Refund Given but now order has been delivered.

[Windmillsofmybehind]

I bought a Christmas pressie worth £300 from a well enough known, large company. The tracking had just stalled, nothing after dispatch and after about 11 days I contacted them which was really difficult because it was like trying to get in contact with the pope.

Anyway, they said that the courier had lost the parcel and issued me a refund. The next day the item appeared and the tracking was updated to say delivered. At this time (last Friday) my refund had not come through my bank. It came through last night. Please also note that on their Facebook page there were a lot of people complaining about missing orders.

My question is this. I had an idea to donate the £300 to a local food bank charity since I now have the product AND the money. The company will not miss it and the charity would be delighted.

Then the other half of my brain is saying...this is theft, contact the company ASAP and tell them the order was delivered. They will know anyway because tracking has been updated and they will come looking for you Robin Hood!

Help me out here.

YABU... That money is not yours or the food banks, do the right thing and give it back

YANBU.... The food bank will definitely benefit from it and the company will not cop it and send the police to your door.

Thanks in advance.

I would contact them and let them know.

You need to tell them. They could claim back the money at any point.

The company may well take the money out of your account.

I wouldn't spend it at all.

You can only really give the £300 to the food bank if you're prepared to spend £300 of your own money refunding the company if they request a refund now that the item has been delivered

You get in touch with the company and invite them to collect the item at their expense.

Of course you need to let them know! £300 is a significant amount of money, I doubt very much they’re going to let you keep it.

It would not even occurred to me to keep it, I would contact them asap.

Tricky one. Your morals are in the right place imho. Can you put the money aside for say 6 months then donate if the corporate company doesn’t chase you on it?

Just contact them to say it's arrived and see what they say? Surely?

I agree with this plan

£300 is expensive enough that the company could take legal action (Amazon’s threshold, for example is £100) if the delivery company disputes within 30 days and says they delivered it. Not worth it. Just call the company you ordered from, tell them what happened, and ask them what you should do. If they tell you to keep the item then get it in writing.

Come on, you know the answer. They aren’t giving you a free gift. You need to tell them the item arrived and either return it or pay for it.

You should contact them and let them know because there is a chance they will realise that its been delivered and try to get the money back from you at some point in the future.

You want to donate £300 of someone else's money to charity? Ok...

Yes it is theft, there is no other word for it. The amount of times people on here say that 'companies won't miss it' and then complain when prices go up or companies go bust.

I’d inform the company the item has now arrived and they will need to arrange for it to be collected. I would give them a short list of dates and time windows that you are available for a currier to collect it. I wouldn’t be available to take the item to the post office or pay for its return myself. I don’t think I’d assume I could keen the refund and the item unless they explicitly said so.

What you are suggesting is theft and you are just trying to make it sound like you are doing good , YABVU

I had this happen with a smaller amount of money. I ended up with two pairs of £200 dungarees as the first pair turned up after having been assumed lost. I don't think of myself as wildly rule following but it didn't really occur to me to keep the extra pair. I just sent it back.

Edited to add - the charity angle is a complete red herring in my view. If you decide to keep the money then how you chose to spend it makes no difference.

Ok, Thank you, I know in my head it was wrong. I am going to contact them now and ask them to take the money back.

Stupid idea I suppose which was why I grappled with it and asked for opinions.

Thanks for setting my head straight.

I don't think you're a bad person at all for thinking about it!

the charity angle is a complete red herring in my view. If you decide to keep the money then how you chose to spend it makes no difference

You are absolutely right. Thank you for that.

This^ or refund them £300 back.

I contacted them which was really difficult because it was like trying to get in contact with the pope.

Right well the obvious thing would be to get in touch and let them know but given the above if it's costing me yet more time and money to do so after they've fucked up again - not so sure in RL I would or that most posters would.

I might give it an e-mail - something I could write at time convenient to me and taking less than 5 minutes - but if it's endless back and forth or phone calls on hold - I wouldn't likely bother really.

So if you really can't get in touch easily I'd wait - put the money aside and see if they get in touch. I'd honestly would expect they will be for £300 - but I'd give it some considerable time.

Keep schtum

Thank you, I FELT like a bad person, was awake all night thinking about it BUT when I see it all here in black and white it cements the fact that I was wrong. I would taking money that is not mine to give to charity that in turn would make me feel like I was doing something good.
Answer me better to give of my OWN money (albeit a lot less) to the same charity. That is giving. Anything else is stealing.

I feel like an absolute arsehole to have contemplated it.

I'd let the company know - I had something similar happen with Amazon and they said they'd pick it up and then it just stayed in my hallway for months as they didn't bother... and then I gave it to someone I know.