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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Boots shouldn't charge me.

251 replies

Lagoonablue · 13/07/2015 22:20

Shopping after school and my 5 yr old falls heavily on his knees. He is crying and knees are bleeding and dirty. We are 15 min walk from home. I am next to Boots. I go in with my hysterical 5 yr old and ask if they can help. A pharmacist hands me a pack of antiseptic wipes and some wound dressing. I clean him up and then she says £4.99 please.

I pay for the wipes but not the dressing as I haven't used it. Left feeling a bit miffed. Surely they had the odd wipe knocking about and do wouldn't use the opportunity to sell me a product! I went there as it was the nearest place and kind of made . sense. However I bet if I went in any other shop they might have helped out by using their own first aid kit or something,

It's not about the money but feel it wasn't very sympathetic

OP posts:
LilyMayViolet · 13/07/2015 22:58

Oh for goodness sake. How about a bit of human kindness! Boots don't have a first aid kit? Please! No it's not a charity, yes I may have gone in and bought the items myself but the world is a sad place if we can't offer a flipping wipe or two to a small child who has fallen over!

Crikey, I may work in a school but I've helped out siblings, parents, anyone who is unfortunate to have an accident around or near the school. We don't say "sorry, no, you don't go to our school you can't have a plaster!" Am astonished at how petty some people are.

MelanieCheeks · 13/07/2015 22:59

If those were the words you uttered, and I was a boots assistant, I'd have thought you were looking to acquire the items you required. And that acquiring them was by buying them, since you were in a store that sold that sort of thing.

LilyMayViolet · 13/07/2015 23:00

Has a member of the public actually ever sued a shop for trying to help them administer first aid? I very much doubt it!

TheTravellingLemon · 13/07/2015 23:00

What LilyMayViolet said.

londonrach · 13/07/2015 23:01

Good point lily..maybe an urban myth..i hope so

Gruntfuttock · 13/07/2015 23:01

Boots employees aren't entitled to take things off shelves and give them away. Somone has to pay for them. Do you think you and your son should have been given these things and the member of staff should have to pay for them rather than you? Why??

FadedRed · 13/07/2015 23:02

I'm with the OP here, I think with a crying and bleeding 5 year old, you could have reasonably expected a bit more sympathy and help, especially from a pharmacy. A fiver for some wipes is extortionate, and they could have written it off as 'damaged stock' or similar.
However I always have tissues, an antiseptic wipe and a couple of plasters in my bag, and certainly did the same when Dc's were little.

Scissor · 13/07/2015 23:02

I would assume that the staff in the shop called Boots are shop assistants, being that it is a shop...not first aiders... or a branch of the NHS. So therefore no more qualified to open the stores first aid kit to any member of the public than a staff member of Greggs, PC World or Sports Direct...

Though maybe you expect Tesco to feed your child if he is a small crying hungry person???

YABVU

TheWintersmith · 13/07/2015 23:02

Those having a dig that the OP is being unrealistic ...

The exact same thing happened to us outside a B&Q. They got a first aider to clean dd up, supplied plasters AND gave her a balloon to cheer her up, all FOC.

AnnoyedParent22 · 13/07/2015 23:03

OP YANBU.

Bad PR for the sake of the cost of some wipes and a plaster.

I would have offered to pay and would have if required to but it would have been a lovely gesture costing Boots very little if they have waived the charge.

Particularly as the pharmacist chose and brought the items to you, it wasn't like you took items off shelf yourself and opened them to use.

kali110 · 13/07/2015 23:03

44pump yes i was going to say that. Working in retail if anything was taken out of the first aid box it had to go in the accident book where i worked.
However this didn't even happen in their store!
Sorry op i think you are massively unreasonable.
Clear your son needed wipes, things to stop the bleeding, you go to a pharmacy why wouldn't the cashiers think you want to buy something!
First aid boxes are not free!
They are going to give you things they think are the best to deal with what has happened.
For all they knew they could have offered you tissue and you could have complained that that wasn't good enough!

TheWintersmith · 13/07/2015 23:03

Has a member of the public actually ever sued a shop for trying to help them administer first aid? I very much doubt it!

Not a shop, but I think there was a case where someone tried to sue first aider who broke their ribs doing CPR. It got thrown out of court.

Lozy79 · 13/07/2015 23:04

My lo fell over and cut her knee outside our small local pharmacy, I went in and asked for help and they used some wipes, asked her what plaster she would like (peppa pig)! They opened up a new box of plasters and when i offered money they insisted we didnt need to pay. I didnt expect it but it was a nice thing.

SmillasSenseOfSnow · 13/07/2015 23:04

I think the issue is that you chose a shop that sells these items. Had you gone anywhere else, it would have been clear you required an item from their first aid kit, or some normal tissues from the nearest box, out of charity.

LilyMayViolet · 13/07/2015 23:04

Qualified to open a first aid kit? How qualified must you be to get out an antiseptic wipe and a plaster?

kali110 · 13/07/2015 23:04

This didn't happen outside the store either, op says she went to boots as it was the closest.

Rosa · 13/07/2015 23:05

I was in M&Ms store in London, dd cut her finger on a plastic tag not from their store I hasten to add and was crying. I tissued it and a staff member saw it , got the First aid kit out - asked my permission to hand me wipes and then a plaster. Seriously impressed! I had to fill a 2 line report in so they can justify the items used from the kit and they can be refilled....

tootiredtothink · 13/07/2015 23:05

I stopped to help an elderly woman who had fallen outside eat in town.

Then went into the shop to ask for first aid kit as she had cut her head.

They brought her inside, offered her and her husband drinks, helped clean her up and put plaster on wound.

Security also came around to get her details and check all ok.

It was just nice to see that compassion and kindness isn't dead.

kali110 · 13/07/2015 23:05

Stores have trained first aiders.

bittapitta · 13/07/2015 23:06

A scraped knee is not a life threatening emergency. You walked into Boots not another shop so clearly the shop assistants assumed you wanted directing to a product to purchase to help. By your admission you were flustered, they weren't going to prolong things while you were stressed by clarifying whether you mean free hankies from their pockets.

SmillasSenseOfSnow · 13/07/2015 23:06
  • I was going to say that if they did this then everyone would go to Boots expecting free plasters etc from their staff stash. Because it's the 'plasters and stuff' shop. They would be the ones losing money on this stuff, more so than any other shop. Other shops can afford a bit of charity because it's going to be such an irregular occurrence. They're not going to get swathes of people running up next time their child gets a graze, saying 'oh yes! Clark's shoe shop! They'll definitely give me a plaster and some tissues!'. Boots, on the other hand...
AnnoyedParent22 · 13/07/2015 23:07

And yy Wintersmith, I would have expected that Boots have a first aid kit and first aider whereby they would be able to assist a small bleeding and upset child.

Again bad PR really if Boots as a brand has such poor customer care that they cannot provide basic first aid items.

I know OP wasn't technically a customer at this time but she might have been in the past or future.

TheHormonalHooker · 13/07/2015 23:08

The pharmacist would have been at risk of losing their job had they had given the wipes and plasters to the OP because they aren't their's in the first place.

Shakey1500 · 13/07/2015 23:08

I think it's a tad mean spirited as well. Sadly, it's indicative of the world we're in.

butterfly133 · 13/07/2015 23:09

Leaving aside the fact that Boots is a shop, you say you didn't even need the dressing, just the wipes.

I know when you're five and you skin your knees you think the world has ended and I feel for your boy

But it sounds pretty minor, you needed some tissue, probably none of the shop floor had time or wanted to get in trouble going to the staff room to dig it out. Then the idea of you suing if it hadn't been clean is actually quite realistic in this day and age. Plus, crying child accompanied by parent to sort it out....just another episode in the life of someone who works with the public. it is lucky there was a Boots.

Don't do a Daily Fail sad face article...or maybe do if it will cheer you up.