Okay - genuine AIBU!

[blossomhoneymoon]

If I am I will smile and accept it and say thank you :)

Gave a lift to a colleague who if I am honest I don't really like, she often puts me in the position of giving her a lift. At some point during the journey, my sunglasses fell on the car floor. I stopped at the garage for fuel and she got out as well to get a drink. Got back in the car and crunch - she trod on and broke my sunglasses.

She squealed (repeatedly) and kept saying they had broken but didn't apologise. AIBU to think she should really have offered to replace them?

She also text another colleague saying 'what time are you taking me back!' so yes she is annoying everyone I think!

I think the usual form is for the person who accidentally broke the thing to offer to pay, but for the owner of the broken thing to refuse the offer of payment. That way both sides feel a bit better and hard feelings are minimal.
YANBU to resent her for not offering, but I wouldn't ask her for money either. I also wouldn't give her any more lifts.

YANBU

She wouldn't have even been in your car except that you were doing her a kindness. It's not as though you invited her or exhorted her to be with you. For her to then destroy an item worth a not-negligable sum of money and offer no profuse apology nor offer to pay you for the item is just boorish. Beyond boorish.

Also if someone were giving me a lift and stopped at a fuel station I would have hopped out with my credit card and insisted upon paying for the fill-up as well. I take it she didn't do that either? Or offer to treat you to a beverage when she went into the retail area?

What a clod. I'd be "busy running errands" or "stopping off at a friend's house, sorry" the next time she needs a lift somewhere.

I think she should have said 'sorry', but I don't think it's reasonable to expect her to pay for them. It was an accident; she didn't know they'd been dropped in a place where feet go. And even if she had looked at the footwell as she got in, she still may not have seen them if they weren't directly in her line of vision.

If you don't want to give her lifts, then don't, but I think YABU to expect her to buy you a new pair.

soupdragon has it spot on. You leave your glasses out on the dash or wherever unsecured and they fall in the footwell, and then expect her to buy you a new pair?!

I wonder if she didn't offer to pay because she was worried that they were £200 or something - but I think she should still have offered to contribute something.

I also think if she noticed them falling into her footwell - am slightly lost how she could have missed it tbh, I mean you're concentrating on the road - she should have retrieved them immediately.

you're doing her a favour and she should have at least offered. Does she give you petrol money?

this is really about the fact that she uses you for lifts, not the sunglasses. give her lifts on your terms, or stop the lifts. yabu about the sunglasses i think.

I agree with Soupdragon and Ewe - I wouldn't expect her to pay for them. Like Soup says, who inspects a footwell before getting in a car...particularly one you have just got out of minutes before? No one.

She should have apologised, but given you weren't taking much care of them, it's a case of accidents happen. Sorry.

YABU to expect someone to do more than apologise for an accident that was partly your fault (you should have picked the glasses up knowing they might get accidentally crushed).

She was BU to not go through the motions of offering to pay for a replacement, knowing you would refuse because it was an accident that you also could have prevented.

It was absolutely an accident but an avoidable one if she'd just glanced at the floor
No one does that.

I think yabu if she didn't notice them, after all if they'd fallen off in the street and been trodden on then you wouldn't expect the treader to pay for them surely? If you saw them fall then why didn't you ask her at the time to pick them up? If neither of you saw them fall, then it is bad luck, and I don't think she should pay for them, afterall the footwell is for feet, things there will get trodden on, and so it is your fault for not keeping them safe.
I do think she maybe should have said how sorry she was, but I wonder if this aspect to her personality is why you don't like her? Would you really expect a close friend to pay for new glasses if they got broken in this way? Because i would assume the fault was mine for not placing them somewhere safe.

I never check the footwell when I get in a car.

YANBU. I wouldn't have expected her to pay, but in my opinion when you break something that belongs to someone else, you apologise - accident or not. I would be inclined to stop giving her lifts in future as it doesn't seem like she appreciates it.

The OP has already stated in not so many words that her colleague is of the "user" variety. Yes, I would have wanted a gesture. Not payment but a gesture.

From now on if I were you I'd not offer a lift ever again and if put in the situation, I'd go so far as make an excuse for her never getting in your car again.

It was an accident but she could have apologized.

Presumably they are dark coloured sunglasses against a dark floor so easily not seen. She should have apologised though.

Well, they were actually in a bright coloured case. Thank you for your thoughts :)

They broke even though they were in the case?

Well yes, it was a fabric case.

Don't give her anymore lifts. Whenever she asks, just smile and say 'Can't today, sorry', and change the subject.

Oh that makes sense. I was picturing one of those hard shell contraptions.

Bit of both. I don't imagine most people look in a footwell properly, it's just one of things. So it's slightly your fault because they'd fallen on the floor. But equally she should have apologised; I'd have been so embarrassed and would definitely have offered to by replacements. But then if I were you, I wouldn't have accepted the money as it was an accident.

Nor would I, but convention says she should offer and I should graciously refuse