to keep the sweetener a company gave me at work?

[ecuasotamot]

I was recently reviewing one of our suppliers, and completed a tender exercise to evaluate the various offerings from competitors. I spoke to companies X, Y, and Z, obtained costings and had demo sessions.

As a result, I have started a contract with company X. But company Y has since sent me a gift, that they were offering to everyone who tried our their service.

It is a voucher gift, and for less than £50 and I received it after deciding not to go with that company, and informing them of this.

So, do I use the voucher to treat myself? Do I treat the team I line manage? Or do I pass it up the line to contribute to the whole department?

What are the norms for this sort of thing? Any ideas?

Well how has it been redeemed? You must have bought something to redeeem it surely?

Maybe I'm naive but who gives out amazon vouchers to companies?

Stealth, if you type in the code for an amazon voucher, it just gets added to your account.
Doesn't mean you actually ahve to spend it straight away.

escalate it to your ethics person (contact presumably in policy document) ASAP - taking it almost by accident is forgiveable as long as you own up quickly.

To be honest why did you even enter the code? YOu work for an employer anything given to you should be passed on. You cannot take things that theoretically are not yours, which is what you have done. I doubt Amazon will overturn the voucher.

If I were you I would be honest with my boss and tell him.

You may however lose your job, surely it is gross misconduct.

You should decline it, anyway.

This company might tender for future work.

If you worked for me and I found out you'd accepted a gift for your team, I'd go ballistic. Seriously.

another one who votes no way should it be accepted

just buy another £25 gift voucher with it
you print em off yourself when you do

and give it to your manager

OK, just to clarify

I was sent an automated email with an Amazon voucher code. Having never experienced anything like this, I simply typed in the code, thinking it would come up with "xx has sent you £X for , would you like to redeem this". Instead it automatically credited the money to my account. I have not spent it! And I have no intention of using my Amazon account for anything until this is sorted.

I don't strictly work for a company as such (it's hard to explain without revealing what I do)

I am not responsible for buying in services - but I had to do the cost comparison (a mini tender, with three quotes put forward to my boss, along with a recommendation for preferred supplier) because I am the only one who understands the products I was comparing - very specific to my role, therefore I have had no training along the lines of that suggested above.

I know it was stupid to type it in, but I genuinely thought I was just checking what the code was. Amazon have just emailed back and they can't reverse it.

I am going to go to the person who heads up legal matters/policy etc tomorrow. She's a good person, she will know the answer and my own boss is on leave. Hopefully she'll say I can use it to buy chocs or stationery or something for the team.

Thanks for all your replies - I wanted to know how other people approach these things and now I do.

Yep, we got made to read the new bribery laws which came into force on 1st July - no gifts over £25 allowed.

Bloody hell - there'll be a law against providing biscuits at tea time soon!

Let us know how you get on...

JustFiveMinutesHAHAHA - there already is in the public sector... unless you buy them yourself!

When staff are given vouchers or tickets or such in our company, to ensure that no one who can influence a contract or purchase order benefits unfairly, we generally do the old draw a name from a hat. Chocolates/foodstuffs etc get shared around the team generally. Have yet to see a bottle of whisky cracked open in the afternoon though.

Although I must ask DH if this happened when he received tickets to the F1 recently. Grandstand I might add. Mmmm, DH, mmmmmm? (bitter as I work for the same company and it was a no partners event)

We certainly have to declare any gifts, and have an Ethics Officer (!) who can advise us on this.

I would come clean.
Whats done is done., you have already entered the voucher code , and that nay be information that is available to company Y. ( and therefore likely to come back to haunt you)

Therefore I would identify someone (legal woman sounds sensible) in my company, tell her in an email exactly what happened and offer to
a) buy something for the team or
b) donate £25 to charity, or
c) print off an amazon voucher and return it to Y.

Sounds like an honest mistake. you need to get it out in the open and sorted for your own sanity!

"you need to get it out in the open and sorted for your own sanity!"

Exactly, wizzler ! I have emailed her, just waiting for a response.

Update: The Director I contacted has told me not to worry, said I should use it to get something useful for my team, and that she will record that I have received it and what I have done with it. Phew!

Thanks for the input.

Gifts are a nightmare. We had a 2 day debate with HR and our legal people about what to do with a £5 Thorntons voucher someone we helped sent us. In the end we were allowed to buy chocolate to share. But had to establish a paper trail (reciepts etc) to prove it!

Thank goodness for that - you did the right thing.

Can you buy doughnuts on Amazon? They're useful......

Amazon do sell biscuits now...