Safeway Gasoline Spill Incident - An Unhappy Story

Gas prices are up and we still love our cars and our driving.  It is not uncommon to see cars lining up at cheap gas station pumps.  This incident took place in our neighborhood Safeway store.

This is a relatively new Safeway store at 950 W. Hamilton Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008.
One of the special features of this Safeway is its gas station.  Since it opened, it's been one of the cheapest in the area.



On Sunday, February 5, 2012, my wife Jeanet was there to fill up for her Honda Accord.  The dispenser handle broke off, and the gasoline ran off the rubber hose.  She was obviously panicky and yelled for help.  She had gasoline over most of her clothing. The ground was also wet.  She slipped and fell.  Finally, the people inside the store shut off the the pump from inside. She was asked to fill out and signed an incident report.  But she did not get a copy. The attendant helped her to push off the car and she drove home.

Jeanet came back home with the smell of gasoline all over her.  She took a shower and was even thinking about washing her clothing.  I was home and I asked her to take all her clothing outside.  Later we packed it in a plastic bag. She was not thinking too clearly about what might have happened to her.  She was very fortunate.

My son Joseph heard of this after he came home an hour later. We thought it was incredible that they did not even give her a copy of the incident report.  Joseph and I went back to the store to see the attendant Julie A. at the gas station.  We wanted to talk to the store manager.  The manager himself refused to come out as he was "busy", and sent Mr. Juan Rodriguez to assure us that headquarters would review the video tape and investigate the incident.  But, he refused to give us a copy of incident report signed by Jeanet.
We asked him for a business card so that we had a record of whom we talked to. We got one for the store manager instead.  Anyway, we noted their names from the name tags they wore.

We got a call from the claims department Monday to confirm the facts and to check on Jeanet's condition. We were going to wait for a couple of days to see if she had any lingering injuries from the fall.  Jeanet found the email address for the claim person, Angela S., and sent her the update. This person never replied to any emails and always used the telephone for communications.  Jeanet was never able to talk to her directly and had to leave voice messages every time.  Angela called back at her discretion. 

The phone number was 925-467-2418, and now we found that there is a recording asking for the claim number. Jeanet was not even aware of her "claim number" until we received a copy of the "release form."

On April 30, 2012, Angela finally called again, and tried to see whether Jeanet was ready to settle the claim. We were fed up with this corporate game, and agreed to close this simple case.  Angela called the store to make sure that a representative would be there in the afternoon when Jeanet was able to go to sign a release form. This designated person was named Johnathan.

Jeanet went to the store and asked for Johnathan. Some other clerk came out because Johnathan was "busy."  She brought the release form for Jeanet to sign.  Jeanet asked to have a copy before she signed the form.  The clerk agreed.  The clerk went to the back and then walked out again, but told Jeanet that she could not have a copy of the release form because Johnathan said so.  Jeanet was furious and yelled at the clerk that they tricked her. Said the clerk, "Well, it is too bad.  You have already signed it!"
Jeanet refused to leave, and she was ready to create a scene in front of those checkout lines.  The clerk backed off and went back in for more consultations. Finally she came out with a copy of the signed release form you see on the left.


Jeanet did not want to get an anonymous gift card for the compensation, so Safeway issued her a money order of $200 for the damaged clothing, an amount that was agreed upon over the course of many phone conversations. The three-month ordeal was finally over, but it left us with a real bad taste.  I have not had much time in the last few months to write anything on my blog, but I had to write this one up.

Lessons learned
1) For third-world country grocery stores, the layout for the customer service counter should be away from the checkout lines, and preferably not directly visible from the checkout lines.  Stores should hire a couple of macho bouncers for the customer service department.

2) Bring a camera (built-in camera in a cell phone will work just fine), always take a photo on any paper you sign before giving back to the clerk.  You are entitled to a copy of anything you signed.  But, can you trust them? It is disheartening to hear that "Na Na Na, you lose.  You have already signed it." We really don't want to start a fight for that piece of paper.

Where is America heading?

We were hoping to deal with this incident using common sense.  We thought about getting an attorney to represent Jeanet. We resisted that temptation, as Jeanet was not really hurt physically after a few days of observations.  She was shaken up a bit on the psychological front.  Should we have gotten legal counsel to avoid this sort humiliating treatment by the Safeway staff? I wonder what kind of training the Safeway staff is required to take in order to deal with claims?  In the engineering profession, I have to do all kinds of training to deal with export controls, corruption and sexual harrassment every two years.
If we have to retain an attorney's services for small incidents like these, we'll be in a world of frivolous legal litigations. We have to go places with legal guards, especially the rich and famous.  They need legal guards in addition to body guards.
I like Toynbee's model of  the rises and falls of civilizations, which are based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline. Will this great civilization of United States of America go down in history, at least in part, with burdens of legal entanglements? I probably won't see this myself in person; I certainly hate to think about this.

[Names, addresses, and email addresses are desensitized for privacy sake.  I certainly don't want to see the involved get penalized or lose their jobs. They are just working for a big corporate machine and many just have no clue on what's right and what's wrong.  They need to be better trained to deal with claims.]