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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:
butterfly133 · 14/07/2015 10:00

Crying child with grazed knee isn't even something I'd ask for help with. Other posters have referred to much more serious things so can't really be compared.

Agree that tissues on a wound a are a bit grim, antiseptic wipe much better if you have access.

butterfly133 · 14/07/2015 10:02

I mean, go to shop and buy stuff, sure. Go to shop and ask for help because LO took a spill and grazed knee...no.

TheChandler · 14/07/2015 10:09

Lagoon I really have no idea whether someone has been sued specifically for giving a wipe - you can trawl through the case law looking for a case if you wish.

However I wouldn't have thought it beyond the realms of possibility that a child may stuff a wipe into their mouth and choke.

DoJo · 14/07/2015 10:21

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.

Did you ask at the pharmacy or at the sales counter?

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 14/07/2015 10:26

I asked the first person I saw who yes happened to be at the pharmacy. She then called over someone else who I assume to be an assistant.

Look I'm bored of this now and am signing off. I have read all of the responses carefully. Some are just insulting and daft but hey ho this is AIBU.

At the end of the day I now have decided that I still don't think I was unreasonable to ask for a bit of help and not expect to charged for it, from a pharmacy. For the price of an antiseptic wipe I am mightily unimpressed with Boots customer service. And yes I am a customer as had just been in to pick up a prescription.

I would always look to help out when someone had a fall or hurt themselves. Yes it wasn't life threatening but a little kindness goes a long way in the world.

That is all I will say about it now. Thanks for replying.

OP posts:
Justmuddlingalong · 14/07/2015 10:29

Is the Pharmacy 1st scheme not for minor ailments, to free up doctors and nurse appointments? Does a grazed knee merit free treatment under the scheme?

IKnowIAmButWhatAreYou · 14/07/2015 10:37

It's a small child with bleeding dirty knees crying his eyes out .

Pretty standard for small children, which is why most parents have tissues, wipes etc with them.

I still do now & mine are 20!

Heels99 · 14/07/2015 10:38

If he was crying because he was hungry would you ask greggs for a free pasty? Or tHe ice cream man for a free 99?

If you were out without sun cream would you ask boots for free Nivea?

You buy the tissues or whatever you need. It wasnt an emergency where they pulled bandages off the shelves to make a tournaquet to save the persons life. You asked for tissue. They sold you some wipes. It was a grazed knee. Get over it.

Heels99 · 14/07/2015 10:40

And they did help you! They just charged for the items you had. It's normal in a shop.

Original poster
Lagoonablue · 14/07/2015 10:58

Yeah I'd ask Greggs for a free pasty........FFS

OP posts:
firesidechat · 14/07/2015 11:55

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.

That wasn't the cost of cleaning a cut knee. That was the cost of the whole pack of supplies that the op paid for and she would have walked away with the remainder of the pack.

firesidechat · 14/07/2015 12:02

Op I think you mentioned your mum falling over outside BHS and comparing the two incidents. I don't think the two are comparable. Children fall over and hurt their knees all the time (well mine did) and it's a fairly unremarkable thing. An adult falling over is rare and needs checking up. It could have had a more sinister cause than just tripping over.

I would have expected a shop to help you if your son had hit his head or had a possible broken limb or any similar incident, but not a bleeding knee.

ouryve · 14/07/2015 12:07

I went into boots with red, streaming eyes, the other week. They did not give my the sodium cromoglicate eyedrops I needed for free, despite my obvious distress, and I didn't expect them to, either. They're a business.

sweetgrape · 14/07/2015 12:08

The assistant could surely have thought of a less expensive option. something to stem the bleeding and a cheap packet of plasters shouldn't come to a fiver.

Heels99 · 14/07/2015 12:10

Why would a first aider be required for a grazed knee? Surely it's something any parent has to deal with at any time.

sweetgrape · 14/07/2015 12:26

Most big chain stores have first aiders. They don't usually have to deal with anything more major than this. A distressed child with a cut knee is something which a first aider is trained for. Why shouldn't they deal with it. The child and the mother were upset, that should have been enough. Good grief why does everything have to be about profit these days.

Edgarallan · 14/07/2015 12:30

YANBU!
Just love how other posters think this is entitiled behaviour and assume that the OP demanded products free of charge from staff.

Also not very kind to take the opportunity to question why OP did not have all required supplies with her at the time in manner of all seeing mother eye!

Heels99 · 14/07/2015 12:32

By the time a first aides called the mother could have wiped it and stuck a plaster in herself. And a high St boots wouldn't have a first aided. Nonetheless first aid was administered.

MitzyLeFrouf · 14/07/2015 12:38

YANBU

Miserly arses. A small child cut his knee outside our offices a few weeks ago. We cleaned his knee and gave him a Cornetto from the staff freezer.

DJThreeDog · 14/07/2015 12:39

Your mistake was going into Boots. They are a pharmacy, that's what they sell.

Next time go into a bank or something - they will have first aid kits but nothing to sell.

Also I would expect if anyone other than the store manager was the one serving you they would have had to explain the loss. Which might be 'wrong' as it's only one pack - but what if every store did this every couple of days for the poor upset kiddies?

BTW I quite often don't have stuff like this with me and would absolutely expect to buy it if I went into a shop. To be given it for nothing would be considered a bonus.

QuintShhhhhh · 14/07/2015 12:39

*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.*

Surely you got to keep the rest of the pack?

Do you always expect others to clean up your child or do you keep wipes and plasters handy? If you did, you would not be "harassed".

Mine are 13 and 10, I still carry around wipes, tissues, and and a couple of plasters in a small kit in my handbag.

NavyAndWhiteStripes · 14/07/2015 12:41

YANBU. When DS was about 3, he fell over in Sainsbury's and managed to bit the inside of his lip. Blood everywhere (over him and me) and he was sobbing. Now I was in a supermarket and am a functional adult, so yes I could have purchased things to sort him out. However, before I got as far as doing so, another customer clocked what had happened and alerted a Sainsbury's first aider. They got wipes and cleaned up DS and me; opened a pack of ice lollies from their freezer section and gave him one to eat to stop the bleeding; and got a toy car off the shelf and gave it to him to play with while they ministered to him to calm him down. All for free.

I didn't expect it, I offered to pay (it was declined) and I was hugely grateful. So YANBU - there are people with humanity out there who will help a crying bleeding child.

nancy75 · 14/07/2015 12:44

Navy - you had the accident in the shop. You didn't walk in with an already injured child.

If you have an accident in the shop they will do everything possible to help so you don't start looking for ways the accident could be their fault

Toughasoldboots · 14/07/2015 12:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnnoyedParent22 · 14/07/2015 12:53

I don't think we have to consider this 'incident' as an 'emergency' in order to believe that Boots could have looked after hurt child without asking for payment for supplies.

In the child's eyes it was distressing and an emergency. Not the same as a hungry child and their parent asking Greggs for a free sausage roll Hmm

And it's not the same as the poster who said they carry all their child's frequently required medical equipment with them at all times. This was an accident and as such OP could not have foreseen it, although yes small children will and do fall over.

Again, I come back to the concept of good PR and brand image. McDonalds for example are well known as having high brand recognition and image. Hence a PP experience of receiving excellent care when one of her children had an accident on their premises [admittedly a more serious accident for sure].

This sort of positive PR is priceless for a store... and is often passed down the generations. So again using McDonalds as an example, if someone as a child remembers McD's fondly they are more likely to take their own children there and so forth.

I would think the same of Boots. It is a well established, well known, brand who trades on it's history and promotes itself as mother and child friendly. Therefore it would be very useful for Boots to treat it's existing and potential future customers well. Part of this would be attending to these customers when they have been hurt or unwell, i.e. offering a seat and a drink of water for a pregnant lady who feels unwell or a wet wipe and a plaster for a child who scrapes their knee.

Would be very interested what Boots Head Office would make of this incident [wouldn't it be great if they popped up on the thread with their view Grin]