I know it’s stealing….but…..

[VidalSass]

Im going to be Annihilated here……

i took out a store card to pay for a large tech purchase, interest free, over 36months. This was four months ago

I set up a direct debit straight away for the monthly payment and then cut up the card.

I checked my account and noted direct debit not come out, so I logged on to the store card account and the charge is still ‘pending’ - therefore minimum payment is 0 as the charge has not been processed by the merchant.

would I be unreasonable to just ignore it and therefore avoid the repayments? Surely it would eventually just be cancelled? Although it’s already sat there for four months….

i don’t want to call the merchant as obviously they will then just process the charge…..

im worries that eventually it would just be charged but a part of me is excited at the thought that an error may have occurred resulting in me getting free stuff. I know it’s technically stealing but it’s a huge company (probably not paying corporation tax in the uk) and I’m not exactly rolling in it

AIBU - should call the merchant to process the charge and start paying it back

NBU - technically it’s stealing but fuck the man and ride the freebie wave

I would call them and sort it out. Not because of some legal issue or morality. I would call because these zero interest deals typically include a provision that if you miss a payment you get hit with a fee and a large spike in the interest rate. I would be afraid they are going to try to apply that to my purchase, even though it wasn’t my fault.

11 years ago I bought an ipad. I was on maternity leave so thought id get it on finance.
Not once did they ever charge me a payment for it. Did I feel bad. Yep. Did I chase it. Nope!

Scummy, dishonest and cheap 😂

When I read this thread, I think of the Volturi meme. Someone could make one... How MNetters who paid for their PC look down at OP who hasn't 😂

Just keep the funds in another account for now OP. I wouldn't be chasing after them if they cannot process it properly their side. I am not sure how it can be classes as fraud when you have done everthing your side.

Firstly it’s stealing
Secondly you will be caught when they do their quarterly or yearly accounts and end up paying interest.

I think put the money aside and just see if you get eventually billed.

I'd keep schtum until they contacted me.

As for my morals, I would have no qualms whatsoever, and yes I know it's stealing but fuck it, I'd happily steal off every big company in the land and not lose a second of sleep over it.

Oh noes, I'm a terrible person!

Is it creation?
Easy to hit the option to not pay for X months when signing up. Chances are they've done nothing wrong, you just aren't due to pay it back yet.

If not, then yeh it's stealing. Only you know if you're morally ok with that

I found your post quite interesting, I buy most of my stuff online and is amazing how many mistakes the companies make, specially on grocery orders, it enrages me to a point that I have now a new policy: if I need to waste my time contacting you for a mistake, you are going to pay me for my time lost!

Tesco is the worst, almost every week on my grocery shop they forget to deliver something and still charge me, or some item is out of date, it usually costs a couple of quid, but to have it refunded I need to talk to their robot on whatsapp, send order number, all personal detail, answer like 5 random questions, AND THEN wait for a whole day so an actual human gets back to me and makes me tell the whole story again (I don’t understand why they have a robot, I thought that was the purpose but apparently no), all this song and dance so I can have 2 pounds refunded in around 5 working days (let’s not forget I need to check my statement to make sure it’s been processed). Since noticing there’s always a mistake I now also waste my precious time checking item per item of the order when it arrives 😒

Since a couple of months ago I got fed up and everytime I need to go through this palaver with them I simply say I want a refund for item X that was not delivered and item Y (an item that was indeed delivered but matches what I make per hour), so I am actually paid for the time lost because of their inability to do their job. I’d rather receive the right order and pay for what I got but apparently this is very hard for them, so not my problem!

You have a contractual obligation to pay the full amount. Just because the payments haven’t been processed yet does not mean that the total amount will be reduced. It just means that when they start processing the payments your 36 months will run from then. Depending who is at fault you may be liable for penalties. You are not being clever here.

I think you are at risk of it catching up with you and interest being charged.

Normally, however, I agree with those who point out that it's not your responsibility to spend your valuable time chasing a big company. A small company who has people that I can actually talk to would be different.

of every poster on this thread, the OP is her own biggest supporter and defender.

😂 so follow what your own advice would clearly be to another…. “go for it!!”

I also think that there is a huge ethical difference between stealing from an individual or small business and stealing from a big company that would happily sell your kidneys if it could get away with it

Or, rather, not stealing, but not busting your gut to fix their mistake

No it ain't.

Ride the freebie wave.

So if you can justify it to yourself it makes it ok?

I had my cc deets used fraudulently, they racked up thousands of pounds debt.

The cc company was shit and I had to call/email repeatedly to get them to reimburse me. When they finally reimbursed me, 6 months later, they over credited my account by £5k.

Everyone was like, they'll ask for it back. Well they never did.

I honestly don't think it's stealing if it's their fault they've not set up the admin correctly. I do think it'll catch up with the OP but I wouldn't bend over backwards to do their job for them

Their problem, not yours.

Bollocks, it is not stealing. So many posters talking absolute crap.

If the OP leaves the dd active, she is fulfilling her part of the deal.

Agreed. If this were a small business/ Etsy seller or something then it would be completely different, but it's a large corporation, probably something like Amazon.

I'd just sit tight and see if they take the money. They probably will realise at some point.

ooh that’s good!

Well yeah that’s what your moral compass is…

No I don't think it's stealing. But the chances are it will be discovered eventually during an audit as it's on their system. Up to them to sort out the errors on their system.

So many people on here who are morally incontinent. You think that just because you can, you should; if you can try and get away with being morally reprehensible, do so.
Great lessons to be teaching your kids. Be selfish, get away with what you can, even if it makes you into a dishonest, thieving twat

But in your example, you ARE a thief because you have taken something without paying for it.