Interesting and possible case?

Florida

Let me start by explaining what happened

Two days ago I called Tan USA and asked if they had any specials running. The girl asked me what type of bed I was looking to get special on, I told her high pressure. (High pressure beds are a special lamp that has very low levels of UVB rays, and therefore do not burn what so ever, lots of info on google.com) She told me that the place had a special for high pressure beds running right now, five sessions for approximately 50 dollars. Hearing on the internet they would generally run twice that I figured it was a great deal and made my way down to Tan USA and signed up.

The pleasant attendant asked me what bed I wanted to use, the stand up or lie down, I asked if they were both high pressure, she told me they were, the only difference was that the standup one was nine minutes or so, and the lie down was 15 minutes. I chose the lie down one, and was escorted to the room where she showed me the controls. She told me nothing indicating it would be anything beside a high pressure bed, and I had no way of knowing it wasn’t… Then for fifteen minutes I baked under 20 thousand some odd watts of skin burning UVB radiation. Now I’m developing what I’m guessing is the worst sunburn I’ve ever had, when I would have never got in the thing in the first place had I been told it wasn’t a high pressure bed.

I can barely lie on my stomach, the back of my legs are killing me, I can not lie on my back, I've gotten little good rest and i'm up at 1:30 AM typing this because I think it's time I do something

- it’s a bad burn that could have been prevented… not only does the burn hurt now, but I've heard bad burns like this dramatically increase the chances skin cancer. Now I am sure I’ve never heard of a case like this, but I feel it’s something that could have been prevented and that Tan USA’s misleading and flat out ignorance of their products led to this.

Please let me know if this is pursuable, what I should do (take pictures etc..), and whether it’s worth the time.


thank you very much
fladuck

Hey Duck,
Try e-mailing [email]ellencee@hotmail.com[/email]
She is a RN and also a legal consultant and gives excellant advice.

Dowop

[ellencee]

Please, no booing, hissing, or cheering! I just know someone could have answered some of these lastest questions without my having to do it, but here goes**************

I think the tanning bed issue is not one of either malpractice or defective products and would more appropriately be directed to Halket in the contract section of the forum.

It seems to me there is an element of the customer's being responsible for knowing what type of bed or equipment the customer is choosing to use. It also seems to me the nice tanning bed employee probably was not specially trained or certified in any way.

I simply do not know whether or not Florida, or any other state, has regulations about who can work in a tanning salon or whether or not these tanning salons are responsible for sunburns that result from the use of their beds, again whether or not it was the type bed requested.

So, bounce this question over to Halket and see what he has to say.

EC & mrjb

Thanks, the catch is (in my opinion) that I specifically asked for a high pressure bed, and was told the one I used was in fact a high pressure right before I hopped in it

I'll bounce this over to Halket and see what he(or she) has to say.

thank you kindly-
duck

I received this reply from somebody.

---I normally don't respond to direct emails, but yours is such a slam dunk that I will offer the following:
You have no case. You simply had an obligation to mitigate your damages by asking and CONFIRMING that the table you were on would be 'high pressure' and suitable for the purposes intended.


I sent this in response to his reply


To further reinforce the fact I mitigated as much as was possible under that situation, something maybe I shouldn’t have left out--- not only did she confirm upon me asking a SECOND time whether they were both high pressure beds, she also confirmed that they were what I was looking for upon me explaining to her in what I remember as these exact words I wanted bed with “special bulbs, UVA only, very very low levels of UVB so that you don’t burn”… I don’t know how I could have made myself any more clear to the attendant, and why the place could not be held accountable. I thank you for your response, maybe I should have gone into detail before, I’m guessing I could call them again tomorrow afternoon and still get “confirmation” they have high pressure beds when I know now for a fact now they don’t.

---------------------------------


Thanks again,
Duck

[ellencee]

You asked if you had grounds for a lawsuit, not if you had grounds to complain to management.

I intend to do that as well, I want my fifty dollars back If I don't have grounds for a lawsuit, why I wouldn't I see no reason...

They sold me something that ended up hurting me while I did as much mitigation as possible from my position beforehand, what more must I do to prove a case, it's insane (just my opinion) that this wouldn't be sufficient backing for a suit. A burglar falls through the roof of a house and wins a case, was that mitigating, I wouldn't think so... And in my case I did, how can I go wrong? I don't know whether I'm just not conveying what happened properly, from my eyes I see nothing at all that says "I can somehow place the blame on myself, I didn't remove all possibilities of injury before I entered that tanning bed..." their fault 100%.

Oh well, if the consensus is that it's my fault I'll just forget about it ever happening and just hope somebody else isn't put in the same position.

thanks for all your opinions.

I was wondering. I have never been in a tanning bed so I have absolutely no idea how these things work.
When lying in one does the person actually feel "heat" similar to what is felt while lying under direct sunlight??

there's heat, but the one i went to had a pretty big fan blowing through it it, keeping it relatively cool...

[ellencee]

fladuck
No one said it was your fault; it was said you have no basis for a claim for a lawsuit.
I would want my $50 back if I were in your situation, too.
I hope you are treating your sunburn as you would any other burn from any other cause, including seeing a physician for something for the relief of pain. You have to have been suffering great pain throughout this ordeal and you are at risk for developing infection due to the loss of the skin as a protective barrier.
Best wishes!

PS--Estee Lauder and Neutragena make some great self-tanners!

lol, well thanks guys... Yeah, I tan pretty well actually but I gotta work up to it... It takes several good exposures, but being a "computer guy" I don't see that big bright thing too much.

I thank you all again for your advice on this.