Keeping an item a shop sent you by accident for free?

[User364837]

I know MN normally takes quite a hard line on this stuff….

but what’s the consensus on a large big name retailer sending you two items when you paid for one? Say hypothetically it’s clothing and they sent you 2 of the item in different sizes. Sizing is out so the original size you ordered doesn’t fit anyway. Would you return the item for a refund and keep the other one they sent you for free? And consider it your lucky day since you’re financially struggling at the moment leading up to Christmas.

just hypothetically obviously

Hypothetically... if I was struggling and it was a big company I wouldn't hesitate.

When I've had this before and let them know, often I'm told to keep the item anyway. The retailer won't want to arrange collection for an item not on the system unless it's realllllly pricey.

Girl - there was a similar-ish thread about a week ago

Things got... intense

I think I would have to inform them

I wouldn't give it a thought. A large retailer couldn't care less. And it was their mistake to begin with

Amazon has sent me stuff by mistake a few times and havent wanted it back. I always ask if they want it back. One time they sent me a really nice extermal hard drive for my pc.
I havent had any unexpected gifts like this since I moved house though.

I'd tell them as is not want to pay twice for something unwanted and if they said I could keep it then no guilt.

Don’t suppose it was tk maxx? Happened to me, woman in shop was super confused when I went to return them both!

I had this with m and s. An extra and unordered item in my package. I told them and sent it back.

are we talking an extra carrot or an extra flat screen TV?

Not sure I’d bother for a carrot. We did call them when they delivered 6 bottles of wine and some random bits. They told us to keep the perishables but they came back for the wine!

I once got a load of Star Wars Mr Potato Heads for free by mistake. No address of where they came from so I couldn’t send them back.

I got a Spud Trooper and Darth Tater then a few weeks later another Spud Trooper and Darth Tater.

Quite random lol.

I would call them and cross my fingers. Hoping they ask me to keep it.

It was a big company, I informed them but they never bothered to pick up the extra so I got two standard lamps. It was years ago, one broke recently. John Lewis also sent me the wrong colour brabantia bin and replaced but said to keep them both.

Big company and their mistake - just keep the spare one but pay if they discover it and contact you

I once got two of an item from John Lewis which I collected at Waitrose. When they gave me two boxes I said I only ordered one thing. She insisted the other box was the attachments for the thing and not a duplicate item. I wanted to open it to look but she didn't want me to. So when I got it home I opened it and I was right there were two items. I kept them both.

I would only inform them if it was really easy to do. So no long call centre queue, complicated websites or faffing about going to the post office. As PP have said though, most of the time they write it off anyway.

It’s only on Mumsnet that people own up to stuff like this. Back in real life people just keep the free item, unless it’s insanely valuable.

Hypothetically... I've won this waya few times. Assuming it's big store I think it's just the universe wanting me to have a present.

I ordered some CDs and DVDs from Amazon many years back that didn’t arrive in time for Christmas. They blamed it on snow, but they still hadn’t turned up by New Year, so as soon as I could, I filed a “goods not received” claim and got replacements. Around 15 January, the originals finally arrived. Given they’d fucked up my Christmas gifts, no way was I faffing about returning them to save a multi billion corporation 40 quid.

I got a very condescending email in May asking me if I’d received two sets of goods. MAY! It was along the lines of “Come on, be honest…” I was pretty furious. I replied saying that I thought it was utterly pathetic for such a huge company to be chasing this up FIVE MONTHS later and that they should be ashamed; that it was their screw up and not to hassle me about this again. They didn’t.

Tesco sent 9 bottles of wine instead of 8, yes I kept it, yes I cheered and laughed in glee.

I had something similar happen to me- ordered a cardie just as there was trouble with the post office and lots of parcels /letters weren’t being delivered. Complained it hadn’t arrived within a fortnight and the company sent out another one, that arrived after a couple of days, then the original one arrived.

talked to the company and seems if I returned the original cardie, they’d give me a refund, they had no system for me to give the original one back without it triggering a refund. So I either had 2 of the same cardie paying for 1 or I gave one back and got a refund, but got to keep the replacement for free, or I returned both in the same parcel, which would see I only paid once, and would get one refund, but I wanted the cardigan and they warned the style was now off the website so I wouldn’t be able to reorder it.

I went with keeping 2, it’s a plain black cardigan and now one sits on my office chair for cold days.

But this was a large company- if it was a small trader I would have made more effort to get the duplicate back to them.

if I’ve read it right- you are thinking of returning the original and getting a full refund, keeping the duplicate as a free top.

the alternative is probably having two tops but paying for one. I don’t see that’s much better.

with large companies there usually isn’t an easy way to return something you ordered online without claiming a refund for it.

LOL I just burst out laughing at this reply fr

The only time I’ve faced this dilemma is with a clothing brand I’d spent £££ at and their customer services dept completely ballsed up my refund when I returned a skirt, lied about it and were really rude when I pointed out their legal obligation to give me my money back. They finally did but were genuinely awful - I had to resort to calling them out on social media before they stopped ignoring me. A few months later I received the same skirt in the post and wasn’t charged for it - no correspondence, just a parcel out of the blue. Damn right I kept it!

There was a great thread about this a few years back when the OP received two Brabantia bins and was told she could keep both. Then the OP’s mother started bugging her to give the second one to her sister rather than flogging it on eBay as planned.

And consider it your lucky day since you’re financially struggling at the moment leading up to Christmas.

If I was financially struggling I wouldn’t be shopping online. Don’t make excuses to try justify keeping the item