Reimbursed order but I’ve found it. Wrong to keep money?

[Amibeingdaft81]

I received notification that a package had been delivered. It hadn’t and I had proof (they’d taken a picture of a different front door to mine!).

I rang shop (a big international online trailer if that makes a difference) and they are refunding me the order (£175).

However yesterday evening, set out for little stroll and a few doors down - there’s my parcel!

Would you ring to update of keep? I know what the right thing to do is. I know what I would urge my children to do. I know this. But there is this slither of me that wants to keep the money.

I’m almost certain I’ll ring to update. Almost

I wouldn’t keep the parcel without telling the company but then I’m not a thief,

I don’t know how anyone can justify it, I'm sure the op’s who think it’s alright wouldn’t be happy having their wallets being pick pocketed

I had something similar happen with an eBay parcel, except it was that the parcel was never sent. Ended up going through the proper process with eBay, got several nasty messages from the seller. A few days after eBay closed the case and refunded my purchase the item showed up. Postmarked the day after the case closed. I contacted eBay, they said nothing to do with them and given the messages from the seller I said nothing. It wasn't an item of value and I'd have lost more posting it back to them.

Its only happened a few other times, I've always contacted the company. Mainly get told to keep the other item, once asked to return it using a prepaid label they provided.

Glad you found the item op given there doesn't seem to be a refund showing on your account!

Your update resolved the issue. But if they were going to actually refund, I am not sure I would have contacted them because the paackage was not delivered to your door and the courier company was very negligent. It was just by sheer luck you came across the item. It was no delivered to your actual adress.

It's stealing if you keep the money and the goods.

I'd tell them. This has happened to me and they didn't take the money back off me.

On the rare instance this happens to me, I've contacted the seller or customer service department and told them. If I remember right, I've been told to keep the item as gesture of goodwill regarding the inconvenience. It so very rarely happens though.

Be honest and do the right thing!

Rtft - she's told them and the matter is resolved.

I wouldn't steal something worth £175 so I'd tell them. Not that I steal things of lower value LOL just mean that it is a big deal. If you lost £175 you would be gutted rather than say losing £5. I don't think it makes a huge diffetence that it's from Amazon- unless you think it's ok to go shoplifting as long as it's from Tesco or Asda and not your local independent shop.

What difference does it make if you are short of money or not ??? You made the decision you could afford it so you should stop the refund if it's been found ffs .... it's theft end of 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for the update

What difference does it make if you are short of money or not ??? You made the decision you could afford it so you should stop the refund if it's been found ffs .... it's theft end of 🤷‍♀️

Yes it is theft regardless but you tend to find those committing theft tend to be those that need money. It’s very easy to be ethical when you are financially comfortable.

@Amibeingdaft81

Ok OP here. Sorry delay.

So, I rang. It is an American call centre I think (well US company and both i spoke to were American)

The one this morning didn’t have the faintest idea what I was on about. Said no record that I would be refunded whatsoever. And that’s not their policy anyway - to refund immediately with no investigation.

So matter closed!

Really?

Sounds like you dialled the wrong number. Why the hell would they not have a clue what you were on about, or any sign of any refund?

Pull the other one, it's got bells on!

@PlatoAteMySnozcumber

Yes it is theft regardless but you tend to find those committing theft tend to be those that need money. It’s very easy to be ethical when you are financially comfortable.

What utter rot.

My parents and theirs before them, AND theirs before them had fuck-all, and many others have fuck-all too. Never have had!

Doesn't mean it's OK to steal from those who DO have more than you!

As a few posters have said, shame on you - AND those who have kept stuff that isn't theirs, and they know damn well they haven't paid for. (Including the OP!)

'Oh because I am poor I will just STEAL it from those who have got more than me!'

DFOD.

To be clear I have never kept things I have not paid for, but I have always had plenty of money so it’s easy for me to do the right thing.

I have worked with people in poverty who have committed crime and have thought ‘there but for the grace of god go I’. It’s easy to be moral when you have money and/ or the benefit of a good education and upbringing. This kind of passive theft is exactly the kind of thing that might turn normally law abiding people on the bread line into criminals. I doubt ‘shame’ is more important to them than feeding their children. It’s a bit different to ‘oh, I could do with some extra spending money for my mini break next weekend that is pushing my budget’. It’s never okay, but IMO is understandable. It IS easy to be ethical when you aren’t desperate regardless of how many of your forebears may have been skint.

I would tell them. That way they might say keep the money and the item and you won’t have to worry about feeling guilty.
It is tempting to keep the money but I’m one of these people that believe if you do something good then good things will come back to you soon enough.

It’s like if I found a purse on the floor or money sticking out of the self scan machine, I couldn’t keep the money in either case and feel ok about it.

This kind of passive theft is exactly the kind of thing that might turn normally law abiding people on the bread line into criminals.

Spot on.

Otherwise good people can do really surprisingly immoral things when they’re desperate.

However, nobody in this situation would be breaking the law even if OP hadn’t told them. She was refunded because the item was delivered to the wrong address, not her address. So she was rightly given the money back. It’s pure chance she discovered it several doors down before someone else did. No police force in the land is going to do someone for theft in those circumstances.

I wouldn't mind getting that most of the shamelessly dishonest posters on this thread are quite comfortably off.

I wouldn't mind getting that most of the shamelessly dishonest posters on this thread are quite comfortably off.

Why do you think that?

I’d say it’s more likely to be the opposite. If you’re comfortably off, £175 is a drop in the ocean and you’re not likely to value it or need it as desperately as someone who’s skint. I’ve been very poor indeed and am now fairly comfortable, I would personally return the items as things are now as I have that £175 sat in the bank at my disposal several times over. But when I was sincerely struggling to find money to eat, ineligible for any benefits, too sick with a chronic illness to make it to work and having my hours docked, sure. I reckon I would have kept the goods and the refund (not that I’d have ordered £175 of clothes in the first place mind, but whatever). Survival comes over ethics for many when push comes to shove.

I think that because I reckon that a good few people are fundamentally dishonest regardless of their means. Many posters like that on MN dont talk of needing the money. They just have no morals. I've a lot of sympathy for someone struggling and tempted. The others are just thieves and there are plenty of them.

I agree with all the posters on here, saying that the amount of posters trying to justify stealing on here, is somewhere between farcical and disgusting.

Being short of money does NOT make it OK to steal, and no amount of excuses or flannel is going to make it OK. Even if you are 'poor,' if you STEAL, then you are a criminal, and should be treated as such.

Now quit the jibber-jabber, and calling people who are disgusted with the OP 'martyrs' and 'holier-than-thou.' It's making you sound ridiculous.

Is that going to be your excuse in Court? 'But she has more money than me your Honour, so I am within my rights to take her money. And if you say it's wrong, you're a judgemental holier-than-thou prick, who has no IDEA what it's like to not have as much money as that person) who has probably worked much harder than me for what she has anyway!')

Yeah, that will work!

YABU and you know it. Do the right thing.

Is that going to be your excuse in Court? 'But she has more money than me your Honour, so I am within my rights to take her money. And if you say it's wrong, you're a judgemental holier-than-thou prick, who has no IDEA what it's like to not have as much money as that person) who has probably worked much harder than me for what she has anyway!')

Nobody is suggesting anyone takes things from people just because they have more than them or that such behaviour is ‘within their rights’, your comment is deliberately obtuse.

However, exceptional personal hardship is specifically listed in mitigating factors for theft in the sentencing guidelines, so yes, it is an ‘excuse in court’.

To be fair, when I was that skint I was more concerned with the immediate task of getting enough calories to keep working and enough pound coins together to put in my £300 car to get home from work after my shift. I can honestly say I never stole. But if I’d been desperate enough and had few other choices then sure, eating and keeping my roof would have been my immediate priority and I’d worry about court later.

@PlatoAteMySnozcumber but she obviously could afford said item when she purchased it therefore not skint .. it's not life or death food is it!