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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to keep extra item delivered from shop in error?

133 replies

CookingCabbage · 20/12/2016 09:39

OK - This is actually my fault, not the shop's error. I will explain:

Ordered three identical multi-aperture photo frames from a well-known department store. Will be given as Xmas presents to relatives. Went to the store to 'click and collect'. When I got home and opened the plastic wrapping there were only two identical boxes in there.

Felt really annoyed that one is missing. Opened one up and put photos in - took ages to resize the pics and fit them but looked ace.

Went back to the store and explained they had only given me two frames. Was quite panicky as only 1 week until Xmas and needed that exact frame as photos printed in sizes to fit it. Also, it's an inconvenient journey to get to the store (live out in sticks). Store Manager gave me 15% off for inconvenience.

Went and collected third frame next day. Got home and unwrapped the remaining two boxes, and........there was TWO in the second box. So now I have FOUR frames.

It may sound silly that I did not open the second box originally, but the boxes were both the same size (quite narrow) and the frame in the first box was wrapped in bubble wrap - whilst the frames on the second were squeezed in, with no protective wrapping at all.

Do I own up and take the fourth frame back, or keep it for myself? I know everyone is going to say take it back probably, but please try to imagine what you would do.

OP posts:
LivingInMidnight · 20/12/2016 17:58

Lying my point was that Generally unpacking boxes before causing a fuss is a good idea. The retailer made no error, other than what appears to be impeccable customer service. They don't owe the OP anything.

Bobkinyoyo · 20/12/2016 18:03

Won't somebody please think of the children!

diddl · 20/12/2016 18:14

Did you get the frame that you collected free plus 15% off the order that was actually correct?

StarryShine89 · 20/12/2016 18:17

Keep it! They won't even notice and they have loss allowances for such mistakes

John Lewis once sent me two cath kidston bags and I never got a response to my email informing them, so gave it away!

IckleWicklePumperNickle · 20/12/2016 18:31

We ordered 2 mirror sliding doors, they delivered 3. The driver refused to take it back, he said he wasn't allowed to Hmm It's still in the loft 8 years later.

PerfumeAndCatsAndBooks · 20/12/2016 18:32

What about the staff member that correctly fulfilled/packed your order at the warehouse/depot, who will now have a record of an error against their work? The vast majority of large companies have strict targets and associated checks of individual workers' pick rates/error percentage rates etc. Fuck ups have implications for disciplinaries/extended probation etc.

Would you feel no guilt about that?

I'm also a bit Confused as to why you didn't query there was only two boxes when you collected? If you didn't query it, surely your thought process was exactly that one package would contain two items?

Ofalltheginjoints · 20/12/2016 18:34

In a different league item wise but John Lewis tried to deliver me two 49inch TV's this weekend, didn't even cross my mind to keep them, refused the second delivery and turns out the shop would never have known the error, but I couldn't have lived with myself as it was an expensive item but John Lewis appreciated the honesty with a gift card which was nice of them.

As it was your error in the first place OP I would give them a ring and explain, as most people have said they would probably tell you to keep it anyway.

CurlyBlueberry · 20/12/2016 18:41

I would return the extra, especially as it was mostly your error in not checking the second box (shop bears a little bit of error in their frankly weird packaging - let's say 75% your error and 25% theirs Wink).

A cheap item from Amazon, say, and I would keep it. From John Lewis I would call them but secretly expect them to tell me to keep it (unless it was a massive item like white goods or something).

This morning I got a delivery of a clock from a small company via Notonthehighstreet. I'd ordered it last week and got one last week, so the second delivery was obviously their error. I will be sending it back but have asked them to cover the cost of postage, which I think is fair (and which they've agreed to).

Eevee77 · 20/12/2016 18:48

You've just spent almost £90 on photo frames and claim you don't have much spare cash? And sorry but fuck that, you can get photo frames for less than a fiver in most high street shops. It's not okay to steal because you can't be bothered to rectify your mistake.

Original poster
CookingCabbage · 20/12/2016 18:57

Well I'm back on here folks. Just rang the company and told then what's happened. Thanks guys - you've convinced me to fess up! On the phone I offered to bring it back to the store and they did not offer any other suggestions. Said I'd take it back after Xmas though as it's a 25 min drive for me on a good day traffic-wise.

I already said in my inital post that it was silly of me not to open the second package first. I do think, however, that the way they packaged them up was weird. I was just given a big parcel in a red plastic wrapper in the store. When opened that there were two identical slim-line boxes inside. Opened one, and there was one frame inside, wrapped in bubble-wrap. I could not imagine that a second could be fit into the same sized box. They only fit two into the second box by putting no protective wrapping around them at all.

A customer could quite easily have just wrapped up the boxes as they were if they were Christmas presents, without looking inside. In fact, I now have that problem - I have no box to wrap the third frame in to gift it, and no bubble wrap.

Anyways, my conscience is clear now.

OP posts:
Original poster
CookingCabbage · 20/12/2016 19:00

Eevee - Just read your message after I wrote my above post. I have saved and allocated money for Christmas presents. I'm not so poor that I haven't budgeted for presents, but when it comes to spending money on my family outside the usual Christmas gift expenses, then no, we do not have funds for such luxuries. Don't make assumptions about others' circumstances.

OP posts:
Bobkinyoyo · 20/12/2016 19:01

Christ some of you lot are right goody two shoes.

CaraAspen · 20/12/2016 19:07

Cool, Cooking Cabbage!
Good karma time!

TheProblemOfSusan · 20/12/2016 19:17

Ooh that's really annoying. I would deffo have done what you did and phoned up but I'd be really pissed off if they didn't just say for me to keep it. Grrr. I want to do the right thing AND keep the goodies, dammit!

CaraAspen · 20/12/2016 19:18

Lol.

AngryGinger · 20/12/2016 19:28

I'd keep it, they probably just duplicated your first order rather than just ordering you a new one in. Nothing bad is going to happen if you keep it, might sound bad but just my opinion.

diddl · 20/12/2016 19:37

Why should they just tell her to keep it though?

Op made the mistake-its 'unfortunate for her that it's a pain to get to the store, but she only has herself to blame for all the fuss!

Auntpodder · 20/12/2016 19:46

I have a similar dilemma. Ordered a food item (quite expensive) to go to Lancashire, was sent to me instead (nowhere near Lancashire). Emailed shop (posh department store) to point out the mistake. It has now sent one to Lancashire but hasn't asked for my one back. What would you do. It's got a bit of a sell-by date issue...

melj1213 · 20/12/2016 20:07

Ooh that's really annoying. I would deffo have done what you did and phoned up but I'd be really pissed off if they didn't just say for me to keep it.

If it had been the store's mistake, they might have ... but it was the OP's mistake and she had also got an extra 15% discount on top so why should they just wrote off a totally preventable loss?

I work in Asda and we have a policy that if you are overcharged and it is our fault - eg a checkout worker scanned something twice - then we will refund the overcharge and give you a £2 giftcard by way of apology for you having to spend time waiting at customer services or coming back to the store because you may not have noticed the double scan happen and there is no way for you to know about it until after the transaction is complete when you look at the reciept ... if you double scan something at the self checkouts, we will still refund you the overcharged amount, but we don't give you a gift card as otherwise we would be rewarding people with £2 everytime they "accidentally" scanned something twice and "didn't notice" (on the big screen) until they checked their reciept.

We are willing to give goodwill to people when it is our fault that there is a mistake, but why should we reward customers by making a loss for their mistakes? It's in our interests not to mess up because those goodwill gestures will come out of store profits and affect every colleague's annual bonus so why would we give it away to customers who are trying to scam us?

melj1213 · 20/12/2016 20:18

Auntpodder In your case I'd keep the item, for two reasons.

  1. it as their mistake, so they will be expecting to absorb the loss anyway

  2. With it being a perishable food item, even if you did return it, it would have to be wasted anyway because it's not like they can resell it, especially if there is a sell by date issue.

In my supermarket, once certain items (basically all fresh/frozen food products) have left the store they cannot be resold ... one example is baby milk powder - if you bought the wrong one, and only realised when you got home, you can bring it back and we will exchange it for the right one, but we legally cannot resell the one you have returned, even if it is unopened, sealed etc because there are specific rules as to how it must be stored, and we can't guarantee that it was under those conditions once it left our store, so we have to waste it and just throw it out.

ARumWithAView · 20/12/2016 20:32

Nice update, OP. May the next person to knock off your wing mirror leave an apologetic note with their genuine contact details!

I really don't get the 'only on Mumsnet would you be told to return it' mindset. I'd return it, and I'm sure most people would. It's one thing to randomly profit from your own mistake, but completely different if someone else has been put to the time and expense of fixing it.

OP got 15% discount on the three frames, to make up for the inconvenience of one missing, when it wasn't actually missing. The store manager had to deal with a customer complaint -- I'm sure it was politely put, but it's still a complaint, with the client saying there's only 1 week until Christmas, it took me 25 min to drive here, etc, and the manager having to do a partial refund and arrange delivery for the 'missing' product.

Then it turns out it's the customer's error all along -- an understandable error, but it was still hers. On top of the discount, she should also keep the fourth frame, because: fuck retail, they're insured for this? Three discounted frames and one free frame and it wasn't even the store's mistake?

Astley · 20/12/2016 20:33

Can people not read?! It was never the shops fault or mistake.

There were always 3 frames in the boxes, OP just didn't bother to open the second box before making a complaint and getting a discount for a non existent problem.

limitedperiodonly · 20/12/2016 20:41

Won't somebody please think of the children!

I'd definitely send those back but I'd keep the photo frames

northernmonkey1010 · 20/12/2016 20:59

Keep it how often does any thing good ever happen to you? Ignore the do gooders on here

mummymummums · 20/12/2016 21:03

Definitely take it back. It's stealing. I did very similar with a pair of pjs for my DS's Xmas eve box - I reported them undelivered then found them in a box that I thought had something else in. I'd have loved to keep them as DS could do with another pair and times are hard at mo with DH out of work for last few months. But I returned them. It was the right thing to do.