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.

I’m surprised at all these replies
Doesn’t matter how you dress it up -it’s Dishonest…….. is this truely how most people feel?
I hope it’s only on here and not an example of the general public sentiment…

Take it as a gift from the universe. No, don't tell them!

Exactly the same thing happened to me. I didn’t tell them. Every little helps, right?

I’ve always believed you get back what you give out ….

That’s not how the universe works.
Dishonesty/stealing is poverty thinking.

They might catch up with you at some point.

Last year I did one of my sporadic Ocado deliveries and paid for it and it arrived. Weeks later I got some sort of email saying I owed them money which I obviously ignored thinking it was a scam because I had inputted card details and as far as I knew I’d paid, Three months later I tried another order and they said i couldn’t order until I’d paid. So my payment hadn’t gone through but they’d delivered anyway! I was so embarrassed ringing them up to sort it.

I would keep the money back for a while. During COVID times, we had to do a massive Click and Collect shop from Aldi and my dad went to pick it up and drop it at the end of our drive as we all had the virus. With one thing and another, I didn’t notice that the money hadn’t left the joint account and about 6 weeks later, I got an email to say there had been an error on their side and orders between certain dates hadn’t been charged for so they were going to take it out of my account the week after. Cue a scramble to find enough money to cover it!

Actually they did.

What Constitutes Theft by Finding?

The Theft Act 1968 defines theft as:

Dishonest Appropriation: You take possession of the property in a way that assumes the rights of the owner.

Belonging to Another: The property was not yours to begin with.

Intention to Permanently Deprive: You intend to keep the property permanently.

The definition of theft is the dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another with the intent to permanently deprive.

it’s broken down into the mens rea (guilty mind) of dishonesty and intent to permanently deprive, and the actus reus (guilty act) of appropriation.

Was there mens rea? Hard to say - potentially yes.

was there the actus reus? I’d argue no - it was delivered to OP. There were no indications, until weeks later, that there was a mistake.

That's not the same thing at all. They wouldn't be able to restock the items so they'd just go to waste.

This is crazy, it's not the op's fault or responsibility if someone gets in trouble!

Someone or something messed up and if it was a person maybe they should get in trouble, that's up to Tesco to decide, not op to take on herself.

The amount of pandering to a global multi billion pound company is staggering.

Tesco can f#ck right off. £300's nothing to them, and it's their cock up, so don't lose any sleep over it.

What are you on about? Wtf is 'poverty thinking?'

I wouldn’t say anything either.
Tesco have plenty of money, pay their staff quite poorly and bear a loy of responsibility for eroding food quality for the UK population; as a huge player in the supermarket industry there is LOADS they could do to improve this and farming etc yet they, like most, only care about their profits really. They’re lucky to have you all as customers doing such big shops. So no; I’d see it as some sort of Karma. Xx

@TammyJones at the time I thought it was just a stroke of luck. They should not have put the box in my blue bin! Sods law it was defective, so I don't feel any guilt. I tell my DS now that other people get away with stuff, breaking the law etc but we don't.

Of course you should pay it. You ordered the stuff, you presumably knew how much it was costing.

It doesn't matter if it's Tesco, however horrible and immoral you deem them to be (not that much, surely, as you ordered from them.)

It's just not something a decent person would do, so don't do it.

I don’t think I’d give it back to Tesco but I’d feel guilty so might donate the cash to the food bank.

That's not the same though, op canxelled the order. There will be evidence of the cancellation.
Usually you get charged the day of delivery. I doubt op is going to get charged over three weeks later.

A moral, decent person is allowed to be on the receiving end of a little windfall due to a technical oversight once in a while. That’s all this is. She hasn’t stolen any money. It’s was a mistake caused by Tesco. She’ll spend another £300 before the end of the month in there if she’s spending £150 on the weekly shop.

They made £3,124 million in profit for the year 24/25. I have to say if knew someone rang to pay this money back I would think they were an absolute mug.

Did you miss the bit about op cancelling the order?
It's not her fault Tesco delivered despite the legal cancellation, and her son accepted it in good faith.
This is all on Tesco.
Legally consumers have the right to cancel before the cut off time.

Oh fgs I don’t believe anyone who says they would try their best to pay the money back. Tesco made the mistake so don’t worry about it. Why would you voluntarily give back £300 you’ve saved, you would be mad.

No, of course I wouldn't tell them. Wouldn't even occur to me to do such nonsense. Enjoy!

My sentiments exactly. The pearl clutchers are ridiculous and Tesco isn't going to thank them.

No