To think this was terrible service

[Armadilloboss]

Sorry in advance for the long post

My DS took DN’s (4 and 5) to get their back to school stationary yesterday. DN (4) is starting reception and was super excited for this as she feels grown up like her big sister.
Upon entering paperchase, a nasty little girl stuck her foot out and tripped my niece over. Poor thing didn’t see it coming and went straight into the glass display table, splitting her mouth open.
The girls mother ran over and grabbed the girl shouted ‘what have you done now?’ And swiftly left the store, making me think this girl has form for this sort of thing.
DN was bleeding from her mouth. It was all over her, the floor and my sister, and as you can imaging she was screaming in both pain and shock. Sister shouted the girl at the till for help and the girl responded ‘I’m busy serving’. She then shouted over for a wipe or something to stop the bleeding. The girl huffed, pulled a toilet roll from behind the till and ripped some off for her. Luckily enough my sisters friend walked past and seen sister (they were at the first display as you walk in, this happened within seconds of them entering the store) she went in to help and again approached the girl at the till and said ‘are you not going to help the little girl over there?’ Again she was told they were too busy. SF asked if they had a first aider of first aid kit on site and was met with ‘no, we dont’
After DN had calmed a bit my sister went over and said ‘do you need to put this in an accident report (we have both worked in retail for 15 years so know the procedure for this type of thing)’ again the girl was unphased and replied ‘no we don’t have one of them’ my sister again queried this and said ‘a 4 year old has just smashed her face against your glass display, there is blood all over your floor, and you don’t need to document this?’ The girl responded ‘yeah but was she running around mad?’ At which point my sister just walked out the store.
She immediately emailed paperchase to complain and has yet to receive a response (this was 10am yesterday morning).
AIBU to think this is appalling and the safety of people in their store should come before serving a customer?

CherryPavlova:
The shop has a legal requirement to ensure anyone on their premises is or could be safe and healthy at all times.
Method statements
Procedures
Risk Assessments
Training of staff
Signage
First Aid provision.
There is also a legal obligation to be mindful of the requirements of The Health & Safety at Work Act and amendments
The Shops Act.
RIDDOR
The Health & Safety (First Aid) Regs
HSE requirements.
These are just a few and practitioners will know what is required, not some untrained commenters or untrained shop assistants. There were several breaches here and paperchase need to address them swiftly.

.

Exactly!

As usual there is a whole load of incorrect information on the thread.

HelpfulPerson posted a helpful post. 😊

Ated
There were several breaches here and paperchase need to address them swiftly.

What were the breaches? If the shop ‘girl’ cleaned the blood up afterwards then 🤷🏻‍♀️

I work in retail and I have to get a manager and deal with it from there
It’s not a shift til I’ve had to deal with anything from a fall to a wasp sting
Poor kid-hope she’s feeling better

Shameful behaviour from the member of staff. I would make a formal complaint, it’ll be on their cctv so they can review the incident.

^I would do this too.

This thread is bonkers!

A child was tripped over and fell into a display cabinet. She wasn’t tripped by poor flooring/ a badly placed display or anything that was the fault of the shop so they aren’t really liable. She wasn’t injured badly enough to need medical attention so the accident doesn’t need to be recorded or reported.

The shop assistant could have been more helpful but it wasn’t really her responsibility to do so. There is no obligation for stores to have first aiders or first aid equipment available to the public (although of course many do).

As there have been no loss of earnings or medical costs incurred and as the accident wasn’t caused by the shop I have no idea where the posters suggesting suing think the claim lies? If you want to claim for compensation there usually has to be at least some sort of financial or personal loss to compensate for even before you start looking at whether the store was liable.

^^ completely agree. Feel sorry for the child, but the level of misdirected fury is a bit mad.

Aged You’re quoting legislation that doesn’t apply.
As an example, RIDDOR notification is only about specific injuries or occurrences in the workplace. It doesn’t relate to children in shops in any way.
The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 are regulations which require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to enable first aid to be given to employees who are injured or become ill at work. They are not applicable to little girls in shops.

Breaches of which regulations are you thinking? There really isn’t.

The shop has a legal requirement to ensure anyone on their premises is or could be safe and healthy at all times
Method statements
Procedures
Risk Assessments
Training of staff
Signage
First Aid provision.
There is also a legal obligation to be mindful of the requirements of The Health & Safety at Work Act and amendments
The Shops Act.
RIDDOR
The Health & Safety (First Aid) Regs
HSE requirements.
These are just a few and practitioners will know what is required, not some untrained commenters or untrained shop assistants. There were several breaches here and paperchase need to address them swiftly.

Sorry Alted but all that only appertains to the employees. The H&S does not extend to members of the public. The only time an accident is reportable is if the shop caused it through something they directly did or didn't do (such as not mopping up spillages etc).

Look up their Health & Safety director or operations director and forward your complaint to them.

Look up their Health & Safety director or operations director and forward your complaint to them.

Why? They haven't done anything wrong except show poor customer service.

I do feel she could have done much more but one can imagine, young girl, attitude, doesn't want to work there hates it, no training and crap pay.... Sadly...

Some young seem to lack empathy

The shop has a legal requirement to ensure anyone on their premises is or could be safe and healthy at all times

"This week, in 'Laws That Only Exist In The Minds of MN'..."

Of course premises owners owe a duty of care to visitors as well as staff. Duh

Of course premises owners owe a duty of care to visitors as well as staff. Duh

Having a duty of care doesn't mean they are responsible for members of the public. Only that their premises are safe for others to use. In this case the child was tripped up by another child, nothing to do with the shop.

Still, Paperchase is in a scheme of arrangement at the moment, in part due to declining footfall in its shops. I guess the lack of
Training of the staff member and robust process for what to do when an accident occurs on shop premises is symptomatic of a loss making shop teetering on insolvency

And 'customer service' such as OP experienced can only .help drive the nails into Paperchase's coffin.

I hardly think a kid tripping in paperchase is going to be one of the reasons the company goes down, if it does.This thread could have been about any high street store.

All the health and safety bits (such as RIDDOR) quoted above are nothing to do with members of the public - they're to do with employees injuring themselves in the workplace.

However that doesn't mean the girl in question acted well at all. The nice thing to do is to make sure the customer is okay and to supply basics such as a first aid kit, a glass of water and a seat! You don't have to be trained in anything to be a good person.

If one of my staff members behaved in such a poor way, they would be pulled up and spoken to. Good customer service extends beyond making money.

Abysmal customer experience in a declining retail environment can and will (and has) pushed companies into decline and liquidation

Nothing to sue about

BUT
Contact them to say that they need to improve their training and procedures

There must be a member of staff on duty, trained in first aid
and also a procedure to call them in the event of an accident ot injury

To continue serving was idiotic
She either had no training or has forgotten it all

There must be a member of staff on duty, trained in first aid

There is no legal requirement for a member of staff to give first aid to a member of the public or any visitors on their premises.

Not even to your children on school premises. Although obviously most schools do include them in their first aid provision.

Health and safety at work covers employees only.

Sorry Alted but all that only appertains to the employees. The H&S does not extend to members of the public. The only time an accident is reportable is if the shop caused it through something they directly did or didn't do (such as not mopping up spillages etc).

Exactly and this has been said over and over again on this thread.

Yep people are still confusing employees with members of the public.

There must be a member of staff on duty, trained in first aid

No there doesn't. Please read up on it before you post erroneous information you've made up.