Should I tell Tesco I basically stole £300 from them?

[loamy]

Just checked my banking app and had around £300 more than I was expecting. Turns out that one of our shops was cancelled by dh but it still showed up for delivery. Husband wasn’t in so son accepted the order AND we got the refund. So it’s actually funny because our texts shows us getting our wires crossed. Husband thought I had unilaterally decided to reorder. He asked “so you did decide to do the shop in the end” and I answered in the affirmative as I very coincidentally happened to go into M and S for some bits my daughter wanted to try. And it was that I thought he was referring to. I thought her was being sexy cause dd went a bit overboard with the cookies, dips etc

Anyway, it’s been about three weeks. I guess this has slipped through.

Wouls you tell Tesco? I’m surprised that the idea of being sneaky flashed in my mind.

It was a pricier shop as DH ordered a few nicer bottles of wine to enjoy for a family event.

That makes no sense. Either it is stealing or it isn't. I don't think it is, but if I did I wouldn't keep £80.00 either.

It would stop the OP from being a thief by finding.

This happened to me years ago with two huge leather sofas. I ordered from tesco direct, then thought better of spending so much and cancelled them. They still arrived, the cost was refunded, and the club card points were still added, and the club card points bought a small laptop. This was 16 years ago, I was poor, going through a divorce and moving into a horrid damp rented house with no furniture. I did not tell tescos.

Given the many many thousands I've spend with them I don't feel bad, and the timing was like a gift from the gods for me then.

Yes, we absolutely should use our own judgement and not blindly go along with the law

We are all at liberty to break the law and there are consequences for doing so.

But i think you're advocating for consequence-free disobedience with laws you don't like. And you'll forgive me for having zero sympathy with that attitude - i can think of countless arguments why that would be catastrophic.

But corporations are NOT people
Corporations are nothing but a name (and some regulatory nonsense) for a set of people.

Your statement is equivalent to saying "families are not people" and therefore you can steal from families without hurting people.

The OP stated
Just checked my banking app and had around £300 more than I was expecting.

The OP was intending to pay for the goods. All the rest about crossed-wires, mistakes and unsolicited goods is a nonsense really until you try to justify not paying for something you intended to pay for.

No point whatsoever OP spending any time trying to rectify their mistake when there is nothing to be done either way

Not true. If the OP told the retailer they hadn't been billed, the retailer could bill them. This would return everyone to their expected and intended position.

Most of us got past the finders-keepers losers-weepers mentality before we left primary school.

She knows that they can’t ask for the money back, nor take back the goods. So contacting just to tell them is pointless. If she’s going to contact them and waste employee time handling a pointless call, point out a mistake Tesco haven’t even noticed that could potentially get a driver or employee in trouble if it wasn’t completely systematic error just so she can basically feel absolved of some kind of moral wrongdoing even though it’s going to change nothing and benefit nobody, well that’s all kind of selfish and pointless.

It's likely they will realize their mistake at some point and take the .money. Occado did similar to me then out of no where £70 gone out of no where. So would I morally? Nah because they have zero morals forcing small businesses out.but I'd do it so I didn't randomly wake up to £300 missing from my account. These types of business rarely end up completely forgetting

You can't be a thief by finding if something is delivered to you. It would be making gains by deception if it were anything

umm Tesco can’t just take money out of OP’s account. If this happens to you should be livid and complain to Ocado.

Tesco had authority to take that single payment only. Once they cancelled and refunded, that transaction was closed. They don’t have an open tap into your account whenever the fuck they like. They’d need to run a new transaction.

I would tell them. If you'd told them at the time, they would almost certainly have said 'keep the perishables.' The wine, not so sure, though I once got a free bottle of fizz that was included in my delivery by mistake. I told the supermarket and they said, 'Keep it.' (And apologised!)

Tesco auditing is pretty thorough, so they may well track down where the stuff went. In these situations, I always think, 'If I get found out, would I wish I'd let them know?' The answer is always 'Yes.'

The thing is, these losses are always passed on to customers, so though it's a tiny amount in the big picture, other Tesco customers are paying for all these freebies.

Agree. The prices in there are a piss take. Enjoy your victory

They could ask for the goods back because they sent the order by mistake and it hasn’t been paid for, so OP is under an obligation to restore the goods to them.

We all ‘know’ Tesco wouldn’t pursue this but just because a person ‘gets away with something’ doesn’t make it right.

All the rest about cost of recovery, whether or not Tesco are the spawn of the Devil or not, is just froth.

Are you a priest to be able to absolve OP ? 😉

The same happened to me once with Sainsbury’s. They had cancelled it (during Covid). I went shopping the next day for the things we needed but believed we’re not coming. Then exactly a day after the original slot, it was delivered. The guy unloaded it all onto the front step before ringing the bell because of social distancing.

When I answered and explained the delivery driver was very much “not my problem, goodbye”.

I called and they told me to keep it. It had clearly been in the delivery van overnight and frozen things had defrosted and cupboard items were really cold etc. I explained this and they offered a voucher for the inconvenience! At this point I was expecting to be charged and was trying to explain we couldn’t eat all the food as I had done a shop when they originally cancelled.

I was never charged and got £12 something as a voucher. The cost was about £50 though, not £300.

You know Tesco is people. One week the lovely Tescos delivery man bought my shopping, and accidentally left me 3 items that weren’t mine.
I didn’t really notice … thought I’d added them by mistake.
Anyway , part way up the road , he realised his mistake and rang me.
I then realised they weren’t mind and was happy to hand them back to him…because I’m honest - they weren’t mine - the person who had a actually ordered them may having been having them for tea - And I didn’t want to get the driver in trouble.
I did all this because it’s the right thing to do.

I wouldn't, no. Although I would keep the money, mentally at least, to one side for a month or so, just incase Tesco come back to you. I'd think that would be unlikely though.

I'm actually in a similar situation myself. An employment agency I work for asked me to complete an hours online training, for one hours pay. Which I dutifully did.
Then the payment arrived, and they'd actually paid me for an entire day, so I'm about £120 up.
There has been another pay cycle since then, so they haven't caught the error yet, but I'm keeping quiet. I did ask a couple of relatives and close friends what I should do, and opinions varied from "I'd give it back" to "quid's in girl!"
The amount is just small enough that I figure I can plead ignorance if needs be.

TBH, I think that's a different situation.

I think everyone would just hand the items back in that situation. You'd only had them for a matter of minutes when the guy called to explain. That's an innocent human error on the part of the delivery guy, not a faceless computer mishap at head office.

Sorry, that's not a correct example. There is specific law that businesses must adhere to in the situation of your example.
Further, nothing was taken by OP.

No don't tell them it was their mistake. Food is expensive anyway 😜

Tesco do audits, they can check on the delivery van, where it travelled to and what time etc. Due to you accepting the order you are being deceptive not paying for it, therefore they could accuse you of fraud. Ring Tesco, saying you have just noticed on your banking app you haven't paid for the delivery. Don't understand why others are encouraging you to say nothing, it's theft, own up, you never know, they may waiver the bill due to your honesty.

Strangely enough if it was any other shop I would , but as I’ve been stung so many times in the past with Tesco’s incorrect pricing ( customer always loses ) then I would not tell them.

Not in a million years

Guessing you’ve already made your decision before posting this, loamy.

I was paid twice for 3 days holiday by a corporate employer that I never felt valued by. I kept quiet and, in all honesty, felt it was some sort of poetic justice.

Well there's a first for everything. Makes no difference believe it or not. If you keep it you are a thief, if you don't you are not

I wouldn't bother. They wouldn't collect the shop and they wouldn't ask for the payment as it was their mistake.

Op’s son ‘took’ the delivery into op’s house. Op had cancelled but Tesco mistakenly still delivered £300 worth of food / groceries / expensive bottles of wine.
When op noticed the money had been refunded, the right thing to do would be to notify Tescos -