To return or not to return??

[Fuddly24]

I ordered one item from a well known online fashion retailer. It arrived yesterday and as well as the one item they have also sent a pair of jeans, 5 tops and a pair of earrings.

DSs are saying to keep, its the retailers fault but I feel uncomfortable doing this and think I should contact them. Items are not my style so could gift/sell.

What would you do?
AIBU - RETURN
AINBU - KEEP

Thanks and Merry Christmas

I’d tell them.

TBH they will probably tell you to keep it - I think everything I’ve ever been sent in error I have just been told to keep.

If there is no documentation for the additional items, trying to return will get painful! Gone are the days when we can ring up and speak to a helpful hooman!

I've just used their chatbot and it said to go to returns on my account but that's only showing the item I actually ordered. Its frustrating as I want to do the right thing but its proving difficult!

youve tried - keep them.
dont feel guilty. I wouldn’t do it if it was a small biz or if there was a way to actually speak to someone. But 🤷‍♀️

You tried, their fault they've cut corners by using chatbots instead of employing people. Their mistake shouldn't be your inconvenience. Keep or donate to charity if you feel bad

As you've tried I'd just keep now. If they make it impossible to speak to someone it's not your fault.

Donate to charity.

Return is proving awkward; you have tried.

I'd do as others say and donate the things to charity.

I think that sets a good example to your DSs.

If it's a well known fashion retailer honestly they're not going to miss it and they're not going to miss out on a little bit of money missing from their multi million company. If it was a small company I'd deffo take back and right it. If the order belongs to someone else it'd have been flagged by now that it's not been received and honestly the hassle of trying to return something you haven't got invoiced will be more pain than it's worth. They've caused the inconvenience you shouldn't be the one to deal with their inconvenience. They are unaware so therefore I'd keep it that way and I'd keep and resell or donate!

Keep them, more hassle for them too

Just keep them.

A lot of returns don't ever get resold anyway. Fast fashion retailers sometimes just send returns to landfill unopened.

I'd contact them via email to explain the situation, then await their response.

This is the advice from Saga and Citizen's advice.
https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/life/can-i-keep-goods-delivered-to-me-by-mistake?srsltid=AfmBOoqX2nEDqaCzuLPKab_uVa0DuZL2rD9FIsLC-ohebGRSBGWI99UA

I ordered some large canvas prints and another order came with mine, I messaged them and they sent a returns label but I had to haul the blooming thing all the way to the post office on a bus, it was massive, I was not impressed and probably wouldn’t do it again.

I received two parcels on the same day from a popular fashion brand, one of which wasn't for me but had my name and address on. No order slip inside.

It crossed my mind to sell on Vinted (not my size) but felt morally wrong so gave half to a friend and half to my mum.

They haven't made it easy to return, so I'd keep them.
However, I'd hang on to them for a while in case they decide they want them back.

The right thing to do is to contact them and explain. But I very much suspect it will
lead to an absolute ballache involving them not understanding and not helping you to send the items back (with a pre paid label, eg).

You probably should still try though!

I’ve had this twice in the last two years, both times have emailed customer services and received a lovely reply thanking me for my honesty and telling me to keep the goods. One retailer even sent me a voucher code for money off my next purchase!
If they don’t publish an email address then there’s nothing else you can do really, you’ve tried to get in touch and do the right thing

I would have asked the company to arrange the return for Royal Mail to collect the item from my house because of the inconvenience of the size/weight and needing to use public transport. It is a service Royal Mail provide and if the company wanted the item back enough they would of arranged it

I bet someone had ordered the same item as you along with all the other items and some how they've mixed the orders up....Will probably be difficult to return without the other items on an order / return slip. You'd probably only be able to sort this by actually speaking with a human which is very difficult these days. If I had to go to a lot of trouble to return them I wouldn't bother.

This happened to me with White Company, I just kept it, they'd had well documented order system nightmares and I honestly thought their customer services at this time of year will be MAD busy, dealing with missing items, slow delivery, parcel issues etc. The last thing the actual staff need is trying to deal with this when youre actually quite happy, theyve got all the complainers to sort out too. It won't be of much value if it's a large corporation like an H and M or an M and S. If it's a small company, that's different, because it does has big value to someone, but if they can afford a rubbish ai chatbot, they can afford some mismatched ordering. Don't burden the poor customer services team with more work when they want to escape for Christmas. I'd see it as a kindness not to report some minimum wage paid packer in a warehouse and not to add to the queue of calls in the CS teams offices.

This was a large retailer, if it was a small independent I would 100% return but I guess the process would be easier.

To ease my conscience I'm going to try to contact them again tomorrow. If no joy I have decided on one if 2 options.

1/ donate to charity shop

2/ sell and donate all money earnt to MIND a charity very close to my family's heart.

Thank you for all your comments, much appreciated x

I had similar a few years ago. Ordered school uniform and when it arrived there were also a couple of dresses with tags for nearly £100 each on them. Got in touch and explained what had happened and they said they had no record of sending anything other than the uniform so were unable to accept the dresses back!?! I exchanged them in store for a coat that I wanted 🫣🫣🫣. I figured that as I’d tried to do the right thing and return them and they wouldn’t accept then I’d make the most of the situation 😂

I'm in the same situation. Two parcels turned up both with my order number, name and address. One parcel had the items I ordered and the other 2 pairs of jeans and a top. I can't do a return through my account as I never ordered them. I've tried contacting the company through their WhatsApp chat and it took ages to explain and then they just stopped responding to me!
I don't really know what to do now either.

I would email them and would tell them the goods are at your house ready for their courier to collect, especially if it was big and heavy. You've done your bit then.
Thinking about it I had a dispute with a company because an item was not as described. They told me to return it, at my expense. Credit card company advised me to tell the business to send their courier to collect it. I never heard from them again.
I certainly wouldn't be hauling something heavy on the bus to return it because of their mistake like a pp did.