To sue ASDA?!

[KnightlyMyMan]

Ok so maybe not actually sue- but to be very annoyed and shaken up?

This afternoon I was shopping in a (reasonably small) ASDA supermarket picking up items for my gran.

I turned an empty aisle and noticed a ‘cleaning in progress’ sign on one side. No visible spillage and the sign was only on one side so I walked around it (gave a wide berth), Boom, I was on the floor having landed heavily on my right knee.

My fiancé, who was with me, picked me back up and another middle aged chap came running up to help. He had just fallen himself, in the exact same spot as me! The floor was coated in a slippery oil based substance - it had stained his jeans.

A minute later an employee came running up apologising profusely - the chap told her off as she had ‘wiped’ the floor after he fell but obviously done a terrible job. As I hobbled away I saw her retrieve a bucket and mop.

I went to the customer service desk and manager was called- he was nice and apologised (gave me a nominal gift card) but I wasn’t in pain, just shaken and annoyed as had that been my very elderly grandmother or heavily pregnant cousin (who it would have been had I not volunteered) it would have been very dangerous!

Since I got home my knee has seized and is now bruised and swollen in a lump. I’m 25- fit and healthy - never had anything like this happen before. But I’m really annoyed that It did- I won’t be able to cycle to my office tomorrow 😒 and expect I’ll be sore for a while. I’ve never considered suing anyone for anything but think this could easily have been avoided!

Please don't sue - it's a massive drain on your time and companies are now very wise to the No Win No Fee culture. I had an accident in a store that I absolutely couldn't have avoided - something dropped on me from a height. I took them to court mainly because I thought it was a shocking lapse in health and safety and the manager didn't seem to care. Solicitor told me it was open and shut case as it was 100% not my fault. They battled me for a year, insisting they were not to blame and they were willing to take it to court - even hiring barristers. At the 8th hour they caved in and I think I got about £1000, their legal costs would have been ten times that. A slip on a wet floor when there was a sign in place - you don't stand a chance, sorry. Just get some ice on that bruise.

Christ - bloody snowflakes all around these days.

You really don’t want the money? Or you wanted us all to tell you to sue, so you had some sort of backup to what you were originally wanting, but then now it seems everyone thinks you’re being grabby so you’ve changed your tune to ‘civic duty’. There was a sign. You saw it. You walked, slipped and fell. Have a bruise. Adults and children alike get these daily OP - fairly common. You should see my 4 year olds legs And my husband has cycled with much larger bruises than that so I don’t believe you couldn’t cycle in tomorrow.

You’re feeling sorry for yourself - fine. Come on here for a moan. Fine. Just don’t come on here guns blazing wanting to sue them after seeing a sign, Made a complaint, got someone in trouble and got some sort of gift card - Because that makes you look very silly. HTH and get better soon.

You ignored a sign? They apologised and gave you a gift card? And you want to sue on behalf of your pregnant cousin or elderly grandmother who wasn’t there?
I wish that I only had this to worry about in my life.

Where i work people move the signs all of the time, how do you know the cleaner put the sign where it was. I dont know what you are looking for. You got an apology, compensation, there is no training that the employee can receive that will change the situation.

I wouldn't bother.

I'm disabled. I slipped on an invisible spill in Morrisons and I was paying great care and attention as its roetty hard to move fast with a walking stick and spinal injury. I went arse over tit and messed up my spine so much that it's one of the reasons I now use a wheelchair.

No sign up, advised by the guy who filled out the accident form in Morrisons to make a claim. I did, they wriggled out of everything. Absolutely pointless and I have life changing injuries.

I think YABU. There was a sign up and they've given you a gift card. You're not seriously injured.

What do you mean it’s not fair? It was an accident, shit happens love. Jesus you sounds like a moaning teenager!

I've had worse bruises than that from banging into the dishwasher door.

But I'm double hard!!! 😂

These things happen OP.

Honestly you are being incredibly unreasonable and I'd be embarrassed to ask this on the Internet. This is what is wrong with the world, people fall over with a very minor injury and want some kind of pay out for it. Why?!

There was a sign!

People in the world are genuinely ill, have terminal illnesses or end up paralysed and you're getting worked up about a bruise on your knee?

Really?

I’m not grabby or claim culture- I’ve had two non fault car accidents and didn’t sue as wasn’t hurt.

The employee insinuated she knew there was still oil and had left to go get a mop. The chap said ‘I told you, and I told you that sign was in the wrong bloody place- now look what’s happened’

It was 100% their fault - putting a sign like that up is pointless if you’re leaving a oily slip and slide of an aisle unattended. A ‘cleaning in process sign’ is also innapropriate in cases where the floor is/May be wet or a slip hazzard. A ‘Wet Floor’ sign would have been far more reasonable

professormoody thats awful and you actually would have had grounds to sue. Hope your not in too much pain now really puts it in perspective.

Ok so you expect the employee to now run around and locate a sign with the correct wording ?? Rather than, you know, use her common sense and put the other one down?

🙄 I’m just annoyed and rightly so.

Annoyed with yourself no doubt!

And that Male 'customer' sounds like a goady idiot!

No op a cleaning in process sign is very adequate for this situation. The guy fell before? I bet he moved the sign. Story sounds fishy. He saw the sign knee she had gone to get a mop and just what loitered around not warning the oncoming drama queen who also ignored the sign that there was a spill?

Supermarkets don’t have aisle wide signs, OP. I’m sorry you fell, but if there is a caution sign out, you should always treat the WHOLE area around it as potentially wet/slippery, and step very carefully or avoid altogether. That’s what the sign is supposed to do - warn you that the area around it is potentially dangerous to walk on. Customers can be very bad for moving signs out of their way and ‘forgetting’ to put them back too.

I remember being in Tesco’s once and watching some chancing wee fucker move a caution sign while pretending to need something off the shelf behind it, right before he left the aisle, came back up it and deliberately slipped. My mouth was on the floor watching him shouting at the staff and threatening to sue for compensation. I went straight for the front desk, told them what I’d seen him doing and that their CCTV should be checked to confirm he was full of shit. I was genuinely bloody outraged by the whole thing!

Staff apologised and gave you a gift card. I’m not sure what else you’re expecting them to do? You ignored the sign warning you about the floor. Sorry to say it, but that’s on you.

Ouch, looks sore! Hope it’s better soon.

Probably not worth suing - for a bruise, the value of your claim would be miniscule, and your legal costs disproprtionate. It’s also likely that Asda would be viewed as having discharged their responsibility by putting up the sign. They don’t have a duty to ensure accidents can never happen - just to take reasonable care.

So she put the first sign she could find up, it was probably all she had to hand, then left to get a mop?

Do you really read the yellow signs before deciding how to proceed?

If it had said wet floor then would you have proceeded differently? It's pretty fair to say that if cleaning is in progress the floor is very likely to be wet.

Just sue them. That's what you want to be told isn't it?

Why have you posted this when you're not willing to accept what everyone is saying? You're completely in the wrong.

Absolutely pathetic. Just like the bruise.

Good luck trying to sue

The employee insinuated she knew there was still oil and had left to go get a mop. How was that insinuated?

And now the middle aged running chap told her the sign was in the wrong place?

I am feeling more and more sorry for the employee with every post.

@winter

A customer falls on a dangerous oily aisle and points this out to an employee, who half cleans it and then goes to get a sign - puts sign nowhere near the still oily floor (despite injured customer pointing this out) then leaves.

Second customer (me) walks around the corner, sees sign - takes care to avoid the area - slips and falls on the 4-5 meter away spillage which isn’t visible until you tough it (clear fluid)

🤔😂 I’m a reasonable rationale person - that’s ridiculous

What do you actually want out of this? You're saying you don't need/want the money so what is the purpose of this post? I get you're annoyed, but most people in this circumstance would be

What to you want the outcome to be OP? What will be your anticipated loss of earnings, out of pocket expenses etc? Can you afford to sue?

Personally I’d crack on with life and treat myself to something with the voucher.