Posted on 12/20/2008 11:58:19 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Butcher, baker, candlestick maker -- all noble professions, indeed. Stay-at-home Mom? Well, get a real job. At least, that's what one Australian mom was told when she went to buy a cell phone. Lyndal Fair, a thirty-six-year-old mother of three, wanted to purchase a mobile phone, presumably to keep track of her brood, to call their schools and doctors and to be available in an emergency. Not good enough, said Vodafone -- they don't sell phones to moms.
In fact, the store employees suggested she get her husband to purchase the phone under his name for her. Sound familiar? "I couldn't believe it. It was like being back in the '50s," said Mrs. Fair. "Being a mum is a full-time job and it's a very hard job - the hardest job you can have - because if you get it wrong, the ramifications for everyone are enormous," she added.
A Vodafone spokesman confirmed that the policy does not belong to just one rogue store but to the company as a whole, adding that getting a man to purchase the phone was the easiest solution. The policy is not meant to target moms alone, but anyone the company feels may not be able to afford a phone. "It's not an ideal situation. We're trying to fix it," said Greg Spears, the company spokesman.
I would definitely say this is something the company ought to address. If you ask me, however, the quickest solution is not to have a man buy the phone but to just put down something like "Moms against Vodafone" as the company name.
POLL
Should motherhood count as a job?
No - They drop the kids off at school and goof off the rest of the day
If you don't get paid, it's not a job
It's the company's right to decide who they want to do business with
It shouldn't matter how you make a living, just whether or not you can afford the phone
Motherhood is more work than any other job -- and more important too!
My wife would have gone over the counter and kicked the salespersons rear end. Then taken a phone.
Have your husband do it for ya little lady just wouldn’t cut it.
I’m guessing here, are there laws and regulations in Australia that make it extremely hard for a service provider to simply cut off cell phone service to deadbeat customers?
Try renting an apartment in a jurisdiction awash in “tenant’s rights” laws. You have to practically give a semen sample.
Try, just TRY to get a non-prepaid cellphone in THIS country if you have no job and crappy credit.
This is not misogyny folks.... just business.
From the business point of view, you are asking for ‘unlimited’ credit when you buy a cell phone (unless you specifically purchase pre-paid minutes). It would appear that the cell phone company has a vested interest in knowing how you intend to pay back the ‘loan’ he is about to give you.
Depending upon the persons, a cell phone plan for a family can run from under $100/month to several thousand per month. If a housewife or stay-at-home mother has no income, and has chosen not to declare herself married; such that her credit is tied to her spouse’s - I see no other choice for the Cell phone provider.
If he gives cell phones to mothers, who have no income, no credit score and no verifiable means of income (because they have chosen not to marry, or legally establish a claim to the family income) - then they have to be fair and give similar plans to anyone who should come and ask for a cell phone - without regard to establishing their ability to pay either.
This means that people who do pay for thier plans, will now be forced to pay more to make up for those people with phones who chose not to pay their bills. And, if you are free to get a phone and someone else gets the bill - what’s to stop wide-spread abuse of this system?
If your wife is living on welfare, and she did that, jail should be her next stop...
Welfare? Hardly, still when we had little she wouldn’t put up with that kind of nonsense.
Have your husband get it for you little lady?
Just a thought ... Why limit this to phones?
I want a new car/boat/airplane. I’m alledgely a mother, and have no verifiable income and no credit score.
If you deny me getting this, you are a bigot. If I don’t pay for it, you either go bankrupt, or you must charge those who can afford this item more to make up for my fraud.
What do you have in Blue?
I smell BS!
Whats the hidden agenda they are trying to promote?
Guess Mom has no means of making the payments. If she is going to use the husband’s income to qualify, he’s got to okay it. Finally something makes sense.
My wife didn’t work for years yet had stellar credit and had her choice of credit cards. She had double my limits. Yep, I paid the monthly bill. Seemed weird to me.
Yeah, my wife's looking over my shoulder right now too. :)
I kid. My wife is as you described too. She does everything. She's like that woman in the Enjoli advertisement from the 70's. Of course, saying so makes me a sexist pig I guess.
Exactly!
This is the "entitlement mentality" writ large.
I will wait for the demand for a "free" large screen TV, justified by claiming that her unruly 8 bastards would get in trouble with the law if they didn't have entertainment at home to keep them semi-conscious.
Where does it end?
It’s the company’s right to decide who they want to do business with.
I am not commenting on your family, assuming you actually have one.
I am zeroing in on the fact that the story never mentions her complete status other than (presumed) housewife. There are housewives and there are breeders. I assume the lack of detail in the story serves a useful (moonbat) purpose. Like, how many sperm donors are involved?
Yea - we don’t have the whole story. Perhaps her credit was SHOT.
People need to learn that just because they can get $500,000 to buy a house without any verification of ability to pay does NOT mean that they’re entitled to a cell phone.
The difference. They guy who writes the loan sells it off to some sucker, who bundles it up with others and sells it to another sucker, who then sells it to a pension fund, which gets bailed out by ME. Whereas the cell phone company is stuck if they get a deadbeat.
Yes, how do they know she is not able to purchase a phone?
> I will wait for the demand for a “free” large screen TV, justified by claiming that her unruly 8 bastards would get in trouble with the law if they didn’t have entertainment at home to keep them semi-conscious.
I believe that exact justification works in New Zealand for women on the Benefit who have children. Their hire-purchase costs will be covered.
Very simple.
Would you extend credit to an unemployed person?
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