# "You break it, you bought it." Ever bought it?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 16, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731 "2005-03-16T00:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/21 "2005-03-16T15:54:16Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > I thought I heard somewhere that such signs were unenforceable. Something about vendors being required to carry insurance for such purposes. I know I dropped an expensive (ok cheap) bottle of Brandy right after paying for it and the clerk simply handed me another and didn’t ask for a dime. When I worked in liquor stores, as long as the seal/cork/cap was still on/in the top of the bottle, the distributors would give us credit for them. We had different shoeboxes for each distributor with a collection of jagged bottle tops that we’d turn in once a month or so. You did not want to reach in those boxes without looking at what you were doing! ---
**Author:** ![Peyton\_Farquhar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Peyton\_Farquhar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peyton_Farquhar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/22 "2005-03-16T19:03:31Z")
Does the [melon drop scam](http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/InPerson/street_scams.htm#Street%20Quick) count? No? Well then, at a Street Fair in Manhattan (a sort of traveling summer outdoor sale), I tried on a “Swiss Army watch” which was marked at $10. It fell to pieces as soon as I had it wrapped around my smaller-than-average wrist. I suppose the responsible thing would have been to tell the vendor “I’m sorry, this watch disintegrated when I tried it on”, and depending on his answer, decided what sort of scene was appropriate to make. But I’m afraid I simply laid the pieces down, carefully in a row, where what had shortly before been “it” had rested. I would not recommend buying anything that needs to stay together at those things, but sometimes you can get a good price on food, shortly before 6 PM when they are about to stop the fair and repopen the street. ---
**Author:** ![Maxxxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/23 "2005-03-16T23:50:12Z")
> [@sulamith](#): > > Yep. So embarrassing! I was in an antique shop, one of those places with so much stuff in it there are little narrow trials and paths with things piled so high on either side you feel like Hansel and Gretel in heart of the Black Forest, you know the kind? You can’t even turn around with your purse on your shoulder or you will topple something. I reckon the owners of those places purposely set things up so the slightest air displacement caused by your walking past will cause things to fall and break. I reckon the places that do that make more money from guilting customers into buying broken goods than they do from selling the goods any other way 🙂 Max. ---
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/24 "2005-03-17T09:40:11Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > He let you off right after he called for Toxic Clean-Up, right? Heh… guilty as charged 🙂 In my defense, I was in my teens then. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/25 "2005-03-17T13:36:26Z")
Screw that. Let the store write it off. Of course it’s not like I’m bashing shopkeepers store fronts with a bat or anything… ---
**Author:** ![rostfrei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@rostfrei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rostfrei)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/26 "2005-03-17T18:44:58Z")
I’ve always heard that a store cannot legally make you pay for something that you accidentally break. If they’re not insured, then it’s a risk that they take. Same thing with those signs in car repair shops, “Not responsible for fire or theft”. Can anyone confirm? Eric ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/27 "2006-01-03T22:55:55Z")
You put it down, you walk out, what can they do to you? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/28 "2006-01-03T22:56:58Z")
(Dammit, I responded to a thread I found via search. Sorry for digging this up, at least it wasn’t from the year 2000.) ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/29 "2006-01-04T00:54:15Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > [sup]\*[/sup] For those of you taking notes on the Saga of Podkayne’s Life, yes, my first grade teacher was the horrendously mean woman for who I could do no right, who told me I was stupid and insisted that I be tested for learning disabilities because in her professional opinion I was almost certainly retarded. Please mention her in your Nobel Prize and/or Oscar acceptance speech. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/30 "2006-01-04T00:59:32Z")
One time I was in an antique shop with my folks and picked up an old, but hardly antique, copper teapot. I turned it over to look for a maker’s mark, the lid fell off and the handle broke off the lid. I wasn’t going to hide it even if I could have, but before we could purchase it I noticed some sloppy glue on the lid. I pointed out to the owner of the shop that it had already been damaged and not very well repaired; certainly not well enough to justify the price. She looked at it and grudgingly acknowledged that I was right and didn’t require us to buy it. We promptly left the store and never returned. ---
**Author:** ![WomanofScorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WomanofScorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WomanofScorn)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/31 "2006-01-04T01:02:27Z")
A few weeks ago my husband and I were in a Pier One Imports and I picked up this clay thing. I thought it was some kind of pepper shaker so I turned it to look at the bottom and well…it had a top. The top broke but somehow no one was around so I put it back on the shelf, bought the stuff I already had, and ran. Not exactly a bought story, but a break it one. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/32 "2006-01-04T01:09:07Z")
A friend of mine worked for this, well lets just say non-namebrand computer seller. When building a system he dropped a pentium chip onto the tile floor, and it shattered. This is when the Pent. just came out. He had to work for several weeks w/o pay to buy that chip back. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/33 "2006-01-04T01:25:09Z")
A friend of mine tells a great story along these lines, only the opposite. Her brother was working for a Famous Large Corporation, which had a big contract with one of the car-rental places for its employees. He rented a sporty little car (Mustang, IIRC) under the terms of the contract and drove it off the lot. WHAM! Car got totally crunched by another car (their fault), but he was unhurt. He walked back to the rental desk and told them he’d just totalled their car. Oh, and he had a meeting to get to, so he would need another car. (!) They had to give him one per the contract, but the second car they gave him was rather mundane. No sports car for you! ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/34 "2006-01-04T01:28:00Z")
> [@TastesLikeBurning](#): > > I’ve always been very careful when handling farms. You, good sir, have made this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/35 "2006-01-04T01:35:48Z")
In maybe junior high, my friend Paul and I were horsing around at a gift shop in an amusement park. There were these plastic back scratchers that were like two feet long and we were sword fighting with them when Paul’s knocked over this cheap little porcelain bear. IIRC, we had to pool our remaining funds to cover it (probably five bucks). –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731/36 "2006-01-04T02:13:11Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > (Dammit, I responded to a thread I found via search. Sorry for digging this up, at least it wasn’t from the year 2000.) No problemo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-break-it-you-bought-it-ever-bought-it/294731.md?page=1)