To think this is normal honesty? Insurance related.

[Hereshopingforimprovement]

I had someone hot my car last week. Mine was unoccupied so clear liability with the other party. As part of the claim my car seat needed replacing. Company offered the price I paid but I couldn't replace it for that cost so asked if they would pay the additional, sent links to the only suppliers that sell it. On the basis that my son has autism and needs to be harnessed for his own safety they agreed.

When I came to but the seat it was on offer at one of the companies so cheaper than what they gave me but more expensive than the original cost. I phoned them to advise them and repay the additional monies. They seemed very surprised and said this rarely happens and people just keep the additional money. They said I could and I said I would donate to charity but I called them back and paid as it felt very wrong and i was very grateful for them authorising the additional monies in the first place. Aibu to think that is just normal honesty? They seemed very surprised that I had even called in the first place. I thought most people would have done this?

(And so are lots of the answers on this thread.)

And it’s very rarely people who know what it’s like to be poor that are the ones who would keep it either!
That’s sort of true for me I think, because I have been very very poor in the past, like ‘can’t afford to eat’ poor. And I definitely did think, if that had been me twenty odd years ago, I’d have not eaten til the next payday if I’d lost a twenty.

You did the right thing - insurance premiums depend on the amounts paid out and if this is happening widely then £40 adding up can keep both your premium and mine up. Doesn't matter if a charity gets it or not (which of course is a lovely thought).

Oops, I misread.

Umm, yeah, I would have kept the money when they said for me to keep it. 😆. I wouldn’t have insisted on returning it.

TBH. I often find I’m told to keep things if I’m sent them by mistake etc. I’m more than happy to if they offer but it their choice.

frogsoup
I was referring to my own post 😉

I would have neither called them nor paid it back. I probably wouldn’t have paid it to charity either.

The thousands of £££ insurance companies get paid and the fucking arguments about paying up - no way I’m not doing them a favour.

It’s. Normal standard of honesty for some people but sadly not everyone
You’ve only got to read posts by people who have “accidentally “ taken something from a shop without paying and are asking whether they should take it back. Plenty of people think it’s ok to steal as long as it’s from a large business and you didn’t mean to

I would have done the same as you but I don't think many would have. I remember in the poundshop years ago I saw a young lady with a double buggy drop 3 £20 notes from her back pocket. Of course I picked them up and returned them to her and she was so grateful she gave me 1 back as a thank you. As a teen that was a lot of money! But my step dad was furious as 'we could've had some beers and a chinese' with that. What if that had been her months money? What if she was buying food from the poundshop and she couldn't afford to feed her children? I know as a single mum on a low income now I'd want the same to be done for me!

You did nothing wrong, but for future reference, a charity will probably make better use of it than an insurance company.

This happened to me too when I returned a phone that I didn't want (within the 14 days from purchasing online) and received the other by courier before the first phone was collected. Apparently they don't chase this and people just keep them. So essentially I could have just nicked a brand new phone and sold it but I felt it was dishonest.

It's sad when people are surprised, but that's the way of the world.

FWIW I don’t think the examples of handing back money to someone who has obviously dropped it, or returning a second phone delivered in error is remotely similar to not returning £40 to an insurance company

Mummy CSJH um well yes, THAT is normal honesty to 99% of the population. Returning 60 quid that an individual has just dropped is not exactly comparable to refusing to take a 40 quid overpayment that the company has already said you can keep!!!

Though honesty, it's a variable concept isn't it. I'd not have said anything to the insurance company about the 40 quid, but even as a teen, I DEFINITELY wouldn't have accepted 20 quid off a young mother just for spending 2 seconds returning money that was theirs to begin with, which as you say she may well have needed to feed her kids with

Great minds Diana

yep!

FWIW I don’t think the examples of handing back money to someone who has obviously dropped it, or returning a second phone delivered in error is remotely similar to not returning £40 to an insurance company

Who said it was? Mine was an example of how it was considered abnormal to be honest, which is actually what this thread is about.

I suspect the reason you weren't keen on the charity solution is because of your anxiety. You negotiated a higher payout (rightly) then the car seat was cheaper. I can see how you'd worry someone would query that. Deciding on the basis of a phone conversation with a call handler to give it to charity wouldn't remove that worry. Paying it back closes the chapter.

Sensible posts Frog and Diana

Because (other than accepting a third of the money as a reward) nothing about your experience is abnormal? Most people would hand back money they’d seen dropped. Most people would keep it if they hadn’t seen anyone drop it.

I claimed on a coat taken from a pub once. Before the cheque arrived the coat was returned to the pub - it had been taken in error rather than stolen. In that instance I returned the cheque when it arrived but I think if I was in the OPs situation and had been told to keep the excess £40 I would have done. She was honest in advising them, but insisting on returning it when told it wasn't necessary seems over scrupulous to me.

It actually wasn't about whether it was abnormal to be honest, it was whether sending 40 quid back to the insurance company is 'abnormally' honest, and the answer is yes, because they had told her she could keep it, so actually it had nothing to do with honesty. She was actually asking 'is everyone as showily over-scrupulous as me', and the answer is 'no'.

I ordered a carpet cleaner in the Vax sale a few years ago. A few days after it was delivered another one turned up. According to the courier there had been quite a few doubles.

I rang them up to ask for them to arrange a pick up. The man on the phone was really surprised. Not that I'd got two, as it had been a widespread mistake, but because I'd rung to send one back. I could have sold it on eBay and made a few hundred pounds, but there is no way I could morally have done that.

Plenty of people think it’s ok to steal as long as it’s from a large business and you didn’t mean to

The same ones who scream and shout when prices go up because they can't understand that businesses have to make back loses due to theft.

IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN STEALING BECAUSE THEY TOLD HER TO KEEP IT!

Sorry to shout, but honestly. My main conclusion from this thread is that most people's reading comprehension is a bit shit.

I was once in a charity shop where a woman was volunteering to work and having a sort of interview. The manageress said that volunteers bought things from the shop at a much cheaper price than the public ("just a small donation") and it was the perk of working there. The woman said no she would never do that, she would "be honest" and pay full ticket price. There was silence.

Is that "honesty"? It was a perk of the job apparently, not a backhander.

On the other hand, someone I knew works for a large department store and when there is a mistake on the tills (a scanned item displays an obviously wrong price) the staff don't tell the office, they simply all queue to buy them, sharing out the spoils as it were. She insists that this is perfectly honest because that is the price that is on the till.

Different people have different ideas of what honesty is.

Was it a free call to the insurance company or did you get charged £10 per minute or whatever?