To not tell them their mistake

[glitterglitters]

Question of ethics here

Basically I bought some maternity clothes online from a very well known retailer beginning with T.

Goods have arrived and are perfect.

Money had been allocated from my account for the transaction and appeared under "pending".

This has now vanished, nothing on my statement and cash hasn't come out.

Spoke to my bank who said that it's most unusual but it has indeed vanished, as if the retailer has cancelled the transaction. They said that as I have "Completed" emails I'm not in the wrong, haven't stolen anything but it's up to me if I contact the company or not.

The phone advisor basically hinted (though didn't say directly) that I'd got lucky and he's never seen it happen.

Should I contact the company and let them know the error or should I just play dumb and enjoy the clothes knowing that the owner of the company isn't innocent in such matters and they have more than enough cash.

it's probably held up by streamline for some inexplicable reason and a reconciliations person will be along to push it through soon enough.

i would just carry on with my life though shit happens ¯(ツ)/¯

even better if we are talking about Topshop here. Green can suck it.

Mmm that's a good point about the credit note. Might give it 30 days

The discrepancy should come up in a reconciliation they will perform either sometime over the next week or at month end. At that point paypal will take the funds from your account.

I wouldn't call because I expect their controls to pick up on the issue and sort it out without taking up my time.

And I had an independent retailer send me out goods twice a couple of months ago. I emailed them letting them know and said I'd be happy to send it back and they told me to keep it. I'd never screw over a small business.

Bollocks to "its theft".

Theft is if the OP had ordered/taken items with absolutely no intention of paying for them, she thought that she already had paid for them. This is an error on the part of the retailer, not the OP and as such although the nice thing to do would be to tell them, the onus is on them to sort this out not her.

If she does choose to contact them then I would leave it a month before even considering contacting the retailer because I too have had transactions that I thought hadnt gone through only for them to appear on my statement much later.

PayPal can take quite a bit of time to actually take the money even if transaction appears completed, it will still come off so leave enough enough in.

Have you logged onto Paypal? Because if the transaction was cancelled it would say. Did you have funds in your PP account?

I would say it will be sorted. I presume they have some sort of reconciling in their systems / accounts that will spot the error. If not, I would contact them.

I once had an M&S refund appear twice on my account. It was rectified the following day before I had to make contact with them to get it sorted.

everyone with half a brain cell knows this is tesco

And anyone with a full set of brain cells will understand that there is more than one well known retailer beginning with T.

They have up to six months to take payment before asking, and six years with notice, so I wouldn't be so sure you haven't paid yet. I'd imagine they'll reconcile this at some point and want paying. Probably when you're on maternity leave and short of cash because life tends to be like that!

I'd imagine they'll reconcile this at some point and want paying. Probably when you're on maternity leave and short of cash because life tends to be like that!

Yep! In fact it will probably be the last month before the OP goes back to work when the mat pay has run out and they need to find the money for the first months nursery fees!

Small indie shop = tell them. Corporate behemoth = enjoy the clothes and think no further about it.

I'm with the posters who would certainly tell if its an independent/ small shop.

A big place like Tesco, topshop- shit happens...for them.

Ignore it, I got £80 of free clothes once when this happened. They sent me an email asking for me to confirm that i would allow them to set up a second transaction - i ignored it and haven't heard since x Its been about 3 years lol x

With a lot of retailers, paypal doesn't take any money until 14 days after the order - "Pay after delivery" they call it. Check your paypal receipt and see if it says your payment has been scheduled or "You have authorised a payment".

Asda does this with the online shopping sometimes. It goes from pending to nowhere but then is taken from the bank a day or two later without going back into pending. If you are going to tell the company then wait a day or two just in case. You don't want to pay twice.

i suspect if it sounds too good to be true, it is, and i'd not count my chickens for a few more days!

If a company charges twice for the same item by mistake, they absolutely cannot insist you accept a credit note instead of a refund, whywontthey, stop talking through your arse.

Gawd, people are so moral aren't they. It's for them to realise their mistake (they probably will), but I would keep quiet until they do.

Trust me it will show up when they claim payment it's happened to me loads. Off-the-peg take longer than 4 days to claim it disappears into oblivion/gets returned to your account. The bank are useless and can't find payment.

Bloody auto off the peg?' " if they take more than 4 days"

I would leave it.
I had similar a while ago with a different retailer, paid through paypal and the payment was cancelled after a month or two. I didn't cancel it. I contacted paypal and they said the retailer never accepted the payment so it gets cancelled off after a certain period. As far as I was concerned, I intended to pay and gave means of payment - they are the ones who didn't accept it in time! Other payments made on the same day went through with no issue and there was more than enough funds in my account.
I still expect them to claim payment, and if they do so I won't argue.
By all means contact them, and alert them to their mistake, but it is their mistake.

I'd leave it but you get some right goody two shoes on here

Odd that it's through PayPal. Your bank wouldn't be able to tell much about it as Paypal is like a virtual wallet that acts as a middleman. I'd keep the amount needed in your PayPal account because legally they can just take the money again and it will go through your linked card and out of your bank account potentially causing issues if you're not expecting it! I don't know about PayPal but I think card payments can be taken up to 6 months after the transaction has been made.