WWYD- accidentally refunded

I would email the company and let them know what had happened.

Having had almost exactly the same thing happen to me, it took so long to get anywhere with the email or chat options and I didn’t have the strength to try and phone and deal with the nonsense either, as no one in the foreign call centres ever seems to understand me, I honestly wouldn’t bother. If I was contacted to say there had been an error I would happily give the money back, but most big companies have no way of doing this without an actual sale going through. I’ve also been on the other side working for a big retailer and customers have come in to store regarding online issues, we have no way of dealing with them. So no, I wouldn’t give it a second thought tbh.

This exact thing happened to me, similar value, some time ago. ( Sainsbury's) I rang them up and when they checked their system had no way of processing it. The person I dealt with thought it was very amusing-they advised me to keep my stuff. You can try and email - they may have sorted it out by now.

OP, if somebody (even your employer) puts money in your account which is not meant for you/not owed to you and you spend it, you can be prosecuted for theft. Yes I know you're unlikely to be prosecuted for keeping an accidental refund but I personally don't see how this is any different

I was refunded £350 for a ‘lost clothes parcel’. I let them know.
I reasoned that I wanted it and thought it was worth the money, plus you can’t put a price on having a clean conscience 😇
I also didn’t want them to come knocking when/if they realised and I didn’t have the money then!

They were so grateful and sent me out a lovely gift !

This is why prices go up!

In my experience with John Lewis, phoning to tell them that they have made a mistake and refunded you too much/twice flummoxes them so much that they don't know what to do with themselves.

I would phone or email, but I would also expect that they won't succeed in re-taking the payment as their systems won't cope with it. However, your conscience will be clear.

You can try and contact them but often errors like that don't get corrected. I was once sent double the order for some expensive curtains. When I went online to do a return it was trying to refund me so I rang the company and explained that I needed a return but not a refund as they'd accidentally sent too many. Nice chap emailed me a return label. Send them back and then got a refund anyway. I gave up at that point.

Keep quiet or if you feel some weird guilt donate it to charity .... my PayPal is ... 😂

Don’t tell them the employee will get in trouble

I also received a refund in error recently. It was from a medium sized online clothing company and came about due to them sending me the wrong items 3 times and the resulting returned parcels/replacements.

It had been a real mess - though they were lovely to deal with! - so I was conflicted. I left it a couple of days in case they were unpicking the midden behind the scenes and I would eventually be charged for the items I'd received, but there was no contact. I emailed them and said I'd received about £90 I shouldn't have. They thanked me for my honesty and admitted they didn't have a way of recouping it.

I bought a couple more items from them with some of the £90 and it went some way to assuaging my guilt.

Defo keep it - it's their mistake

I’d do nothing and donate £40 to foodbank/charity.

If it was a small shop then yes I’d contact them to explain it, but a large retailer can afford to lose £40 and their systems will probably make the whole process so confusing for everyone that it’s likely they will just tell you not to worry about it anyway.

I'd contact them personally. Having worked in retail I imagine an error like this would be more of a faff to correct than it's worth and they'll not do anything about it anyway.

That happened to me when a parcel was delivered to the wrong address. I was refunded and then a couple of days later the person who received my parcel brought it round!

She and I had both tried and failed to sort it out with the company by phoning so I gave up and kept it.

£60 worth of underwear and vest tops. 😀

Enjoy it and see it as a bit of payback for all the times you've been probably been overcharged in the past, of course!

I would contact the company and let them know their mistake. I used to work in a retailer head office and honestly loads of these companies are almost at their knees eg Marks Spencer, John Lewis. They are experiencing super high volumes of theft from stores at the moment too, so they are losing money quite a bit. Personally I want them to be still around in a few years time. So I would want to pay for my items fair and square.

Similarly has happened today for me for £150, I’m not saying a word. There’s no way to repay it anyway and it’s their error. I have made the payment once successfully anything after is their fault

If you want to keep a clear conscience then you could email their customer service. I doubt they will reply

Depends how honest you are

Dont worry about it. They can afford the odd blip . It will just end up as a missing parcel on the system.
Enjoy your free items 😉

I’d pay it forward. The assistant chose to not to follow the correct procedure which resulted in you getting a refund and by the sounds of it you were happy to pay. I’m sure a local charity or food bank would appreciate the donation that a large multinational could afford to lose.

I’d just take the £40 given it’s a big retailer.

I'd also keep it with a clear conscience
Their system wouldn't recognise the item if you tried to pay it back, I don't think

This!