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!

I’ve calmed down and iced my knee - you’re right obviously- totally unreasonable to claim/complain just had a ‘FFS moment’! Glad I vented on here rather than sending off any emails!

It was their fault and badly managed (that’s not what I was asking Aibu about) - I KNOW it was their fault and so do they given my conversation with the manager at the end! 🤔 Although surprised so many people on here disagreed with that. Seemed clear cut to me - just felt tempted to kick up a fuss - which I now have calmed down and agree is too much. (Even the most reasonable of us have these moments).

99% of people would have done EXACTLY as I did in the same situation! And for those who asked, My fiancé did slip but managed to save himself before he hit the ground so more like a stumble and he’s an NHS surgeon - pretty inteligent and practical guy so not sure where the ‘its Darwinism’ came from. I have learnt my lesson and shall not come to MN for any sort of ‘balanced’ advice in future!

Asda were at fault imo. The sign should have been on top of the spillage so ppl don't walk on it. Did they put it in the accident book op?

@missing - yes they’ll have insurance, which when claims are made against, increases the premiums, which is an increase to overhead costs which they’ll need to recoup somehow (price increases)
Op 4 metres away isn’t that far. You saw the sign. You ignored it. You’re at fault. You don’t know how big the spillage was (the sign could have been covering some of it) but it doesn’t matter. A cleaning in process sign is fine as one would assume the floor would be cleaned with liquids and would therefore be wet. You made a judgment call based on no visible spillage (but a sign) & you were wrong.

Is your fiancee a Surgeon or a Consultant?

Eliza997 how can you put a sign that size over a large spill 🤔

No, it doesn't. I'm aware of the change in the Act. It's fucking ridiculous. Don't stick your fingers through a letterbox. People have dogs. I really hope she loses. I hope that helps.

As an Asda Colleague i can assure you we all do our best to make sure customers are safe to the best of our ability in my store ...unfortunately sometimes this is not the case ..we cant be everywhere at once
.if youve had a gift card as an apology and accepted it ...then theres not much more they can do...did you ask for a first aider so it could be logged

It should have been logged in an accident book. That is the store's responsibility, not the OPs. And the area should have been cordoned off if it was wet/oily and therefore slippy. Placing a sign to one side is so obviously not sufficient, I struggling to understand why so many others have a different view. If you have any lasting effects from this (knees can be delicate and you could have pain for weeks or a lasting knee injury) or you have to have time off work, I would ask ASDA for compensation/see a solicitor.

What have you actually lost- time off work? Loss of earnings? You can’t claim for loss of pride or hurt feelings so what would go on the claim form? Did you have to seek medical advice? If not, there is no weight to the claim and it’ll be laughed out.
Asda will just deny liability because there was a sign up and say they were in the middle of cleaning it up.

I hope you’ve iced it, and taken some painkillers and feel better soon.
Hopefully you’ll be a bit more careful next time!

OP how on earth were Asda at fault?! There was a sign designed specifically for this purpose.

As an aside who are these magical people who can conjure an aisle-wide 'cordon', who don't need to actually nip off and find something like that?

embrarocks sorry to read all of that and bloody good for you for coming back on to say that !

OP "99% of people would have done EXACTLY as I did"

And yet almost everyone on this thread said the opposite.

Clearly everyone on AIBU is in the 1%

I work at Asda and its not a shitty or disgusting job...its quite good actually..keeps a roof over mine and my kids heads and my managers are fabulous..btw been here for 16 years.

I feel I missed an opportunity.
DD2 swung her bike into me (on my bike) when she was 6. I fell off and ended up with a balloon knee and a thigh which was totally purple.
I should have sued the little madam, as she should have warned me (and I could not walk on it for a week).

I am astonished at the 'sue' mentality for anything which happens - sometimes things are just accidents..

How is a cleaner supposed to know where the centre of a spill is? According to the op it was invisible. And what are the chances a customer wouldn't have moved to the edge of the aisle and tried to go around the sign anyway?

At what point does the customer become responsible for walking on a spill that they know is there?

FFS. Are you American OP? Have we really lowered ourselves to threaten "suing" at the drop of a hat?

‘I have learnt my lesson and shall not come to MN for any sort of ‘balanced’ advice in future!’

Because it wasn’t ‘balanced’ in your favour?

You don’t get ‘balanced’ advice here - you get people’s opinions, and on this occasion the vast majority of those opinions differed from yours. That doesn’t make it ‘unbalanced’. If everyone had agreed with you, I’ll bet my boots you would not have said ‘well I won’t come here for balanced advice again’.

@smidge
Pretty sure OP meant 99% would have fallen as she did as the ‘sign’ described wasn’t actually over the spill. Pretty sure that’s obvious and you’re just being pedantic and painful.

Asking people if they would slip online isn’t really a fair example is it? Everyone’s gonna say no - in reality I walk around caution signs everyday - they’re there to warn you to exercise caution - not be a bloody Jedi!

I’m 25- fit and healthy - never had anything like this happen before.

You're 25 and you've never fallen over before? 🤨

It's a bruise. There was a sign. Shit happens 🤷🏼‍♀️

My fiancé did slip but managed to save himself before he hit the ground so more like a stumble and he’s an NHS surgeon - pretty inteligent and practical guy so not sure where the ‘its Darwinism’ came from.

Smart men don't date drama queens.

YABU

Legally if you've accepted the gift card, there's nothing else you can do.

Not only are you being unreasonable, you come across as rather foolish, not to mention childish and entitled. This one is on you. There was a sign in the aisle which you clearly saw. You chose to ignore its bright scary yellow and black warning because you thought you knew better.

"Wet floor", "caution" or "cleaning in progress" signs are there to draw your attention to a hazard. They're specifically put in place to tell you that the floor is still wet and/or the cleaner has left the spillage to collect additional materials to deal with it. They're not there to tell you that there was a spillage, but it's fine now. It's not there so the cleaners can high five one another for a job well done. But you decided that because there was "no visible spillage", it must be fine. Asda tried to warn you, but you thought you knew better.

Now the reason that the sign was there was likely because the blue roll that is readily available for staff to deal with normal liquid spills was insufficient to deal with a "slippery oil based substance". The correct cleaning product is powder based and highly absorbent as compared to a mop and a bucket of water.

So let's go back over it. There was a spillage that you couldn't see, but the staff had put up a sign warning you about it. You ignored the sign and continued walking in the vicinity of the spillage. You slipped and fell and hurt your knee. Sucks to be yout. But what part of that was Asda's fault?

The initial spillage was most probably caused by another person doing their shopping. Possibly even the other Chao who came running. The staff at the store had clearly attempted to clean it up and put up the sign to warn anyone else who might happen by whilst they were away getting the correct materials to deal with the residue. Someone immediately came over to you and apologised for the incident and the inconvenience. Hell, you even got a bit of financial compensation for your stupidity.

Why are you on the internet bitching about this? You made a mistake. Instead of blaming everyone else for it, own it and learn from it. I hope you never make this same mistake again, because that's a beauty of a bump you took there.

DH and myself have both worked as cleaners and general assistants in Tesco, and I've also worked in Aldi.
The protocol for both (though obviously I can't comment on asda) is put a sign out, that's the customers warned, then go and fetch a bucket and mop to clean the spillage. All cleaning products are kept in a corner of the warehouse, which could take 5 minutes+ to fill the bucket and then bring the mop and bucket over.
Most places are understaffed these days in a bid to save money and up profits, there are simply not enough staff for someone to hover around a wet floor sign to tell you the floor is wet.
Also, more times than not when I get back to the spillage, no matter what it is including smashed glass of pasta sauce someone has moved the sign to get to the shelves (and then wheeled their trolley through the spillage and around the store, how many wet floor signs would that need when I've cleaned it up!). If the spillage was invisible another customer could have moved it and assuming the floor was dry. Asda took reasonable action as soon as they were informed about the spillage and followed the same instructions I have been given in other similar roles.
And nothing worse than being shouted at in front of everyone by an angry customer, I'm not cut out for retail as I (more than I would like to admit) ended up in the warehouse crying by the way strangers treated me.
I know you are adamant you want to blame asda, but in this scenario they did everything they were required to do.
It's a shame people fell over, and it's shit your knee hurts, but it'll be healed in a few days and asda apologised and gave you a gift card over what really was just an accident.
Some of the suggestions have been ridiculous. Close the whole aisle? What if someone wanted something 1 metre into the aisle but the spillage was 10 metres in. Staff standing around to warn people? That's what signs are for and it'll mean inflates prices to employ more staff to do a job a sign does (I personally have lollipop people at traffic lights with a crossing). The sign is to warn people to be careful, you wasn't careful enough.