Money Moral Dilemma: You broke it, would you pay to fix it?

geri1965_2

If I broke something belonging to someone else I would offer to pay to have it mended or replaced, no question.

Luckily I have personal liability under my household insurance to cover me for such things though.

SFMK

yes - by all means see if they need it paid for and then make the choice - accepts responsibility or be a victom:A

moiraz

If it was done to me I'd be livid and want the person who wasnt looking where they were going to pay

So I'd pay

Bateman_2

Simply apologise. Give the poor person all your details* and agree to pay for damages. Then do not respond to contact from accidentee.

Everyone is happy. No ugly scene. :cool:

*Open to interpretation.


Just to say, my laptop is in the four figures range, and has literally thouands of pounds worth of software on it. I would not expect someone who damaged it in a truely accidntal way to pay for the machine or recover the data.

Things happen.

mistdemon

If this hypothetical Chavdonalds (or it could even have been Burberry King, makes no difference) is anything like the one near me then it's odds-on that the person with the laptop had just nicked it from one of the offices nearby so wouldn't be in any great hurry to sue!

but seriously...expensive electrical equipment placed in the vicinity of hyped-on-sugar kids and nuclear coffee...is there any reasonable person who wouldn't make sure they were insured??? After all, thats what insurance is for..it's a gamble that you hope to win...so if you don't insure then it's exactly the same, you're just gambling that nothing will ever intrude into your rose-tinted bubble of complacency.

Stupidity usually has it's own price...

amaseal

I wouldn't pay out - they really should have insurance if they're taking a laptop out in public.

studiodaz

johncmcloy wrote: »

...... If someone spilt coffee on my laptop accident or not they'd be paying me one way or another. For a start if they just apologised and walked off they would have my fist in the back of their head!
You cannot damage someone else’s property and just expect to get away with it.

May be that is the best option, just say sorry and walk away and wait for a fist in the back of your head. Who would be paying who then???

If you have a laptop or any device and don't insure it then what ever happens to it, lost stollen or broken is your own responsibility for using it in an unsafe environment.

Why did this guy with his laptop site right next to a walkway with lots of traffic. Anyone could have snatched the laptop from him and run out with it. Isn't it also his responsibility to use it in a save place out of the way and not being in the spotlight of attention.

A.Jones

johncmcloy wrote: »

Sympathy for people gets you no where

If someone spilt coffee on my laptop accident or not they'd be paying me one way or another. For a start if they just apologised and walked off they would have my fist in the back of their head!

You cannot damage someone else’s property and just expect to get away with it.

Using your logic, if sympathy for someone gets you nowhere, and you would also get thumped for apologizing for an accident, then it is better not to be sympathetic to the person that put their laptop in danger and don't say sorry. Just say tough luck.

If it was in McDonald's, then there would be plenty of witnesses and so when you punched someone on the back of the head, you would be the one ending up with a ABH charge.

I personally would not offer to pay. If someone takes an expensive piece of equipment out of their house and uses it in an environment where accidents happe, then they are responsible for anything that happens to it. If they are too cheap to insure it outside their house, then they should not take it out.

We were in a coffee shop last week and a kid a couple of tables away spilt some coke on the table, which dripped onto the edge of a woman's dress on the next table. She had a hissy fit, claiming the dress was worth over £400 and wanted £25 to have it dry cleaned by a specialist. The mother of the kid just said if you want it cleaned, then you pay for cleaning it. If you don't want to get it dirty, then don't wear it in a public place.

I agree with her.

[Deleted User]

A Jones.. if i was in starbucks, wearing an expensive suit, and some clumsy fool split their drink over me then refused to pay for my dry cleaning, i would probably, in response throw my drink over them.. after all, if you don't want to claim responsibility for your mistake (there is no such thing as an accident, only clumsiness) then expect to face the consequences.

miaxmia

I don't think McDonald's is the place to be working on a laptop, so I think it is the owner of the laptop's own stupidity.