Clothing store apologises after staff ridicule Derry woman on Facebook

A clothing retailer has said that ‘appropriate action’ will be taken against employees of its Derry store after they posted derogatory comments online about a customer with a skin condition.

Quiz have now issued an apology to Derry woman Ciara Moore (pictured) after a number of staff at its Richmond Centre store made the comments on Facebook after she visited the store.

The 28-year-old, from Bloomfield Park, suffers from the skin condition psoriasis that causes painful rashes that itch and flake.

Ciara was invited to a wedding and while out shopping for an outfit visited the Quiz store.

She told the Derry News she had felt ‘humiliated’.

“I went into the changing room to try on a jumpsuit and, as you can imagine, the jumpsuit has to be pulled up and down and my skin can be quite flaky,” she said.

“As I was getting dressed I realised there was quite a bit of dust from my skin on the floor.

“I went out to the counter and said to the girl that I had a skin condition and the skin had flaked a bit, I said if she gave me a brush I would clean it up but she said, ‘No, no, don’t worry about it’.”

Ciara said she then went on to share with the Quiz employee how vulnerable and self-conscious her skin condition makes her feel.

“I went on then to tell her how paranoid I was about my skin and that I had already gotten a waistcoat for a previous wedding to wear with a jumpsuit to try and cover myself up,” she said.

“I told her I was a paranoid wreck and I really don’t like people seeing it.

“When I left the shop, I never thought anything more of it and went on about my business.”

However, when Ciara was at the wedding she was horrified to find that a member of the Quiz staff had written and shared a status about her on Facebook and she and three other Quiz workers proceeded to poke cruel fun at her skin condition.

In the online ridiculing, one Quiz employee said: ‘After your woman told me about her lovely skin condition. I nearly threw up in my mouth’. The others joined in and another employee wrote: ‘Hahaha…drama as always with us Quiz ladies’.

Ciara spoke of the hurt she felt when she saw the comments: “On Saturday, while I was at the wedding I had bought the outfit for, I was made aware what was going on, on Facebook.

“I was absolutely annoyed, so embarrassed and really upset; I felt a lot of different emotions when I saw it. I didn’t know where to turn or what to do.

“It ruined the whole day and the weekend for us because I was already bad enough before this had happened. I had already been saying to my partner that I didn’t want to go because I didn’t want people looking at me.

“It was shocking. It was horrible to see how people could be so nasty.”

There was a huge backlash condemning the comments on social media, which have since been removed and Ciara said she has been receiving an ‘overwhelming’ level of good wishes from the wider community.

“The support has been amazing,” she smiled.

“There are people from all over that have been so nice and very concerned about me and have said how disgusted they are about how I was treated. There are people with skin conditions saying they were outraged and how they would have felt if it had been them.

“I thought maybe I was wrong to speak out about this but people have told me I’m doing the right thing but everyone has been telling me I am and the support has been overwhelming.

“I’ve been offered treatments and appointments from people offering to help; I’ve been offered a seaweed boy treatment, it’s been amazing.”

Ciara said she was contacted by Quiz Clothing who apologised for the manner in which she had been treated.

“Quiz headquarters in Scotland rang me yesterday and they could not have been nicer,” she said.

“They told me it is being investigated and will be dealt with in a severe manner. Quiz offered me £200 of vouchers but I told them I didn’t want it because this is not about me getting anything, this is about the appropriate action being taken against the staff because they don’t deserve their jobs.”

Ciara added: “I’ve been tearing myself to bits the past few days with the stress of this causing flare up.

“They only see my skin condition, they don’t see how it affects my whole life and they don’t seem to understand that. They just think I’m disgusting and dirty.”

In a meeting with representatives from Quiz and the Richmond Centre, Ciara was told that they would be considering making all members of staff take disability awareness and customer care courses.

A spokesperson for Quiz said: “At Quiz Clothing matters of this nature are taken extremely seriously, the incident is currently being investigated with the appropriate action to follow.

"We would like to outline the comments made do not reflect Quiz and are not officially sanctioned by Quiz in any manner whatsoever.

“We are deeply sorry for any upset caused by this employee posting a personal Facebook comment and advise that the matter is being dealt with at its highest level internally and we will be taking all actions necessary in this instance.

“We at Quiz value customer service above all and will be in contact with the customer to resolve this matter to their satisfaction.”