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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Should I have gone back to the shop?

102 replies

Bennifer · 09/01/2012 10:57

I went shopping this weekend and was buying a lot of stuff for my new house. I went to a big homeware shop (it?s a big national chain) and had a trolley full of pillows, bins, etc. At the till, it came to £140, which was less than I was expecting. I mentioned this to the shop assistant who said there was a sale on. When I got home and checked my receipt, I noticed that I hadn?t been charged for the biggest item at a cost of around £75.

I was umming and ahhing over the correct thing to do. In the end I went back, but I was so tempted to keep the item. Would you have gone back?

OP posts:

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/01/2012 15:36

I don't need to conflate tesco and morals or sainsburys and morals. I only need to be able to live with my own conscience - and that wouldn't have let me enjoy my sherbert dip, let alone £75 worth of duvet. Why do people's morals/ethics vary depending on the morals or ethics of those they are dealing with? I have one set of morals, because I choose to live by a set of standards that are absolute, not dependant on other people's morals or companies' morals.

Every time someone does not pay for an item, whether it is by mistake or on purpose, that is classed as 'shrinkage' by the shops - and they do not take that financial hit, nor do their shareholders. Everyone else who shops at that store takes the hit.

We are all being hit by higher prices at the moment - well, part of the calculation that a company/shop makes about the mark up on the good they sell, is the amount of money they need to take to replace their losses from shrinkage - so a few pence goes on the price of each item to cover the cost to the store of deliberate shoplifting and accidental taking of goods when the person who takes them doesn't go back and pay. Why should honest people have to pay extra because some people think it's OK to defraud shops/companies?

Do those of you who think it is silly to return an item as the OP did, or who would giggle about sleeping under a 'free' duvet, consider yourselves to be honest people? Because I am sorry if it is harsh, but it is not honest to keep something you have not paid for.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/01/2012 15:38

Oh - and yellowraincoat - I have never put something through the self scanner as something cheaper, nor would I ever consider doing that. And if you do do that, and get caught, you will find yourself with a conviction for shoplifting. That's theft. Being a theif. Doesn't sound as nice now, does it.

learningtofly · 09/01/2012 15:39

This happened to me once when I bought a patio set in a big DIY store. .

I immediately said the price was wrong and after the assistant put it through for the third time and it was still one hundred quid out I gave up - mainly because the tuts and moaning from the enormous queue that had formed behind me made me slightly embarrassed.

quirrelquarrel · 09/01/2012 15:42

Of course you did the right thing and YANBU to think of it as the only thing to do...surprised that the consensus seems to be in the other direction. Imagine if everyone would do that kind of thing- people working in supermarkets are human, they made mistakes, so you can just say "the supermarket had a chance to get its money", it's not that simple.

What a priggish post. But still. It's not honest to do anything else.

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 09/01/2012 15:42

shove up silentboob and popcornmouse theres room for another I think

quirrelquarrel · 09/01/2012 15:43

can't just say

Original poster

Bennifer · 09/01/2012 15:51

I don't want to overly moralistic because I was sorely tempted to forget about it. In fact, I went home first to go through my receipt and pile of pillows, bed linen, etc before going back.

OP posts:

Gribble · 09/01/2012 16:01

"Do those of you who think it is silly to return an item as the OP did, or who would giggle about sleeping under a 'free' duvet, consider yourselves to be honest people? Because I am sorry if it is harsh, but it is not honest to keep something you have not paid for."

I consider myself to be honest, if I cock up at work I squeal like a pig, if I break something I sing like a canary but when it comes to this sort of thing I have to say Id be as honest in that Id have made a passing comment like OP did but I wouldnt go back to the shop

DietintheNewYear · 09/01/2012 16:02

You did the right thing by acting honestly. Well done!

TeapotAndBiscuitTin · 09/01/2012 16:44

You did the right thing. I'd have taken it back too, I wouldn't be able to sleep from the guilt!

GlueSticksEverywhere · 09/01/2012 16:59

Wow I can't believe you actually went back! I honestly don't believe all of those saying that they would. MN is just a bunch of people sitting at a computer trying to each be more morally superior than the other sometimes! This is thread about hnoestly contributed to by a bunch of liars.

It's nothing at all like the mp's expenses thing. They are paid out of the public money.

Exactly how much time out of your day did you spend going back to a shop who wouldn't have cared or even noticed that you hadn't paid for an item? How much is your time worth in money terms? I work to an hourly rate so I would easily be able to work out how much it was going to cost me!

pictish · 09/01/2012 17:01

HELL NO! I would've done a wee lap of victory round the living room and hugged myself with delight! Frankly.

Original poster

Bennifer · 09/01/2012 17:06

I'm not saying it was an easy thing to do, and even whether I'm sure I would do it again, but it was clearly the right thing to do. Many would do the wrong thing (and I was tempted to). It doesn't matter what my hourly rate was, I'd have done the wrong thing by not going out.

I think a wider point I was trying to make, is that many of us fret over society and how many MPs and bankers are out on the take, but I fear many of us (myself included) are exactly the same, but on a smaller scale. Would we honestly tell our children it was the right thing to do?

OP posts:

MadameCastafiore · 09/01/2012 17:07

I would have taken it back - I am terrified of things coming around and biting me on the bum - something bad would have happened if I had kept it.

Nutty Saddi aren't I!

4madboys · 09/01/2012 17:19

what pictish said nope wouldnt have taken it back, you actually questioned the total at the point of paying, it was the till assistants fault!

alemci · 09/01/2012 17:26

I would have rang them and explained what had happened. This happened to me once when I was buying dressing gowns in Marks. I was undercharged and I felt bad about it so I rang.

I was prepared to pay for the item but they said I did not have to. I think shops really appreciate people being honest.

Ghoulwithadragontattoo · 09/01/2012 17:56

You did the right thing. I'm pretty sure I'd do the same. I suspect I wouldn't be able to enjoy the duvet if I hadn't. You're right though most people not v. moral without the threat of being caught.

SaraBellumHertz · 09/01/2012 18:10

I'd have probably kept it for convenience as much as anything.

If I had bought a duvet that is because I want to use a duvet. I would want to get in unwrapped and the bed made up and if I had to wait a day or two, through no fault of my own, to take the thing back, well in all likelihood I wouldn't bother.

GlueSticksEverywhere · 09/01/2012 18:32

The point I was making was that if you take it back by no fault of your own, during time which you could have been working for example, or just giving up your valuable time with your children or whatever, or had to pay out for petrol, then that means the cashiers mistake cost YOU in rest time/financially etc. Why should you pay for their mistake?

How did you get back there?

GlueSticksEverywhere · 09/01/2012 18:33

Oh and did they deduct the cost of your petrol/lost earnings bla bla bla from the amount you were originally supposed to pay for the duvet?

pictish · 09/01/2012 18:42

I suspect I wouldn't be able to enjoy the duvet if I hadn't.

You see for me...I'd enjoy the duvet EVEN MORE!

I'd snuggle right down and think 'mmm there's no cosier duvet than a free one!'

LadyPeterWimsey · 09/01/2012 18:43

Well done for taking it back, OP. I would have done the same (admittedly sighing deeply about the hassle). I hadn't paid for it. It did not belong to me. Whether you get caught for stealing or not doesn't change the fact that it IS stealing.

southeastastra · 09/01/2012 18:45

what did they say when you brought it back?

GlueSticksEverywhere · 09/01/2012 18:47

I am really not sure that counts as stealing. Can you imagine in court . . . "But I tried to pay for it and they told me they had so I took it home!"

ZillionChocolate · 09/01/2012 18:52

You did the right thing.

alemci, the same sort of thing happened to me at homebase. I bought a trolley load of stuff, that came to about what I was expecting, but when I checked the receipt, they'd failed to charge me for a box of plates. I phoned up (and owuld have been willing to pay over the phone, or pay next time I was going in) but they said I could keep them. Free plates and a clean conscience.

I don't think you can put a price on your integrity, but mine's worth more than £75 to me. I had to call the lady over at the supermarket self check out last week because my leek was too long to weigh properly and had come up at 2 pence.

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