Real life slapstick stupidity?

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You're probably all familiar with the classic slapstick comedy sketch whereby someone saws off the tree branch they're perched on. Scarily enough, it's happened in real life. And the hotel concerned has been fined  £1,000 and ordered to pay  £1,000 costs...

...because they failed to complete a Risk Assessment on the dangers of pruning (!)

The hapless gardener is allegedly embarrassed and sorry the accident happened - but evidently not embarrassed or sorry enough to prevent him suing the hotel for lost earnings and compensation for his injuries...

Welcome to the land of Claims Direct, the National Accident Helpline, Injuries Direct and other "No win, no fee" personal injury compensation lawyers.

Comments

Doesn't surprise me at all

When I phone any official body, I key '9', or '0' or nothing to get through to a human operator. Then I make a note of the name.

Oh, and I won't dial 0871 if I can help it. Why should I pay at least 10 pence per minute to call a Helpline?

I use www.saynoto0870.com a lot. having been kept waiting 20 minutes on hold before now, I try not to give the buggers a licence to print money. The worst offenders are commercial firms; the best seem to be government departments.

Susie

Talking of bureaucracy...

Santander phoned me at the weekend to report possible fraudulent activity (err...a £65 digital camera I'd just bought from Amazon!)
Missing the original call, I had to call them back (mercifully an 0845 number). Talk about going through hoops and whistles - after navigating the computer menu, I have to key in my card number and DOB before speaking to a human. Then I have to repeat my card number and DOB to the operator, along with the security code (twice!), expiry date, and details of one of my Direct Debits. Having finally convinced them I am the owner of the account, they then query not only the Amazon purchase but a couple of cash withdrawals of £30 and a Tesco purchase of a whopping £6.60! Jeez...

 


There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Certainly a pain in the fundament but ...

... better that than get ripped off by scammer. It was only by chance I checked my credit card account as I hadn't put anything on it that month and I found it several hundred pounds in the red. It included 2 air fares and a purchase of, of all things, anti-virus software! Bank of Scotland very quickly sorted it out by cancelling the card and promptly re-issuing a new one. I was well impressed.

I use the Co-op Bank for everything else and they're excellent too. Moreover they didn't get involved in all the bank scams we're suffering right now. Damn socialist banks are good for something :)

Robi

I'm with Robi

We don't answer our phone unless we know who is calling. So when the credit card company tried to call us about a problem we didn't answer. It seems someone used our card in Japan. Having never been closer to Japan than Seattle I was very happy that the credit card automatically cancelled that card and issued us a new one. It cost us a little work and explanation to explain to all the entities that had that credit number for auto-pay, but given the $billions in annual identity theft I'm pleased to be protected.

I watched Michael Moore's appeal for socialism over the weekend and wondered how someone could be so naive. Naive . . . or willing to say almost anything to sell movie tickets. I'm a liberal, but Michael Moore lost me about a decade ago.

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Bailey Summers God this

Bailey Summers

God this reminds me of that idiot in the USA who won her lawsuit because she got burned by her coffee because it wasn't labeled as being hot. They actually changed every lid I've see since...

There are time...

Bailey Summers

Heh.

As the saying goes, why bother with being reasonable, if being unreasonable lets you get your own way. It's the staple of any court.

Faraway


On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Faraway


On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

How about

Aljan Darkmoon's picture

burglars suing homeowners for injuries sustained while attempting to break into their homes? I can’t recall if any compensation has ever been awarded, but the actions do get filed, and judges hear them rather than tossing them out.