To not pay £480 to fix dd's friend's phone

[FarangGirl]

Dd (14 yo) was with her friends and accidentally hit a friend in the arm. He had his phone in his hand and dropped it. Apparently it will cost £480 to repair!!! His parents want us to pay this. I think this is ridiculous. First, friend dropped the phoen, it wasn't like dd was using it. Second. If you're going to give your kid a stupidly expensive phoen, you should insure it and have a bullet proof cover.
Aibu?

Your DD should be paying half if it comes to it, but not you!

Maybe he shouldn’t be using it while walking along?
Obviously I do, and I drop my phone sometimes and accept it’s my fault plus have it in a heavy duty case.
Maybe he should have such a case?
Maybe he should have insurance?

If she hasn't deliberately shoved/tripped him then no I don't think so. It's difficult when things are so expensive but I don't think your DD is to blame in any way.

Sorry but phone owning family are taking the absolute piss.

If it's a cracked screen it most certainly wouldn't cost that much to fix it at Apple anyway. So not sure where they've plucked this number from.

I'd say a firm no.

@Danikm151

For that you could buy a brand new phone

Three

It should have been in a protective case.

£480 is an absolute piss take.

Nope. Should be in a case and insured. Silly to give a teenager something so expensive without this!

The way dd describes it, they were walking along together, she was talking and she kind of turned a bit to face him and as she did that, she hit his arm and he dropped the phone
Sounds like she was behaving reasonably.
Apparently it was a brick path with some misshapen bricks sticking out and the phone hit them face on and smashed the screen

Wtf is with people? I wouldn't pay anything. If I'm going in your house and accidentally break something that's one thing, but I'd not expect anyone to pay for knocking my phone out of my hand. I should be holding it tighter, have it protected from damage etc.

The whole thing’s ridiculous they’re just trying it on.

If they can’t afford the repairs/replacement of their teen’s phone then buy him one they can.

I mean them not you

@blanketyblanked

Your DD should be paying half if it comes to it, but not you!

She shouldn't. I wouldn't even consider it

@blanketyblanked

Your DD should be paying half if it comes to it, but not you!

She doesn't have that kind of money! And I wouldn't penalise her for this, I don't think shes done anything wrong.

@Itsalmostanaccessory

Well, she shouldn't be waving her arms around. That is silly.

Pay half.

Er, what? People use their arms when they are talking excitedly, all the time.

If they buy their kid a phone that costs that much they have more money than sense.

No way should you pay. I would usually be someone who would offer to contribute to / cover the cost of damage I / my DC caused accidentally but this is excessive and is not your or DD's fault.

What...£480 for a repair. What kind of phone does he have. My dgd dropped her phone recently . Quite a good one. The screen was smashed. Cost £40 to repair. If this was considering contributing to the repair of this phone I would want to know the model so I could look up the cost of new ones. I would be asking how long he's had the phone as if a while I might suspect that they want to use this amount for or towards a new messages del. I would also want evidence that this would be the cost if repair. I would consider half at the very most.

Amazed at amount of people who say pay half! Absolutely not. It was an accident and they should have insurance for expensive phones.

@ENoeuf

‘She was talking animatedly’ does sound a bit like she was being careless.

Never been to Italy then I guess

a new phone ...not a new messages del 😱

How does a smashed screen cost that much? I thought screens were much much cheaper to replace. Which iPhone is it? I googled it, on Apple it still staggeringly more expensive than I thought but none say £480. support.apple.com/en-gb/iphone/repair/service/screen-replacement

My work colleague had propped her iPhone up behind my screen, she was hiding it as we weren't allowed to use them, and I had no idea it was there, I moved my screen and it fell to the floor and screen smashed. I had no idea it cost this much. I'd never think it'd be over £100. She never asked me to pay anything either. I did offer to contribute. Even though it wasn't my fault at all.

@FarangGirl "never been to Italy then"

This made me snort !

I highly suspect the boy has exaggerated the situation to his parents to get himself off the hook, plus he’s probably also ‘teen-annoyed’ (is that a thing?!) with your DD for her involvement in the screen smashing and would like to blame her completely.

If you don’t socialise with this family then a firm and respectful ‘no’ with the above reasons from other posters.

However, if this refusal will cause awkward repercussions down the line, I might be inclined to pay half, but only once I’ve seen the itemised bill.

@Raindancer411

They can use their house insurance

Unfortunately not every does have insurance.

If it was an accident then no DD shouldn't have to pay. Their household insurance should cover this, with a minimum excess if they have the right policy. I have never paid for separate mobile phone insurance.

DD's friend actually picked up her phone and threw it at her and it smashed, but I didn't ask her friend to pay for it although I was really annoyed at the time. But this is why DD has a refurbished iphone 6 that cost me around £70 , because you don't give kids expensive phones if you can't afford it/don't insure them properly.