....

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    Quote Quoting genie2196uk
    View Post
    My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California

    Within 3 mins. of entering, the door latch to the bathroom that I was using, jiggled. I said nothing, since there was no verbal communication accompanying this jiggle. Less than a minute afterward, I heard a female voice ask someone outside the bathroom “Are you waiting for the bathroom?” A male voice responded, “Yes. I only want to wash my hands.” I then heard the latch jiggle; again without verbal communication from outside. I, then heard a knock; again without verbal communication. In less than a minute, I heard knocking again; again without verbal communication. I, then, saw the door open! Someone peaked in. This person had red on. I heard this person say, “He’s sitting there.” The door, then, closed. I finished using the bathroom, and locked the door while I was pulling up my pants and making myself presentable to leave the bathroom.

    I went to the pick-up area of the coffee counter and waited until I was acknowledged. A man acknowledged me, and I asked to speak to the manager. A woman came over and asked how she could help. I began to explain what had just occurred in the bathroom. She, quickly, began to apologize. I, then, realized that it was she who I had seen open the door. I, then, said that it was very rude of her to open the door of a locked bathroom. She began giving me an explanation as to her actions. She spoke of someone wanting to get in the bathroom, and that the person was concerned that the person in the bathroom was in trouble. She never stated that she had spoken before opening the door. I asked for her manager’s name, and when she would next be in the store.

    Approx. 7 months previous to this incident, the same door at the same cafe was opened after 5 to 6 jiggles of the latch. I complained, at the time, to a manager who said that they had had difficulties with the door opening and that it would be fixed. I thought that the current incident was the same sort of problem, until the current manager started to apologize for opening the door.
    How difficult would it have been to simply call out "occupied"?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,666

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    Quote Quoting llworking
    View Post
    How difficult would it have been to simply call out "occupied"?
    Why would he do that when he can pretend that no one is in the bathroom and freak-out when the door opens?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    Quote Quoting Who'sThatGuy
    View Post
    Why would he do that when he can pretend that no one is in the bathroom and freak-out when the door opens?
    'cause that would just be too easy...sigh.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    People like this OP need to be floated out to sea on a raft and left there. He won't speak unless they speak first, and then when his silence means they can't tell if (a) there's no one in there and the door got locked by accident; (b) there's someone in there who is unable to respond and needs medical attention; or (c) the person in there is a jackass who's not responding for asinine reasons of his own, he wants to take legal action when the staff (responsibly) attempts to determine which it is by the only other means available to them.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,666

    Default Re: Are There Legal Precedents for Employees Opening Bathroom Doors at a Cafe

    Quote Quoting cbg
    View Post
    People like this OP need to be floated out to sea on a raft and left there. He won't speak unless they speak first, and then when his silence means they can't tell if (a) there's no one in there and the door got locked by accident; (b) there's someone in there who is unable to respond and needs medical attention; or (c) the person in there is a jackass who's not responding for asinine reasons of his own, he wants to take legal action when the staff (responsibly) attempts to determine which it is by the only other means available to them.
    And with his own admission that he was in the bathroom for at least a minimum of 5 minutes while people were outside wiggling the handle and knocking on the door.

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