Faulty Bleach bottle top . destroyed car mats

nedkelly123

Hi , just looking for some input here..

on the 2nd of June i bought two bottles of bleach from a well known super market one Saturday morning. i went back to my car and i put them in the footwell , a few mins later i smelt bleach and i noticed a puddle in the floor of my car . i immediately pulled over and scooped a load of bleach that had leaked from the bottle , my hands were red my jeans and the car mats destroyed ..i ran into a shop and i got a bottle of water and managed to wash the bleach off my hands. the cap on the bottle was not on properly see attached

i rang the supermarket and they told me to send the pics into their claims dept. along with an invoice , i sent in pictures , the receipt and the damage and they asked for more pics . .then i sent them more pics and they told me they couldnt read the barcode and needed more pics. i drove up to their office and i dropped the bottle into reception as i couldnt take any more pics of it

i didn't bother with invoice for my clothes or that ( which i thought was being fair) i got an invoice for 2 new car mats from the main dealer at 300 euro

i know a lot of people would have ran to a solicitor and put in a heavy litigation claim i thought my honesty would have went in my favour

two months on they told me they are still investigating the issue and have no idea of a resolution date ...

any thoughts on what to do next

Bleach.jpeg

mickdw

Your mistake was being reasonable.

Now some would say the bottle top was obvious and you might have noticed it before spilling but I guess that is beside the point.

It would appear the container was faulty and damage was caused.

If you had gone for solicitor and looked for cost of damage to cloths, maps and car carpet, they might be more willing to talk.

It's an interesting one - if the actual car carpet was destroyed, the bill to put it right would be mental, running to thousands on some cars as it would involve interior strip out.

bucketybuck

To play devils advocate, just how does the retailer determine that they are actually liable here.

Is that cap damaged because the customer dropped it outside the store?

Did somebody else, a child perhaps, open that bottle after it was bought?

How do they know this isn't just somebody chancing their arm, that they dropped the bottle, it leaked on the carpet and they are hoping the store will pay for it?

Or, how do they know there was an accident in the first place, that some chancer didn't just throw bleach on the carpet of a stolen car in the hopes of sticking a claim in? Our country is certainly full of people of culture who would do such a thing. Any company would be wise to be careful before just giving money to anybody who came in with a story like this...

Don't jump down my throat, I don't know or really care what actually happened, I just can see why the retailer may look twice at this rather than just paying for it to go away.

nedkelly123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119452108#Comment_119452108

its a 50k Porsche .. i would not throw bleach around it for the sake of getting 2 free car mats , i actually have an invoice for 2 new mats 18 months ago that i bought as the original ones were a bit worn looking , there was some bleach on the seats too , but i managed to get to it before it damaged the leather

i Could have put in a huge claim ( clothes /seats/hands etc) all i want is the mats replaced €300 euro

the bleach was bought at 11:05 and at 11:20 i contacted their complaints dept

Flinty997

It's this not exactly what the small claims court is for?

rock22

Is it possible that the top had been loosened rather than being faulty?

Similar happened to me a few years ago. I picked up a bottle of bleach in a supermarket but as i put it into the trolley some bleach came out. The lid was loose. I then lifted another bleach container and it too was loose. It was clear, someone, probably kids, had unscrewed the tops on all the bleach bottles to the front of the display irrespective of brand, because they all had loose tops while those at the back of the display were okay.

If it was faulty I imagine the supermarket will happily tell their supplier to compensate you for the damage.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119452108#Comment_119452108

That's honestly down to the manufacturer's process and quality control system and relationship with the seller; but it's often the extended relationship through the wholesaler which complicates things in similar situations.

Providing that the claim has actually reached the manufacturer, they should reach out through the supply chain for: Invoice and batch number for the pallet/shipment, photos of the damage, photos of the bottle lid, photos of the matching batch-number from the bottle and finally the bottle itself. The till receipt will only be interesting to the seller to ensure that they have the basis of a contract with the customer.

All manufacturers who are worth their weight in salt will have information on how often a bottle thread can be cross-threaded by their automation line during manufacturing. Then having the bottle at hand they can determine the dimensional tolerances between the cap and the bottle and possibly identify if a fault exists at the materials level or whether they believe that the cap had been removed and reapplied somewhere further on down through the supply chain, or whether the cap may have become dislodged during an event such as the hot weather which would have affected the rigidity of the plastic, etc.

My advice to the OP is that they should follow-up with the retailer again, specifically asking whether the issue was raised with the manufacturer. I'd also summarise the issue in terms of the time already provided to the retailer and specify that you would appreciate if this could be resolved amicably within the next two weeks, providing them with a solid date.

They may then reach out and request additional time - if they do so it's an indication that they never engaged with the manufacturer on the initial complaint. Give them a reasonable amount of extra time if it's requested. If then after those dates have fallen start pulling together all of your correspondence and evidence (photos showing the bottle and batch-number, the damage to the mats, the damage to your clothes (which you aren't claiming for), the new mats, the receipt for the new mats, any residual damage which remains within the vehicle) and submit a small-claims court case online for the price of EUR25 with the shop's business-name and address as a respondent (instructions on the Citizens Information site).

When completing the documentation for the SCC I'd recommend that you approach it from the view-point that you are telling the story to a third-party who wasn't present, so all of the small details need to be included but don't go over the top on what-if scenarios - stick to the facts. After that point it's in the hands of the SCC and they will act as a go-between to attempt a resolution if possible before setting a date for a court appearance.

Wishing you luck.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119452377#Comment_119452377

I've seen the exact same - also with bleach. That can be a manufacturing problem due to under-tightening of the lids (obvs) or also over-tightening where the lid later pops open by a twist, or a materials failure. It's unlikely (but could still) be tampering. Again, manufacturing should be testing for these scenarios by performing torque testing on samples of the bottles and measuring the package pressure at a point in the process. They should also be cataloging the complaints to find commonalities. It's common quality process control - but manufacturers need to be able to take these types of complaints seriously and investigate quickly. The race to the bottom in terms of price though is a huge factor here - what you cut from the price effectively removes a lot of higher-end skill-sets for managing the manufacturing & supply chain and stuff like this goes uninvestigated as quality slips.

nedkelly123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119452350#Comment_119452350

i thought it better to reach out to them first rather then run to couurt

gizabeer

This actually happened me a few years ago but it was musgraves brand 5 litre bleach , seems to happen a good bit

Garibaldi?

Something similar happened to me many years ago. I had a bottle of bleach in my trolley in the supermarket, far away from the food obviously. It was beside my handbag and leaked all over it, making it only fit for the bin. It was an inexpensive bag but what if it had been a designer item? I had only taken the bleach from the shelf three minutes before so it was definitely not my fault. I have been very wary of bleach ever since. There should be compensation for the mats. I think the OP is wise not to claim for the any injury or discomfort to the hands as an adult would be expected to be aware of the consequences of touching bleach without protective gloves