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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:
Sallystyle · 14/07/2015 08:49

YANBU

They could have given you some tissue or something. You didn't ask for wipes did you? They could have shown more kindness for sure.

I know for sure that if I went into my chemist with a hurt child they would help out and not charge me a thing. They are very lovely though.

Sallystyle · 14/07/2015 08:51

You obviously don't think YABU but I'm curious, do you think the sales assistant had the authority to give away free stock?

But she didn't ask for their stock. She asked for help to stop the bleeding and she was expecting tissue or something.

At best he/she read the situation wrong and assumed the OP wanted to buy something for him and at worst, it was mean.

bruffin · 14/07/2015 09:04

Why would you ask for a tissue to wipe a wound, when you are in a shop that sells antiseptic wipes. Tissues leave bits in the wound, not nice.
Last week I badly burned my finger at my mums house (she died and its on the market so no ice etc) after running it under the tap for a good 20 minutes and still in a lot of pain, went over to the pharmacist in Tesco and asked them what to do, they said nothing other than take painkillers and use ice. I bought a pack a frozen peas and cuddled then on the 1.5 hour journey home.

Binkybix · 14/07/2015 09:06

But she didn't ask for their stock. She asked for help to stop the bleeding and she was expecting tissue or something

From the sounds of it, OP wasn't entirely clear on what she expected from them.

TheChandler · 14/07/2015 09:10

I'm more surprised at your discomfiture at paying for medical supplies for your own child than Boots OP.

Yes, in an ideal world, at that particular moment when your child fell and suffered minor injuries, as all children do at one time or another, and you had no supplies with you and were unable to access any toilets with soap, water and toilet roll to get you the 15 minutes home, it would be staffed by ex nurses and doctors, all trained in being saintly while at work.

In reality, its probably staffed by a fair few school leavers and students who will have had the usual retail talk of not taking stuff without paying drummed into their heads.

As it was, you paid £4.99 and the problem was solved. Its not as if they refused access for a bleeding child or something!

BleachEverything · 14/07/2015 09:14

It's a business but it's mean.

OnlyLovers · 14/07/2015 09:14

YABU. It's not a charity.

Eminybob · 14/07/2015 09:18

If you were expecting them to just give you a tissue you should have maybe just said that when they started taking stuff off shelves. Once you realised that's what they were doing you should have realised that you'd be expected to pay.

That said, I do still think the staff are in the wrong, they should have just helped out with a tissue from a pocket or a first aid kit.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 14/07/2015 09:19

I was a harassed mum with a crying bleeding child. I just was looking for a bit of help to calm him and clean him up. That's all.

I was just a bit surprised to be told £4.99 please at the end of the incident for using the wipe I was handed.

In an ideal world I would have tissues, wipes on me, I would think rationally before asking for help in that shop's policy and probably my LO wouldn't fall over. In an ideal world.

Just surprised by the response of Boots. I thought later that they might have just used their own First Aid kit to help me out. I am told there is health and safety issues with this( not convinced). In an ideal world they may have just offered me a seat and handed me a tissue and then said they would give me a wipe but charge for it. But they didn't.

Stuff happens. You don't always think it through and react. No I don't think it unreasonable for a large organisation like Boots to come to our aid without selling us overpriced wipes. If I owned a business I think I could stretch to a wipe for a crying child.

OP posts:
barbecue · 14/07/2015 09:20

If they were going to charge you, they should have said this from the outset in an unambiguous way, instead of appearing to give you the things as a helpful gesture and only mentioning the costs after you'd used the items. They could have said "I'm sorry but we will have to charge you for these".

SaulGood · 14/07/2015 09:20

I do think- kindly -that with a child sobbing their eyes out and your possibly unclear request, they probably assumed you were asking to purchase something. Look at the responses on here. I can confirm that in your situation, like most of the people on here, I would have picked up the crying child and gone to buy whatever I needed to sort them out. If this is what people generally do, I'd imagine the Boots member of staff was responding to something which happens regularly ie people with an immediate medical need coming into Boots to buy the things they provide for such circumstances.

I don't think there's any blame to be apportioned here.

Lots of the responses on here confirm how lovely people can be to hurt individuals. I don't think it's a 'what is the world coming to?' example at all.

Hope your little boy is fine now. Smile

OnlyLovers · 14/07/2015 09:25

like most of the people on here, I would have picked up the crying child and gone to buy whatever I needed to sort them out.

And if you had a business, OP, you might feel charitable towards one crying child and their parent, but possibly not so much towards the next one, or the next one, or the next ...

Just because this happened to you as a one-off doesn't mean that Boots don't see a lot of parents needing quick supplies or help for their children. They won't go bust over one pack of wipes, no, but multiply the pack of wipes by a few times and it does start to add up.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 14/07/2015 09:28

Just found out that as a resident in my borough I am able to acces services under Pharmacy First as suggested my a PP. So anyone who receives free prescriptions can get treatment free for minor ailments and headline under this scheme. This includes all pharmacies in my area.

OP posts:
redexpat · 14/07/2015 09:29

But where do you think this tissue eould come from? It would come from stock, so by using one tissue they would lose the sale of the pack. Im sure that if they had had a pack of wipes that had been damaged they would have given them to you for free. And yes its not very nice, but there sre a LOT of rules about who can do what with first aid kits.

Binkybix · 14/07/2015 09:31

If they were going to charge you, they should have said this from the outset in an unambiguous way, instead of appearing to give you the things as a helpful gesture and only mentioning the costs after you'd used the items. They could have said "I'm sorry but we will have to charge you for these

I genuinely think this comes down to mindset. Because I would have assumed that I would pay, if I had been the assistant then I would also have assumed there was no need to say they would need to be paid for.

Just as OP assumed they would know that she was just after a tissue and didn't want to pay for it.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 14/07/2015 09:34

I am genuinely curious to know here the legislation is that says you can't give a wipe or plaster from a First Aid kit to someone outside of your organisation.

OP posts:
Allisgood1 · 14/07/2015 09:37

YABU. they are a business. I'm shocked at the price for a few antiseptic wipes and gauze though Confused

Justmuddlingalong · 14/07/2015 09:38

And I am genuinely interested to know, when did a child falling and grazing his knee, become 'an incident'?

cardibach · 14/07/2015 09:39

I think the different responses shown are nothing to do with compassion but more to do with how different posters view the incident those who see a crying small child with a grazed knee as an emergency think the assistant should have used first aid/helped freely, those who consider it as one of those things you deal with all the time as a parent, not an emergency, feel they should buy their own supplies. I think I'm in the second group.

TheChandler · 14/07/2015 09:41

I am genuinely curious to know here the legislation is that says you can't give a wipe or plaster from a First Aid kit to someone outside of your organisation.

It wouldn't be legislation, would it? It would be case law, where someone has successfully sued for injuries caused by such an item. There are loads of "rescuer" cases in tort. Presumably the employer's duty of care to their employees outweighs the risk for their employees but not for the entire public at large.

sweetgrape · 14/07/2015 09:43

If it was a large Boots store I'm wondering why the assistant didn't call for their instore first aider. Apart from anything else..... how extortionate, wanting a fiver to clean up a cut knee. Where on earth are they coming from with those sort of ridiculous prices.

EnchanciaAnthem · 14/07/2015 09:50

I think that this is all a bit dramatic and that a grazed knee isn't really 'an incident' and the 'not helping a bleeding child' thing is a bit misleading - I'm sure that if a child was taken into a shop having lost a lot of blood from a serious injury, it would be a bit different!

But then perhaps my own experiences have made me cynical! My little girl, just 6 - has Type 1 diabetes, wears and a cannula 24/7 and has finger pricks 10+ times a day. And yet when her cannula has come off unexpectedly and bled everywhere, I clean her up using the wipes etc that I have with me. And when her blood sugars are dangerously low, I sort her out with the supplies I carry with me - and if for some reason they had been lost/all used up I would not expect to get jelly babies and biscuits from a shop free of charge ! I would just have been pleased there was somewhere to buy them.

This isn't about 'human kindness' its about it being a business and somebody having to be responsible for the cost of the stock. Just keep a small pack of antibacterial wipes, plasters and savlon in a little purse in the bottom of your bag and leave it there for this kind of occasion.

Hope he is feeling better now.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 14/07/2015 09:54

Sued for giving someone a wipe? Really ?

Given CPR wrongly and cracked ribs maybe. But a wipe?

OP posts:
threenotfour · 14/07/2015 09:59

It's a public place so they should have a first aid kit available and that is what you were asking for. You weren't ask for stock you were asking for first aid. It's no different to any other shop.

I would send an email or complaint through the website and ask for a personal response. They could at least send you a small voucher as they have been rude. Especially if they didn't tell you the price first only afterwards.

Sirzy · 14/07/2015 10:00

Completly off topic but cracking a rib doing CPR doesn't mean that the CPR has been done incorrectly. It's just a risk with CPR but personally I would rather have the cracked ribs and be alive!