What would you do? Pay or not pay ...

moomoomama27

I wouldn't pay! It was an accident, if it were anyones fault it was the boy wearing glasses, he should have been more careful, knowing that rough and tumble ends in breakages for a glasses wearer!

I hate the compensaion seeking society we live in!

Sounds like the family are pulling a fast one! They can get glasses and lenses paid for on the NHS, tell them to do that, and that you won't be paying.

LilacPixie

I wouldn't pay either.

imagine it was a house you rented and you broke a kitchen cupboard door handle, you would be paying for a repair to the door handle not for a whole new kitchen. Betterment is not allowed in landlord deposit deductions.

So sorry you would of been quite prepared to meet half the cost of repairing the damaged frames but not replacing the whole set.

JodyBPM

I do appreciate that as parents we do have to pay for our childrens things that get broken.

But if a child of mine had broken something of someone else's be that cheap, expensive, old or new, deliberately or accidently, I would offer to replace it straight away. In this situation I would have offered a contribution as the child was only partly to blame.

I suspect that if it was my child whose glasses were broken, I would have expected the other child's parents to have offered to contribute towards the cost, and thought it extremely rude if they didn't. I probably wouldn't have taken them up on their offer, though, especially if I needed to replace said item in the foreseeable future anyway. And I very much doubt I would actually have chased them for money. Certainly if I was the OP in this thread, I would have offered a contribution towards repair/replacement straight away, I wouldnt have waited to be asked. Surely that is just polite.

I feel that I am quite alone in feeling financially responsible for any damage my child does, and I find that rather sad:(

What if your child had damaged a neighbours car/broken a window at school/put a football through a neighbours greenhouse - would you not expect to pay for a repair or replacement? I don't see this situation as any different, really, except that as the fault was only partial, it should only be a part contribution towards the total cost of replacement.

TeresaO

Hi,
As a mum to a Y7 boy who has been wearing specs since he was 2. I would never expect anyone other than myself to be paying for DS's specs. They are his responsibility and if they get broken during a fight that's his look out. He has spares and that's what I expect him to wear until the others are repaired or replaced (2 weeks max).

DS gets his eyes checked every year and a new pair every time. It's not necessarily a change of prescription, but the wear and tear on them. Also I don't have to pay a penny towards them if I choose not to. The NHS specs are not the nightmare blue / pink squares with bottle bottom lens that I used to wear.

Sorry, I just can not believe that people would even try to get you to pay.

T

the_cat

JodyBPM wrote: »

I feel that I am quite alone in feeling financially responsible for any damage my child does, and I find that rather sad:(

What if your child had damaged a neighbours car/broken a window at school/put a football through a neighbours greenhouse - would you not expect to pay for a repair or replacement? I don't see this situation as any different, really, except that as the fault was only partial, it should only be a part contribution towards the total cost of replacement.

I would without question pay for any of those circumstances, but this matter is different

The child in question had free NHS specs that were broken. If there was a cost for replacement due to breakage I would happily pay half. If they were charged for a DIRECT replacement (not their choice of designer specs) I would also pay. Fact is though, they decided to indulge in designer glasses. And after 3 months put in a bill for others even though a free replacement would have been available

The direct replacement would have cost £0. My half of that cost is £0. So that is what I would expect to pay

islandlass

I would do as a previous poster suggests and write asking for the receipt in order to consider whether to pay....the date on the receipt will be the key! If it is immediately after the accident you may consider a contribution. If it is only a week or so ago....clearly the child has not needed new glasses until now! I would not dream of asking for a contribution in these circumstances - however I am one of those people who would always pay if my child damages a car/window like the poster above. This is slightly different...

peardrops_2

islandlass wrote: »

I would do as a previous poster suggests and write asking for the receipt in order to consider whether to pay....the date on the receipt will be the key! If it is immediately after the accident you may consider a contribution. If it is only a week or so ago....clearly the child has not needed new glasses until now! I would not dream of asking for a contribution in these circumstances - however I am one of those people who would always pay if my child damages a car/window like the poster above. This is slightly different...

I have the receipt. It is dated 17 May 2011 / 5.50pm

This is 2½ months after the initial incident took place ...

itzmee

I wouldn't pay either as the original glasses were two years old and can be replaced free of charge at least once a year. My son wears glasses and recently chose a new pair at Specsavers, he was told he could have a free pair from up to the £95 range of frames. If he wanted them from the higher priced ranges then there was an additional charge of either £10 or £25 depending on which range he chose. Needless to say he got the free ones.

I have had to replace my son's glasses previously following incidents at school but I have never asked for any contributions from parents as I knew it wouldn't cost me anything to get a new pair - it's just the hassle of doing so that is more annoying.

Bennifred

Sounds like the school should not allow "play" fighting.............

JodyBPM

the_cat wrote: »

I would without question pay for any of those circumstances, but this matter is different

The child in question had free NHS specs that were broken. If there was a cost for replacement due to breakage I would happily pay half. If they were charged for a DIRECT replacement (not their choice of designer specs) I would also pay. Fact is though, they decided to indulge in designer glasses. And after 3 months put in a bill for others even though a free replacement would have been available

The direct replacement would have cost £0. My half of that cost is £0. So that is what I would expect to pay

I do appreciate your point. But there are a few things bothering me about this.

The first is that you say the school have confirmed that the glasses were NHS. Now you have taken that to mean that they were chosen from the free NHS range, but how would the school possibly know that? I cannot imagine discussing the cost of my childs glasses with the school. And if the parent was planning on pulling some kind of scam, they surely would have told the school that they were expensive glasses, not freebies. Are you sure that when the school confirmed that they were NHS, they didn't mean that they were an NHS prescription - ie prescription rather than vanity glasses. That the school would be likely to know.

And if the parents are on a scam, then its a pretty silly one! If they are usually happy for their child to wear free NHS glasses, why would they not have simply got another pair of free glasses at the cost to themselves of £0. Instead they spend £97 on a pair of glasses, and asked you for £25, thereby leaving themselves £72 out of pocket, even if you pay up! Its hardly worth spending £72 rather than £0 just to get something worth £97 fo £72. Do you follow me - its totally illogical! And if its a scam, why not go all out for a full half of the cost rather than just a £25 contribution?

In any case, I would have avoided all these doubts at this stage of the game, because I would have been mortified that my child had been involved in the breakage of someone else's glasses, and on the day I heard, I would have rung the other parent to apologise and offer to come to some solution regarding repairing/replacement, and I would have discussed such things as whether they were repairable, the cost of the existing frames etc directly with the childrens parents.

I'm still shocked that 3 months after the event you still hadn't rung the other parent to apologise and offer to help with getting things sorted - I think that is awfully, awfully rude, and I bet if you had done that things would have been resolved smoothy and amicably by now, most likely with the other parents telling you not to bother about any payment towards the cost...