Waiter spilled water on my wifes phone

Majorgowen

A Waiter spilled wine on my wife's phone which was on the table in a cafe/bar. I phoned them to ask what they would do about it when she got home and someone took my details and said they'd speak with management and return my call.

That was on Wednesday this week and we have had no call back so far (I realise its only been a few days).

I have done a bit of searching but have struggled to find anything to give us an idea of any rights (if any) we may have to get this resolved in our favour I.e. my wife visited with a perfectly working phone and left with a water damaged phone which this morning has died. We feel that it should be replaced by the cafe who caused the damage.

Hopefully someone on here will be able to give us some advice on this.

Any advice greatfully received thanks

browneyedbazzi

It may be covered by the cafe's insurance but they're probably hesitant to make a claim since it's likely to lead to an increase in their premiums.

If the phone stopped working days after the wine was spilled you will have some trouble proving that the spill that happened in the cafe is the cause of it failing as anything could have happened to it in the intervening days which caused the fault to develop.

adouglasmhor

You shouldn't have any trouble as the markers inside the phone change colour when wet and the system will show when it happened and how it built up. Caf! should at least get it repaired.

adouglasmhor

And make all future correspondence in writing - preferably sent signed for. Phone class are easy to "forget".

agrinnall

The cafe will have public liability insurance that should cover it, although the excess may be at a level that in fact the cafe would have to pay most or all of it themselves, so they may be stalling in the hope that you'll drop it.

If they don't offer anything within what you consider a sensible time then get an independent report done to confirm that it was water that caused the damage, and get an estimate for either the cost to repair or the current second-hand value of the phone, and send them a claim including the cost of the report. And if they still don't respond then follow it up with a letter before action, and after that a small claim using https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome. And do everything in writing so you have a record that can be used if it does go to court.

mattyprice4004

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

It may be covered by the cafe's insurance but they're probably hesitant to make a claim since it's likely to lead to an increase in their premiums.

If the phone stopped working days after the wine was spilled you will have some trouble proving that the spill that happened in the cafe is the cause of it failing as anything could have happened to it in the intervening days which caused the fault to develop.

So they spilled water on a phone, they seemed to have admitted it, but it died the day after so it's not their problem?

If they spilled water on it, they have to repair or replace it. They caused damage so should make good.

Would you be happy if I spilled water on your phone and then did nothing about it?

adouglasmhor

If you really are a Major - bloody hell sir, step up.

ILW

Bit daft leaving the phone on a table with food and drink all over the place.

browneyedbazzi

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

So they spilled water on a phone, they seemed to have admitted it, but it died the day after so it's not their problem?

If they spilled water on it, they have to repair or replace it. They caused damage so should make good.

Would you be happy if I spilled water on your phone and then did nothing about it?

If you spilled water on my phone on Wednesday and it worked perfectly fine on wednesday, thursday and friday then stopped working on Saturday, I wouldn't immediately assume that it was the water from wednesday that made it stop working. I would expect to need get the phone checked out to find out why it no longer works before trying to get someone to pay for the damage.

eta: if adouglasmhor above is right (I don't know a lot about internal workings of phones) it won't be a difficult thing to prove/disprove

Money-Saving-King

ILW wrote: »

Bit daft leaving the phone on a table with food and drink all over the place.

That's the thing. Doing that has an element of risk. How should that be taken into account of the final costs?

It reminds me of when I was about 17/18 and in a pub. I had just been to the toilet and walked between 2 tables back to where I was sitting on the wall side of one of the tables. The gap between the tables was narrow. As I walked all of a sudden between the 2 tables there was a crunch under my foot. I had stood on some womans full wine glass she had put on the carpet between the tables.

Her drunk boyfriend at the time got aggressive and made me get her another. Now a days I'd stand my ground and say it's her fault for putting it in such a stupid place!

VitaK

ILW wrote: »

Bit daft leaving the phone on a table with food and drink all over the place.

No its not. However, It is prudent to temporarily move the phone when food is served and wine is poured.