Real life MMD: Should I pay for a broken teapot?

mil200

I can't believe so many people are supporting the "antiques dealer". The friend was doing him a favour in buying it- going out of their way to do a nice thing! Yes they could have been lazy and not bought it, or 'careful' as some of you say, but they were obviously going out of their way trying to be a nice friend. Although they dropped it, it was an accident and it's not very fair on the poor student who forked out £95 they could hardly afford. What a horrible friend for not even offering to pay half! Especially after you have just hosted a nice weekend for them. If they still don't offer to pay anything, I would reconsider the friendship.

balajo

but you were only the transportation. If your friend ordered by post, he would have to pay for insurance. He didn't do that, did he? He didn't tell you to put it on a credit card for purchase protection so he didn't insure it. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor or if he was. You certainly got nothing out of doing this person a favour and now you have to eat 95 pounds for it. No good deed goes unpunished.

onesixfive

Stick the pieces back together carefully - If the friend wont accept the "mended" teapot and pay at least half, then consider it a "broken" friendship.

Augustus_the_Strong

I don't think you're going to get anywhere in trying to make your friend pay for a teapot he hasn't got. Nice of you to go and buy it on his behalf, but as a result of your clumsiness, the teapot no longer exists. Your friend may be unhappy that he can no longer have the teapot, and that a lovely thing (presumably) has been broken by a clumsy person. Asking him to pay for it anyway is adding insult to injury.

Moneygonewhere?

bigdic wrote: »

£95 for a teapot? :huh:

Precisely! Why would one friend, who has a well paid job, ask his student friend to buy him a £95 teapot. And why did the student friend actually spend £95 on a teapot???? He could have apologised and said ' I couldn't get it'. Then the first friend could buy the teapot himself.

curriej99

omendata wrote: »

What a stupid question.

YOU BROKE IT YOU PAY FOR IT!

To say "What a stupid question" is in itself a stupid statement.

There is a moral dilemma on the side of both parties, and a friendship is at stake. Many friendships are tarnished over situations such as this. I personally thought the 'The friend ought to offer to pay for it and you should refuse to accept' scenario was dignified but this leaves you £95 lighter, which you are unable to afford.
A nice outcome would be: he offers to pay, you refuse the offer, but he sends you some or all of the cost. However, this cannot be planned for as neither party knows the others next move.
Your friend CAN afford it, or he wouldn't have asked you to buy it for him. What I would do is ask yourself how much you can afford to contribute to the cost, and then confront him openly, explaining that you wish to remedy the situation, but can he contribute to helping you to do so. One option could be that he pays for some or all of it, and you pay him back some or all of it over time, or at a time when you are better placed to do so.
Don't lose a friend over money. It's worth a lot more than a teapot, broken or otherwise.

happy2B

I think this should be treated as 2 separate issues - which just happened to occur close together timewise.

Firstly, your friend asked you to buy the teapot on his behalf, and you both had the expectation that he would reimburse you later. You were getting nothing out of it so there was no contract, you were just doing him a favour, so definitely he owes you the money for the purchase.

Secondly, you accidentally broke his teapot. It just so happens that it was very soon after purchase - but what if it had happened 10 years later and you knocked over an item at his house? Or he broke something of yours? What would you both do then? That's still a difficult one to resolve but should give you a gut feel. Personally I think you would apologise profusely and then probably both agree to write it off as an unfortunate accident (and maybe buy him an extra pint down the pub). Whether it was purchased 10 minutes or 10 years ago should not make a difference to the principle.

But ultimately, is the money worth more than the friendship? Perhaps both of you need to search your souls to decide the answer to that one - and hopefully a little wisdom should prevail.

whosforachat

If he can afford £965 for a teapot, he should pay. Why should other people have to be more careful just because he has money to throw away?

redlaney

Whilst house sitting for my Dad and his wife, I dropped a heavy casserole dish on the open oven door, the lid fell off and broke.
I replaced the dish with an apology note, and all was well,they even said I shouldn't have gone to the trouble of replacing it, until the next time they used the oven and the glass door shattered
I did offer to pay half of it, but the offer was politely refused, just offering was enough! And if your friend is such a good friend, it will all be water under the bridge soon enough, although don't "expect" anything, that won't get you anywhere!:rotfl:

TreetopSally

I'm suprised that no-one has picked up on the shop's responsibility to package the teapot up securely to allow it to travel in one piece from the shop to the student's house.

Did the shop offer protective wrapping? Did the student ask for any? Even a cardboard box with crumpled newspaper around the teapot would offer some protection.

I feel that the student should try to get a refund from the shop.