Small injury - Big ignorance

On June 01 at approximately we visited the Clicks Gateway branch, with the intention of my wife picking up make up. My wife shortly informed me that she had been poked in the finger by a piece of wire taped on to a bottle on the shelf, I had a look and asked for the sales person to call the manager, whilst waiting for him, I found several more bottles with exposed pieces of wire within the shelf stock.

The assistant manager came over and we had a chat about how and why this is left on the shelf, the risk now in light of tet**** and Hiv, or any other possible infection. He took us to wait as he spoke with the store manager and pharmacist. Shortly afterwards we were taken in private and discussed the risk and options from there: 1) We may be tested in store but there may be conflict of interest. 2) We may go to Umhlanga hospital or consult our family doc and that the store would cover all costs. 3) The risk of infection in their opinion is slight. Monday morning we proceeded to the doctor and got the prescription for meds and blood test work, and then went back to Clicks Gateway to consult with the managers. When I met with the manager I asked if it wasn’t a serious enough situation for him to attend to instead of having his assistant handle it, he assured me that the assistant manager on that night had things in control and didn’t see a need for him to intervene, let alone introduce himself. We continued and when I asked him about cost and the promise, he said that the assistant pharmacist never mentioned that to him. I had asked for the events that happened that night to be e-mailed to me, he said that he also was not informed about that. He wasn’t sure if an incident report had been filled out, and he initiated a report then and there, 2 days after the incident happened. How does a manager of a store trust the decisions when he has no idea of what decisions are being made and to what end?

I then went back into the store to the same shelf and found even more bottles with exposed pieces of wire and returned to the manager. I explained to him that they aren’t taking this seriously, and this seems like a joke to everybody. He then also reassured me that he doesn’t see as to why the store would not cover medical costs, when we are supposed to be safe within the store we frequently shop at. Only to make a few calls for advice and be shut down, being told that this has to be escalated to their legal department and that the legal department would contact us to resolve that payments. We were advised that treatment would have to start within 48-72 hours of exposure, yet ‘til today we haven’t had a call.

The poor processes and follow ups here are clear. People flood in and out of Clicks at Gateway, kids running around their parents touching and grabbing at anything they see. How do we know that nothing has been contaminated or that kids would not injure themselves, quietly walk out of the store and not know that they could’ve infected themselves? Where the Health, Safety and Quality standards, and those who are supposed to monitor and maintain these standards? Where is the follow up processes and the surety that instore incidents are handle swiftly and promptly?

I did not come instore demanding anything, except taking responsibility of the situation that we would not be in, if they had kept their products safely on shelf. After spending most of the day trying to resolve this with Clicks, we have to take the stuff ourselves to ensure something had been done ‘cos Clicks lacks the concern to sort out these things.