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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Nail Salon Charges Her $5 Extra For Being Overweight

Weighty issue: Georgia woman ‘humiliated’ by surcharge for broken chairs

Michelle Fonville went from being pampered to put down, with one swipe of a pen.

When this DeKalb County, Ga., woman received the bill from Natural Nails, a local nail salon, for her manicure, pedicure and eyebrow shaping, there was a $5 surcharge.

“I said, ‘I’ve been overcharged,’ ” Fonville told WSB-TV in Atlanta. “[The manager] broke it down, then told me she charged me $5 more because I was overweight.”

The salon manager, Kim Tran, told WSB-TV that she added the surcharge to compensate for chairs broken by overweight customers. Her pedicure chairs have a weight limit of 200 pounds and cost $2,500 to fix.

“Do you think that’s fair when we take $24 [for manicure and pedicure] and we have to pay $2,500? No,” Tran told WSB-TV.

While it’s debatable whether obesity is a disability protected by the law (it is in health-related cases), on the face of it, there’s not a chance Tran would have been able to know the reason for Fonville’s being overweight. And without that knowledge, any kind of discrimination is a problem and potentially legally actionable.

GO HERE to read more.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have a problem with it. Why keep encouraging obesity!!

Anonymous said...

Obesity is NOT a disability, it is a choice!

Anonymous said...

if she doesnt like it, lose weight or dont go!

Alex said...

Obese should be charged extra for plane tickets, breaking chairs, etc.

Anonymous said...

If your overweight , you look like a slob , thus , you act like a slob. Push your big a$$ away from the table, get out and do some exercise , work , you will enjoy it
porky.

Anonymous said...

To be fair, SOME people do have medical reasons for being overweight..But for the most part, people today are overweight due to high fat diets and lack of exersize!! I agree with the Salon owner on this one.. I think that overweight people should be charged a surecharge. If not it could cost everyone else in the long run. Take this situation for example: She could increase her prices to help cover the damage done by her overweight clients..
Why should everyone else have to pay extra for "fat" people..

Chimera said...

So I guess instead of getting a pedicure she should strap on some Reeboks.....lots of anti-fat people rearing their heads.If it isnt your weight why do you care?

Anonymous said...

bluto:
Not anti-fat; anti having to pay for stuff fat people break, when I choose to exercise and eat well.

Anonymous said...

fat people cost the tax payer more than illegals with their medical and disability benefits their diabetes and special parking and seating there are very few medical excuses for it just like there are few for alcoholism

Anonymous said...

Apparently most of the present posters seem to have a common logic that fat people intentionally eat to much and should be surcharged for their additional weight and the extra space they take up but fat people who apparently eat out more, consume much more food then you, thus helping the financial well being of any and all restaurants, their owners and their hard working staff. We, the fat people, are the only buyers of weight loss programs, weight lose equiptment and weight lose publications, so fat people help many, many businesses. And here's the flip side to your thinking, all of us fatties think that you scrawny, puny individuals with your super sized self-supporting egos and even bigger mouths should be paying more for your food at restaurants, because your not doing your share of helping our local economy, as much as we fatties do. Your tiny little anorexic meals will only help drive businesses into bankruptcy, so I think it's only fair, given your logic, that you should be made to pay a surcharge for not eating enough food. And by the way, your a collective group of self centered morons. Hugs & kisses all around. CU, FredG

Anonymous said...

my mother has a disability parking hanger in her car because shes fat. people like that are the ones that NEED to park farther away to walk some of that off!