The Lady Guide to Modern Manners: 5 May
Dear Thomas
What happens if you break something in a shop? Last week in a certain boutique, I accidentally knocked a box of soap on to the floor. I was apologetic but really didn’t think I was to blame. It was positioned right on the corner of a low table where you couldn’t see it. But the shopkeeper was disobliging and said I had to pay. So I did. The box was only slightly dented and the soap isn’t bad – so there’s that.
Karen Senhouse, Newport
Dear Karen
Before Easter, I was shopping for Easter eggs at Paul A Young, chocolatier of great distinction. I picked up a clear plastic carton by its ribbon, which, being stylishly positioned right at the edge, slipped off. Result: smashed Easter bunny, price £45. I said, ‘I’m very sorry but it really wasn’t my fault. The ribbon…’ The staff didn’t protest but they weren’t very gracious either. Another time I had a flaming row in the greengrocer’s after the owner just stood and watched as I picked up the onions I’d knocked out of a badly positioned box, sticking out from the others at knee height. I could have tripped and injured myself.
I tend to think that breakages in shops, rather like breakages in the home, are never the visitor/ customer’s fault, even if they are. Of course in a commercial situation there might be glaring exceptions but few I would think. Shop owners should ensure that their merchandise is safely and securely displayed.
If you do accidentally, but perhaps avoidably, break something, you might offer to pay but the offer ought to be refused. Once, rushing into a rather grand wine shop with my rucksack on my back, I managed to whirl a bottle of wine to the floor. Rather my fault but the owner absolutely refused compensation.
There is some debate about the legal situation. Fewer shops these days have aggressive notices saying ‘Breakages must be paid for’. In this case, Karen, you did not need to agree to buy the soap there and then if you didn’t want to and especially since you don’t take responsibility for the accident. In other instances, how can you be sure that the shop hasn’t got insurance to cover accidental damage? If you are not actually going to take possession of the item because it is beyond repair or you don’t want it, then should you not pay the trade rather than the full retail price? All this has to be negotiated and the shop has no business expecting a settlement there and then. It is their responsibility to pursue the claim and establish that it is valid. So don’t pay but leave your name and address.
Really, in the interests of customer relations, any sensible store will overlook minor damage within reason. Accidents happen.
Please send your questions to thomas.blaikie@lady.co.uk or write to him at The Lady, 39-40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ER
I hatch a desperate plan to lurk on the street until someone suitable comes by whose help I can beg. Great mercy! A young man straight off the cover of Men’s Health magazine appears at once in running tights. I hail him. He helps me. It’s perfectly ghastly. Water leaks out and the wretched thing turns slippery. I’m horrified to discover afterwards that I barked my shin in the process. I hope he’s not injured, too. People like being asked to do favours. I do believe that. But was this going too far?
What happens if you break something in a shop? Last week in a certain boutique, I accidentally knocked a box of soap on to the floor. I was apologetic but really didn’t think I was to blame. It was positioned right on the corner of a low table where you couldn’t see it. But the shopkeeper was disobliging and said I had to pay. So I did. The box was only slightly dented and the soap isn’t bad – so there’s that.
Karen Senhouse, Newport
Dear Karen
Before Easter, I was shopping for Easter eggs at Paul A Young, chocolatier of great distinction. I picked up a clear plastic carton by its ribbon, which, being stylishly positioned right at the edge, slipped off. Result: smashed Easter bunny, price £45. I said, ‘I’m very sorry but it really wasn’t my fault. The ribbon…’ The staff didn’t protest but they weren’t very gracious either. Another time I had a flaming row in the greengrocer’s after the owner just stood and watched as I picked up the onions I’d knocked out of a badly positioned box, sticking out from the others at knee height. I could have tripped and injured myself.
I tend to think that breakages in shops, rather like breakages in the home, are never the visitor/ customer’s fault, even if they are. Of course in a commercial situation there might be glaring exceptions but few I would think. Shop owners should ensure that their merchandise is safely and securely displayed.
If you do accidentally, but perhaps avoidably, break something, you might offer to pay but the offer ought to be refused. Once, rushing into a rather grand wine shop with my rucksack on my back, I managed to whirl a bottle of wine to the floor. Rather my fault but the owner absolutely refused compensation.
There is some debate about the legal situation. Fewer shops these days have aggressive notices saying ‘Breakages must be paid for’. In this case, Karen, you did not need to agree to buy the soap there and then if you didn’t want to and especially since you don’t take responsibility for the accident. In other instances, how can you be sure that the shop hasn’t got insurance to cover accidental damage? If you are not actually going to take possession of the item because it is beyond repair or you don’t want it, then should you not pay the trade rather than the full retail price? All this has to be negotiated and the shop has no business expecting a settlement there and then. It is their responsibility to pursue the claim and establish that it is valid. So don’t pay but leave your name and address.
Really, in the interests of customer relations, any sensible store will overlook minor damage within reason. Accidents happen.
Please send your questions to thomas.blaikie@lady.co.uk or write to him at The Lady, 39-40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ER
WHAT TO DO ABOUT...Needing help
This week I sold my washing machine on Ebay (there’s a vast etiquette terrain, but that’s for another day) because I am aggrandizing my kitchen. A taciturn type from Ringwood in Hampshire bought it. You’d have thought that you would have been able to get hold of a second-hand washing machine somewhere rather nearer than London, but there we are. Anyway, taciturn was late to collect it and I absolutely had to go out. Nothing for it but to leave the machine on the pavement for him when he turned up, praying nobody would take it in the meantime. But how to heave it up the stairs on my own?I hatch a desperate plan to lurk on the street until someone suitable comes by whose help I can beg. Great mercy! A young man straight off the cover of Men’s Health magazine appears at once in running tights. I hail him. He helps me. It’s perfectly ghastly. Water leaks out and the wretched thing turns slippery. I’m horrified to discover afterwards that I barked my shin in the process. I hope he’s not injured, too. People like being asked to do favours. I do believe that. But was this going too far?