Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you in complaint of an incident that occurred on Saturday 19th December 2009 concerning a hat I was wearing. I arrived at Mariners Court with two of my friends wearing a Christmas hat. I walked straight past the doorman – I even said hello to him. At this point he said nothing about the apparent policy (which I was to later discover) that hats are not allowed to be worn inside the premises. I had been in the pub about an hour and a half, not approached by anyone concerning the hat, until I went to the bar and the barman asked me to remove it. I asked why and he said that, ‘it is company policy as we have CCTV’. Now I understand the pub needs to have surveillance systems that can identify members of the public on the premises, albeit slightly harsh on someone just wearing a Christmas hat during the festive period. Then I asked what the policy was if somebody came into the pub wearing a burka or a turban and could not remove it. He replied that, and this is where I found this policy detrimental to certain societies, ‘we would have to ask them for proof of identification.’ I simply couldn’t help thinking why. I also thought that just because somebody is wearing a mark of religion that covers a part of their head, they have to be checked for I.D and someone who isn’t wearing a burka or turban doesn’t. The whole situation feels discriminatory toward certain people and is therefore a policy with flaws.
The next thing that happened really disappointed me and is the main reason I am writing to you concerning this unfortunate occurrence. I had obliged by taking my hat off and about another 45 minutes later I returned to the bar only to see the barman who made me take my hat off was wearing one himself! It was a fun hat that, if I hadn’t have been asked to take mine off for, what I feel, is a faulty rule, I would never have complained as it is all in the spirit of Christmas, but he had dictated a policy to me that he himself was unable to stick to (for which I have photographic evidence).
It is a terrible shame because I genuinely am not a person to complain. I am a regular visitor of your pub and I like it very much. It is just this issue that has aggravated me and feel the rule needs to be either relaxed – which I believe would be the best way to go – or consistent by starting at the doorman who clearly isn’t bothered with the rule that this barman picked up on when I finally went to the bar.
I hope you respond to this e-mail and consider revising this problem to potentially resolve it. Thanks for reading it and hope to hear from you soon.
Kindest regards,
Mr Pudney.