1. I will wear my oldest, rattiest clothing, or
2. I will not buy household cleaner with bleach, or
3. I will check and close the cap on anything I do buy!
Here's why:
This formerly all black shirt (albeit a bit faded) is now unwearable, as are the other two pieces I had on today; a grey pants and jacket set - that I love wearing - and will now have to toss out. I would try to dye them black, but I know it won't turn out well, since the bleached areas would never be as dark as the rest. If I bleached the other two pieces, they would turn as pinkish-orange as the spots, and I wouldn't wear that color anyway.
What happened? I had packed one of my bags with paper products and tucked the spray cleaner bottle in among them. When the clerk finished packing the last of my bags, she tossed a large pack of paper plates on top of the bag where the bottle sat, which might have loosened the top (it might have been loose all the time, but it didn't look as though it was.) Her action also pushed the bottle over on its side, but I didn't realize that was a problem.
I went out to my car and proceeded to place all the bags into the back of my van. When I pulled that bag out of the cart, I smelled bleach and looked down to see the spots on my shirt and other clothing. I marched right back into the store, bottle in hand, and located the manager. He gave me some paper on which to write my name and phone number, saying that he would have to report the damage to a third party, who would contact me in about a week. He also took a photo of the spots on my clothing, got another bottle for me and said he had tried the caps on all the other bottles and none of them was loose. (As if I cared about the other bottles - the one I bought had all my attention.)
Here's another problem: I have had this outfit for at least 3 years and I no longer have the receipts for any of the pieces. I can estimate what I paid for them, but I can't be sure. I could go to the shop where I bought them and ask, but I doubt any clerk there now would remember that set. How would you attempt to put a price on the clothing?
Make no mistake about it, the grocery WILL be buying me a new set of clothing. I just want to be fairly sure that I get the proper value.
15 comments:
What a pain in the butt. I've had bleach on my clothes before. I used a black marker pen to cover the bleach stain.
Is it designer clothing or not? I have no idea how you put a value on an outfit, sorry.
No, none of it is designer clothing - reasonably priced - but I hate to lose it. I have also used a permanent marker to cover small spots - but this area is too large for that. :-/
How awful for you, Judy. I hope the matter is resolved real soon.
Ugh. Another sign of our lost customer service culture. I'd price out relatively equivalent replacements and use that as a baseline.
In my past life as a lifeguard, I ruined more clothes than I care to remember thanks to splattered liquid chlorine and diatomeceous earth. Wish I had had a hazmat suit then :)
Sorry that happened to you.
I have ruined more things than I care to think about myself and in my own house. And will probably do so again. I was impressed the manager or whomever took pictures.
Not very good at all???
I would still try dying it, and leave it for an extended period of time, and if needs be, TWICE!
At the end of the day, you can either throw it out, or dye it, and if it doesn't work, throw it out anyway...
And, if you can get the company to pay for a replacement, then you wont be too much out of pocket!!
Good luck!!
Bad luck Judy but thank goodness it didn't damage your skin.
The value you put on it is what it would cost you to replace it now.
So sorry Judy, is the car upholstery ok? Phew, its stinky too.
Celia, I was afraid it had gotten onto the van carpet, but it didn't. I don't know how it didn't - but I'm glad.
So sorry about this...it happened to me once with spilled liquid soap in the car. I checked the caps at the store a long while after that happened, now I will do that again.
Yikes!!!! I wish I could help. As to price think replacement value.
Oh Judy, what a disaster! Doesn't matter it our clothing is not designer wear, if they are our favourites its just as sad!
Hope you get compensation - at least the store acted honourably!
I thought it was bad when a juice container or the milk container leaked but bleach.....Aaaaarghh is right. How about bleaching the entire outfit and then dying it?
The Gods have been smiling on you too long through this wedding and everything so it just may have been time to zap you?
That's heartbreaking. Recall my dtr visiting with a new pair of P.J.s and discovered a leaky bleach bottle in cabinet leaked on to her lovely P.J.'s -- I just felt sick about it.
Guess you can try pricing at replacement value, but think the tendency is to pay for reduced value of used item -- that's typically what happens in small claims court, I believe. So unjust. Maybe store and their ins. will come through for replacing -- can hope -- and seems more fair.
And I was all bent out of shape over a smashed banana in this a.m.'s shopping load. How aggravating. Now I don't feel so bad about looking like a bag lady when I go to the store. Bag lady clothes just gain 'character' not ruination!
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