Money Moral Dilemma: You tore it, should you pay?

JayD

I feel pretty confident that if she told a member of staff at the till - and handed them the damaged item - they would not charge her for it at all. There is an expectation of some minor damage occurring when items are freely available to the public to handle and try on. Accidents happen and I think the staff would consider this to be an accident. After all, it was certainly not a deliberate act of vandalism.

So, she should have the courage to hand the damaged item to the staff, (so that an unsuspecting shopper doesn't buy it, thinking it is undamaged) but she should not expect to pay for it.

Aspal

We get people damage stuff all the time and I've never asked anyone to pay for it. It does bug me though if they just look at me and don't say anything before walking off. I don't mind shouldering the cost, even if they choose not to buy anything, but an apology doesn't hurt. I remember my son kicked a pot of paint off the till at Homebase once, and it spilt all over the floor. I was mortified and offered to pay for it but the staff were trying to encourage me to claim for cleaning my jeans!!

-N34

No I would just leave it. And yes... I would be able to live with that.

larsonsmum

I work for a greeting's card company within supermarkets and several times customers have chosen cards, then moved on to do their grocery shopping. Somewhere further round the store they set something wet or icy in the trolley on top of the cards they've picked, or their toddler in the seat part of the trolley is given the cards to hold with messy/sticky hands. What do they do? Come back, dump the cards on the rack, and take new undamaged ones! They will blatantly do it in front of us.Like the top - they damaged the goods...they should pay for them!

rlp

If you dropped a glass jar in a supermarket they would usually offer to go and get you a new one - they would not ask you to pay. If there is a broken egg in the pack they don't say - you should have been more careful how you packed your trolley. If the clothes tear that easily then I would be returning it for a refund if I had bought it so I am certainly not paying for poor quality merchandise but I would point out the damage as I left the item.

Taffybiker

I was about to yell "Yes, pay up" when I read the title. Only when I realised the MMD was concerning a shop did I decide a different answer would be in order.
If I borrow something and it gets damaged/lost/stolen while in my care, then I cough up immediately. I would even pay up if I was just unlucky enough that it developed a fault while I was supposed to be looking after it.
In truth, I guess much depends on the store in question: for a small struggling outlet I would say be honest. For the large department store, don't worry about it.

tallgirld

OH PLEASE!!!! Own up for what?? I wouldn't say anything. She should just put it back on the hanger and buy the one that's not ripped. It was an accident.

Actually another way around it. Take it to the counter say she found it ripped and offer to buy it with a discount. ;-)

Oh come on!!!! I know some of you would do that wouldnt you?????

Pellyman

Well she certainly needn't feel obliged to buy two. She should put the good one back and take the damaged one to an assistant and explain what happened. My personal experience is that the shop would shrug it off as 'one of those things' and, probably thank her for telling them.

Then, feeling good about herself, she could thank them by buying an undamaged one.

If they should ask her to pay, it is unlikely they would ask for the full retail price and she could keep the damaged one and try to repair it.

When wearing her new top may I suggest she puts it on before her jewelry and takes it off after removing her jewelry.

iclayt

I used to work in a clothes shop, and the biggest problem with damaged clothes we had was not tears from jewellery or shoes, but makeup! So often we would find clothes that had been tried on but put back on the rail with big smears of foundation or blusher on the collar. Would we ever ask anyone to pay for this? No, of course not. We'd mark it as damaged and then either someone else bought it (and if they requested a discount we would maybe offer 10% at the most, after all they're under no obligation to buy it at all, let alone at a discount) or we'd just send it back to the main supplier. Damages are expected much like theft can occur, a customer owning up is a bonus as it can be found and dealt with quicker, but we never forced anyone into buying something they've accidentally damaged.

And would I confess? Maybe... I would point it out to them on the checkout and say that I was going to buy it but noticed the damage. Trust me, they'll know you likely did it yourself as that's probably the reason you're discreetly pointing it out to them - who goes around pointing out damage they didn't do?

Ifan

Be honest. Imagine you are the other side of the counter.