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Original poster

What would you have done? Paying for breakages

18 replies

perplexedagain · 11/07/2019 17:53

OK we were out last weekend with DGP at an independent garden / craft centre. We were buying a small ceramic ornament for garden. DS insisted on carrying item to till but dropped it on way there breaking it. There were signs all around saying breakages must be paid for - so I went to the till and explained what had happened and said that I would of course pay. Retailed took full price for item which was unusable and went in the bin. I didn't think any more about it until a friend said that the notices are meaningless and at the very least the retailer should have only covered their loss i.e. charged cost price not retail price. I wondered in this situation WWYD and if I have been a bit too reasonable?

OP posts:

Branleuse · 11/07/2019 17:58

i think you did the right thing.
A small little independent place, often are on the brink of managing to stay afloat as it is

Youngandfree · 11/07/2019 17:58

Yes they can only charge you for the cost price that they paid, not their retail price!! Do you have the receipt?? I would go back just out of principle! How much was it? For instance if they charged you £20 then chances are it only cost them £5!

SuzieQ10 · 11/07/2019 18:00

You were right to pay for it.
Never heard the thing about only paying cost price before.

Floralnomad · 11/07/2019 18:04

How are the people on the till supposed to know the cost price ? And surely the point is if the OPs child hadn’t broken it they would have sold it for the full amount so why should they lose their profit .

Youngandfree · 11/07/2019 18:09

Maybe I’m wrong but that’s what I heard...and read not so long ago.

NoBaggyPants · 11/07/2019 18:25

You're not wrong @Youngandfree. Unless the item is a one off, the retailer can only charge for the cost of the item. They've not lost any profit because they can simply put out another of the same item.

It's the same principle as with deposits. The retailer can only charge you for their reasonable expenses, they can't just retain an arbitrary amount.

MarthasGinYard · 11/07/2019 18:26

You did the right thing

CruellaFeinberg · 11/07/2019 18:28

Yes they can only charge you for the cost price that they paid, not their retail price

I've never heard this, can you point somewhere online where this law is?

StCharlotte · 11/07/2019 18:51

As the (former) owner of a small shop, if you only paid the cost price, they would have made a loss after overheads and tax etc. which isn't really fair.

Although I happen to know that garden centre margins are massive but, even so, you did the right thing OP.

Pinktinker · 11/07/2019 18:53

I think you did the right thing.

BrienneofTarthILoveYou · 11/07/2019 19:07

You did the right thing Op.

xyzandabc · 11/07/2019 19:20

You're not wrong @Youngandfree. Unless the item is a one off, the retailer can only charge for the cost of the item. They've not lost any profit because they can simply put out another of the same item.

That's not true. Completely made up numbers but........
They have 2 items wholesale price £3.
They sell them to customers for £10.

If the sell both items then that is 2 x £10 = £20
Profit is £20 - £6 (original cost of 2 items)
Profit is £14

If one gets broken and they only charge the customer £3 then they only take £10 for 1 item and £3 for the other so £13 in total.
Profit is £13 - £6 (original cost of 2 items)
Profit is £7

My above numbers don't include any costs for staffing, premises, delivery etc, that happen whether the item gets broken or not, would also have to come out of the profit figure. By only charging the wholesale price, of course they are losing money. 'Just putting another one out' will never make up for that £7 profit that has been lost.

I think you did the right thing OP

BlueSkiesLies · 11/07/2019 20:19

You did the right thing.

Why would you want another person to incur a loss because of your/your child’s actions?

Honeyroar · 11/07/2019 20:26

You did the right thing IMO. It's not the retailer's fault! I have once dropped something in a shop, owned up and apologised to the staff and had them say it doesn't matter - very nice of them, but it's totally their decision.

Original poster

perplexedagain · 11/07/2019 20:37

Thanks for chatting to me about this. It was a small item - about £12 so didn't break the bank and I'm not losing any sleep about it. But it made me wonder about the law ... I feel I did the right thing but friend made me feel a bit of a mug for paying

OP posts:

Soola · 11/07/2019 20:37

I once read my children the riot act outside a small Yankee Candle gift shop that they must not touch anything.

Once inside my children were very good but picked up something and somehow my sleeve caught another item and I knocked a whole display down.

My children stood there going, “oh Mummy, you shouldn’t have touched them!” and “Naughty Mummy!” 😂

The lady was lovely about it and I paid for damages and bought a lot more out of guilt. She didn’t charge me the full amount of the broken items but it wasn’t a big discount, just a gesture of goodwill which I suppose she was canny about and realised I would buy more out of ‘embarrassment’!

I imagine it’s at the shops discretion whether you pay or not and how much you have to pay.

It would be wrong not to pay for damages though.

Soola · 11/07/2019 20:37

I picked up ^

SpoonBlender · 11/07/2019 21:52

Your friend is a bit of a cheeky fucker.

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