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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to keep this mistake?

209 replies

rootietootie · 18/12/2011 00:11

I am wrapping up presents at the moment, most of which we bought earlier today. Earlier we were in Halfords and bought a dvd player for the car for ds2. We picked it off from a picture on the wall and paid for it while the customer assistant retrieved item from stockroom and put it in bag for us. Did not really pay attention as had ds2 (11 months) with us and was faffing about with him. The model we picked was £99. Now am at home, take out of bag and see that the assistant has given us the wrong model, the much nicer, upgraded twin model that is worth £199. Would I be wrong to think that the gods have smiled down upon us and cast a bit of luck upon me. Or do I take it back because I was wittering on to the customer assistant how I really wanted the nicer, upgraded twin model but could justify spending any more on dc1, and having had to listen to me, he probably had this (wrong) model in his mind when he went to get it.

OP posts:
slavetofilofax · 18/12/2011 23:31

I'd want to keep it, but I'd know that it would just be haunting me when I watched ds open it, so I'd definately take it back.

If it feels like it could be wrong, then it probably is.

Cloudbase · 19/12/2011 00:05

Slave, I totally agree. You have to go with that niggling conscience, or else it'll niggle away forever. I'd return it - tis the honest thing to do.

Figgyrollsintoapudding · 19/12/2011 00:27

DH just said when asked would we keep it

"fuck yeah"

this was without even pausing for breath Xmas Blush

Moominsarescary · 19/12/2011 01:14

Keep it, we walked out of a shop with a free tv stand a few years ago, we should have got it £50 cheaper than it's price when we brought a tv and surround sound. Didn't even realise they'd not charged us untill we received a bank statement.

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 19/12/2011 08:03

Right. You went with the first number from google. Not the store locator on the Halfords website. Makes no sense whatsoever.

HairyNigel · 19/12/2011 08:24

This happened to me in the early learning centre when I was buying for DS, the counter was cluttered with stuff and I wasn't really paying attention to her packing stuff away. Got home and found she'd packed 2 toys that were around £20 each, they weren't on my reciept.

It was to much of a faff to have to take them back so ended up giving them to womens aid along with a load of other toys and clothes I was already getting rid of.

I would have felt too bad keeping them, at least maybe someone who's having a shite christmas can get them now.

Wormshuffler · 19/12/2011 10:47

These people talking about your conscience not letting you keep it. How would that conscience feel if halfords had been none the wiser about the error until you go back and tell them, then the assistant gets the sack a week before Christmas ?

slavetofilofax · 19/12/2011 10:55

My conscience would be clear worm, because I had done the right thing. If Halfords went on to sack someone because of an honest mistake, then that is their wrongdoing, not mine.

It's unlikley that someone would get sacked for one mistake though, unless they had made other mistakes before.

Whether Halfords knew about the mistake or not before I took the thing back is completely irrellevant.

PrincessScrumpy · 19/12/2011 11:04

If it was a small family-run shop I'd take it back but it's Halfords... they'll probably be £99 in the sale after Christmas anyway. Why should you have the hassle of going back to the shop due to their incompetence.

ByTheWay1 · 19/12/2011 11:13

You bought something, they bagged it, you left the shop, it is yours - that is how shops work.

If you didn't notice it was the wrong one til 6 months down the line, would you still need to take it back? How about after you had given it as a gift to someone? At what , if any, point of "noticing" would the naysayers not return it?

knittedbreast · 19/12/2011 11:13

keep it, the assisstant will end up in troubke if you take it back

SootySweepandSue · 19/12/2011 11:18

If the assistant rang up the item by scanning it I bet £99 is the real price, so no mistake.

Kewcumber · 19/12/2011 11:24

"ShowofHands I have to disagree. It's a civil matter, not a criminal one.
The contract was concluded at the till when the trader offered the item for the price of £99 and the OP accepted, paid her money and left.
Yes, now further info has come to light, but you cannot apply that info retrospectively and accuse the OP of theft. The OP did not go into the shop with the intention to permanently deprive Halfords, she went it to make a purchase.
The OP has not committed an offence, at all.
Whether she should let the trader know what's happened is another question."

Just to reinforce what sparta said - there is no offence here. The contract with a retailer comes at the point of purchase at the till - you give them money and they give you goods. Up until that point there is no contract and the price that is on the shelf is irrelevant it is just an "invitation to treat" ie an invitation for you to offer them that price for the item however the price ticekt is not a contract on either side. The point at which they charged for the item and handed it over was the point at which a contract was created for the item they gave you at the price they charged you.

In the same way it is a fallacy that the retailer has to sell you an item at the ticketed price if its marked incorrectly. They don't.

tyler80 · 19/12/2011 11:29

I learnt what to do in this situation from monopoly

"Bank error in your favour, collect two hundred pounds"

Never mentioned anything about reporting error to the bank! Grin

And Halfords stock control is atrocious, I've ordered stuff online for pick up that's in stock and more often than not it isn't actually in stock.

3littlefrogs · 19/12/2011 11:37

The phone number for the store will be on the receipt.

michaela18a · 19/12/2011 11:38

Taking the dvd player back is not the 'wrong' thing to do (as opposed to returning it being the 'right' thing). Halfords are a business, that obviously have a system in place that is open to mistakes like this happening. They are established enough to take the consequences of their poor systems. Personally, if there was a chance that taking it back could result in the poor chap losing his job, esp. just before Christmas, I would feel a lot worse if this happened than I would just keeping it.

OhdearNigel · 19/12/2011 13:28

Sainsbury's undercharged me for 24 cans of coke a couple of days ago (it was on a special and the 24 pack had 2 barcodes, only 1 was scanned in). I was buying them for our tuckshop and as the profits go to a children's charity in africa I'm afraid I am keeping quiet and thinking of the £12 I will make for them.

StealthPenguin · 19/12/2011 15:18

It would cause more hassle than it would save by returning it so be my guest and keep it!

And just for everyone to know, if it were an independent electronics store then I would probably have returned it. But it's Halfords for goodness sakes! They are big enough and ugly enough to make their own mistakes and have it be easily absorbed by the rest of the money they make.

They reported a 7.7% increase on yearly profits in July, netting a whopping £118.1 million.

I thin they can afford the odd missing £100 here and there. It's not as if someone will be made redundant just because the store is £100 down.

funkybuddah · 19/12/2011 17:04

a co worker of mine left a brand new iphone 4 on the side of one of our tills, someone stole it.

He was told to to never leave stock out and we wrote off that £500 quid phone.

i think this has happened twice, no one sacked or in any deep trouble, just a talking to , then stock adjusted

flyingspaghettimonster · 19/12/2011 18:05

When I worked in an underwear store on Oxford Street they did a stock take and they were down 14k. From one store. In one year. This was apparently normal. So I think one 100quid item is hardly going to bother them. Actually, I used to get so bored at the stupid job I used to deliberately not charge people for items they were buying, and even slipped a set of chicken fillets into a bride-to-e's giftbag when she purchased a wedding bra because she had tried them on, but didn't have a spare 49quid to purchase them. So how do you know the guy didn't deliberately shoplift on your behalf? He might have been a bored and undervalued employee too.

catwalker · 19/12/2011 19:14

I'm amazed at the number of attempts to justify this. So what if nobody is going to be sacked/Halford's can afford it etc etc. The op knows she has received something she hasn't paid for. It's dishonest not to make the store aware of their mistake. But if it means more to the OP to have a better quality dvd player than a clear conscience, that's up to her.

rhondajean · 19/12/2011 19:17

Bit different but it happened to me with a mobile, Ihad ordered a new contract phone, Vodafone sent the wrong much more expensive model, I phoned them to tell them and arrange to return and they said it was their fault so I could keep it. I felt I got the karma points from TRYING to return it that let me keep it totally guilt free.

I have no idea if that is any help though...but I do love vodafone.

michaela18a · 19/12/2011 20:19

catwalker The op knows she has received something she hasn't paid for.

Eh, she has paid £99 for it. Or did Halfords steal her £99?

Osmiornica · 19/12/2011 20:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

michaela18a · 19/12/2011 20:50

flyingspaghetti i was more Xmas Shock at £49 for chicken fillets! There a fiver down our local factory shop!