For keeping an order that I’ve received a refund for?

[Phallicfriday]

Long story short. Ordered DH a fairly expensive tech item for his birthday from large retailer. Item didn’t arrive and when I chased the retailer it was presumed lost and they sent a replacement. It was supposed to be on next day delivery but this didn’t materialize either. Week later I call again to be told the item was detained by customs and it would be returned to the retailer. They point blank refused to send another item and instead only offered me a refund. Feeling very frustrated as I still had no birthday gift, I reluctantly accepted and ordered a replacement on Amazon (which I haven’t received yet either). Since receiving the refund, both the ‘missing’ orders have turned up. I am overseas and so I imagine it would be a hassle/expense for them to arrange a courier to collect them for return? AIBU for just keeping quiet and keeping both? Appreciate that this is morally ambiguous and I am quite sure I will get lots of mumsnetters up in arms at my morally bankrupt thought processes but they are a large company and surely will have insurance to cover such losses? And who really gives a flying fuck if the insurance company are out of pocket a few hundred quid when they rob the living daylights out of us all? My only concern is if they can track / trace that they have been delivered and force me to return / repay? What would you do?

They'll pay for the courier as you've bought expensive items. They will probably discover that the items actually arrived and will chase you.

This. Karma has a habit of biting you on the bum when you least expect it. Unless you are happy to pay the hundreds of pounds it cost if/wjhen you get caught.

We had this with an iPad that was discovered at the back of our bin shed about 2 weeks after a refund (and multiple wasted trips to a Yodel dispatch centre/hours spent online) a few years ago. We didn't give it back, we were never charged.

If you do get contacted please don't say you didn't get it in case your postie loses his job.

It's no trouble for them to report you for theft as the police will handle the investigation and prosecution. No one on here can possibly tell you how likely it is this will happen.

At the end of the day between their customer services, the courier messing up by temporarily loosing it/them, it's their mess, you've currently not done anything wrong, however if this were me, I would make one attempt to contact them and alert them that one of the items had been delivered and as you have ordered from a different company you no longer require it and they are welcome to collect it. As it's a high value item they might collect it, I guess it depends on the shipping and customs* *grief involved and if they can afford the loss. Sometimes it costs the company less to let you keep it. For your own peace of mind, at least you tried and have proof that you tried if it comes back to bite you on the arse. It's possible it could open up a can of worms at the company with certain employees not wanting to highlight any incompetence with procedures and your attempt might get ignored and brushed under the carpet. If they do want to collect it leave it where the courier left it so it doesn't inconvenience you. It sounds like a lot of moneys worth of goods that you've received so I couldn't just sit on it morally.

I ordered a sundial as a surprise present for my DH's birthday it didn't come until a week later than his special day and I was furious. It was very expensive so I really couldn't afford another present and had to tell him his wasn't coming till after his birthday. If they had sent me 2 by mistake I wouldn't have told them and kept the extra one. They had spoilt my DH's surprise and I was really pissed off .

I'm sure you'll just laugh but for me these kinds of day-to-day thefts and dishonesties all accumulate to make the world a worse place to live. They chip, chip, chip away at any sense of trust and feeling of honesty and fair dealing between people which end up affecting everyone (practically and emotionally). Pepples on the beach. Not to mention the increase in insurance premiums!

The stupid thing is, if you contacted the company chances are they'd tell you to keep it and you'd be in the same position but with a clear conscience and without adding to the pile of mistrust and bad feeling in the world. You might even cause the opposite of a feeling of nice surprise that there are still honest, decent people around.

Very clearly nothing anyone says about that will change your mind, though. There are always reasons to justify poor behaviour to ourselves!

Don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time.

Seems silly to have a 'win' of gaining an item which under the law you have stolen if you are going to be stressed about it.

The whole point of a 'win' is that it's enjoyable!

How was the service abysmal? They sent you something that got held up at customs, so they sent a new one. Not really their fault is it?

To be honest, given the value you described I might let them know one had arrived and see what they say. It’s not like you’re going to be left out of pocket and you still have the item.

Keep it, I was sent two orange items instead of one nothing ever happened

If you only wanted 1 in the first place, I would contact them and say 1 has just turned up at your door. They might tell you to keep it or they might ask for it to be returned. Then you will know their stance. I would feel better returning one and then keeping the other.

This - if you keep it is it theft, I’m afraid, so you need to advise them that it has now arrived and that they need to arrange a courier collection by X date. If they don’t collect it you can keep it/pass on as it becomes ‘abandoned goods’ (I think that’s the term?).

This sort of thing happened to me twice, funnily enough both times with rugs, different companies.

First time wrong rug arrived, they resent the correct one and cocked up the collection of first rug so badly they just told me to keep it.

Second time, rug didn’t arrive so they sent another, then two arrived. I’d paid for one. I just kept them both.

I’d cancel the Amazon one and keep the two you have, but I have no loyalty or care for big corporations.

I’d keep them without a second thought. It will be fine

If they've sent you two I'd own up to 1 at the moment and see what they say.

OP, I think I am very strict morally, with stuff that is about communities and individuals and not hurting people etc.

But. Having worked in big business, I do not think it is theft when they have failed to deliver correctly what you needed, when. And then, effectively dumped something on you that you did not ask for. If when they refunded you, they asked you to inform them if it turns up, or requested you return it, that's one thing. But I suspect they didn't. Because it's pretty irrelevant to them. The hassle and extra people they'd have to employ to follow up and manage returns of stuff that had been refunded but later delivered probably isn't worth it to them. Neither is it fair to ask good faith customers, who have already gone through the hassle of delayed items, to go through the hassle of returning stuff. They will have budget lines for such losses, and decided that how they run their business/ which couriers they use /what they do and don't do when stuff gets lost etc is how they want to run things - balancing economics with customer satisfaction etc.
Fact is, they failed you, which caused hassle and stress. You told them the truth about it not being delivered. They refunded you without, I assume, making any request about what to do if the item turned up. It turning up delayed is a very likely, obvious possibility- but it doesn't matter to them. It's not the item alone you paid for. It's the item within a certain timescale. They failed to deliver.

You didn't make this happen. You acted in good faith. Their systems failed. It's Not on you.

Why are you even posting? It would be theft. Even a child would know this. If you think it’s fine then why not go to your nearest Tesco and join the other low-life’s shoplifting.

Is this a joke? You are not ‘very strict’ morally if you would steal. It doesn’t matter if you steal from a small business or big business, stealing is stealing and fucked up.

This isn't "morally ambiguous". It's stealing.

She's in another country. So it's a lot of trouble.

You might end up being charged for both. I'd keep them in the packaging and contact them immediately. Stress that its up to them to arrange the return if that's what they want. I highly doubt they are going to say just keep two expensive electrical items for free.

Not sure why lots of people are justifying stealing from Amazon when these aren't Amazon parcels.

It's clearly theft, as you now acknowledge. You are either a thief or you aren't. I wouldn't (I would contact and explain and see what they say, if theydon't sort it for you that's a very different situation) but as this post shows loads of people would. You do you.

That said you are coming across more generally on the post as incredibly unlikable. To the point where I suspect the post isn't even true.

It really isn't the same as stealing.

The definition of stealing in the uk is: "the dishonest appropriation of goods" the OP has done nothing dishonest and has not appropriated anything. There was no plan, no deception in order to receive the item, and if the company cared, they could ask if she has received it, but guess what? They don't care! She has had something dumped on her property which she had already cancelled, which she never had the intention of receiving for free, never mind steal.

The difference between that and going into a shop and shoplifting is glaringly obvious.

Can't find a reference in the uk, but in the US the law, via the Federal Trade Commission is super clear: consumers have no obligation to return and every right to keep items delivered to them in error, including items that are cancelled and still delivered.

It is possible the law is different in the country OP is in, but it's a question of consumer rights. The firebrand moralising is ridiculous.

I do think the OP should contact the retailer. They may say, it is fine, keep it. Then the problem is solved. Or they send a courier to retrieve the item, and the problem is solved. Either way, the OP has a clear conscience and doesn't have to worry.