With regret, I visited the big B&Q barn in Hartcliffe, Bristol yesterday and expressed interest in a Table Saw on the 'Tools' sales floor that had been lifted down from display. It had an 'Ex-Display Reduced' price sticker attached.
The storeperson told me she 'couldn't under any circumstances' sell the device to me, for 'Health and Safety' reasons. When I asked what those reasons were, she told me that some of the packaging seemed to missing. I persisted. She insisted that "You might not have all the instructions, and cut your finger off. Then you could sue us. It's for your own good......"
I pointed out that, in the more than 50-odd years I'd been using tools, powered and unpowered, I'd somehow managed to hang on to my original ten fingers.... but she was adamant. It would not be sold.
So I left without the table saw - and the trolley-full of other stuff I'd selected.
Would someone please tell me how we can rid ourselves of these creatures?
Unfortunately you need to get rid of other creatures first - the sort of people who *would* sue a retailer because they'd injured themselves having been sold them a cheap power tool devoid of instructions.
Them, and the parastic ambulance-chasing lawyers and 'claims advisors' who encourage these people.
I'd have asked for a piece of paper, and wrote on it. I understand fully that the product I have purchased (insert model number and make here) has instruction manual (and what ever else) missing from its packaging. I waver any liability from the seller (insert name of shop here) due to injury to my person and / or any damages that may occur due to my use of said product. Get the sales assistant and a stranger (customer) to sign as witnesses.
Tell her to staple it to the shop copy of the receipt, and you've got a cheap power tool to take away.
Yes, that is drastic, but it's today's society that is causing it. On the way out the shop, you could have given the finger. But that's optional. :-)
But you can't expect a shop assistant (or even the manager TBH) to be conversant enough with the law to know whether the above would actually hold water in court, can you?. (I don't know the answer myself!)
Sometimes asking for the shop manger can help in these situations, as quite possibly you could have downloaed the instructions from the internet.
No long ago I bought a Samsung Fridge. The instruction manual was full of advice like make sure things don't fall on you when you open the doors. Not a word about what might be sensible temperatures to run the fridge and freezer at. .
Not if you're getting it at half price, and it's new, never been used, straight off display. Who cares if there's a hole in box, and the instruction book is missing?
Elf and safety his gone from the sublime to the ridiculous now - and from what I read in the newspaper sometime this week, even someone from the HSE is saying so.
Yes it does friend, Not all items on display are working models. Also some dont belong to the shop conncerned they belong to the company who do the store displays.
I agree about the hole in the box , It would not bother me but electrical items cannot be sold without instructions if the product has been taken out of the box the item needs to be tested for electical compliance.
Buy two (the ex-display one and a complete one). That way they can't say you don't have the instructions. As soon as you've left the ex-display one in your car, go back for a full refund on the complete one. If asked for a reason:, the box is too big to fit in your boot.
Which rather neatly illustrates how the Elfinsafety mythology is spread. There is of course no such legislative requirement. What there is is a culture based in a large part upon fiction and fed by weak managers.
Elfinsafety, done properly, is risk based not rule based. It requires each situation to be evaluated and sensible decisions to be made which are appropriate to the circumstances. The obvious problem is that this requires both intelligence, knowledge and (and herein lies the problem) a management structure willing to delegate both responsibility and authority.
To suggest that if a product is removed from its box to show it to a customer it cannot be returned to the box without undergoing a completely pointless PAT test is risible, but it happens every day.
A few years ago I was at a meeting as an outside contributor when the subject of a particular piece of equipment was being discussed. After an hour of detailed discussion the union rep made his only contribution by waking up from his comfortable slumbers and saying "Chair, elfinsafety, pass". To my amazement the Chairman immediately said "OK, lets move on to the next item". When I said "Why?" there was general panic amongst the members who were all going "shush". It turned out that once the union had said "elfinsafety" no further discussion was allowed, the subject had to go to the elfinsafety committee which met regularly twice a year and had a 4 year backlog on decisions. Trying to point out that the particular union rep who had made this statement had said nothing to justify it, had the brains of a small toad, was ostensibly employed as a cleaner and knew nothing about the subject simply raised the panic level to he point the Chairman abandoned the meeting rather than be seen to be discussing elfinsafety and, heaven forbid, making decisions.
The committee by the way was a local authority one tasked with "advising" businesses on, you have guessed it, implementing health and safety policies.
Sure does we were told that electrical items ex display or returns could not be resold as they had to be tested.Also if no instructions were with the product it again could not be sold.
This was not some back street retailer but a well known chain this information or misinformation was coming from somewhere. At head office they had a department called risk management who were supposed to the knowledge base and they were again giving out that information.
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