Would you give the money back, be honest?

[Queenlivi]

I recently had a really bad experience with an online shop. It’s a long and complicated story but ordered something, I got an order confirmation and they took payment. It was quite a lot of money around £150.

I never heard anything, no dispatch notification and eventually I contacted customer services and they had no record of the order. They said it would be automatically refunded but it wasn’t. So I had to contact to them again, this time they said that the order had been delivered. Well it hadn’t.

I eventually managed to get a refund about 4 weeks later after contacting the head office, I spent a considerable amount of time chasing it up and spent hours on the phone as when you ring up you’re placed in a queue. Live chat is just an ai bot.

It was very stressful and on one occasion on I was more or less called a liar and that the order had been delivered. It turned out to be a ghost order that had never gone through due to a glitch.

About 3 weeks later again over randomly had an email saying that they are processing my refund and the money has arrived back in my bank account So now I’ve essentially been refunded twice.

Be honest, would you bother letting them know? It’s a large company, I know technically the right thing to do is let them know, but part of me thinks sod th, why should I spend another hour on the phone trying to get through they’ve messed me around enough.

This would be the most that I would do, tbh.

Years ago we had a large order with ELC. It didn’t turn up. I contacted them, they apologised, said it was on its way - nothing. The order was for just shy of £200 and this was around 17 years ago. Called them again and explained we were due to go on holiday at the end up the week (it should have been with us the week before so we’d left plenty of time). They apologised and asked if we’d like it sending to a different address as we had advised them there was nowhere safe to leave it at our property and we lived in a very dodgy area. It was also October with terrible weather. So gave them my parents address.

Mum and dad let me know a few days into the holiday that the parcel had arrived - great news. We got home from our holiday and found 2 huge boxes sitting on our driveway. Turns out they sent the full order to BOTH addresses but only charged us once.

So I called them again, explained it, they apologised and said they would arrange a collection. Took a day off work for the date they gave (couldn’t WFH back then) - no-one showed up. Called them again, another apology, new collection arrangement … can you see where this is going?

Anyway, the third attempt I told them I couldn’t take more time off work so asked if they could collect from my parents instead. Arranged the collection date, still didn’t show up.

By this point I had spent hours on phone calls and emails to them and I’d had enough. I decided I’d tried my best to get their stuff back to them, they’d made the mistake in the first place, they’d messed me around despite me having paid for fast shipping, i had had to use up annual leave to stay off work… enough was enough. We kept the parcel, some of the duplicates meant both of our sons had 1 each of some cool toys and I have no shame in admitting I sold a couple of items on eBay. It meant our boys got a nicer Xmas than they would have had as things were tight (our holiday was a term time caravan holiday in Blackpool for 4 nights in the middle of October as that was all we could afford that year)

So in my experience, big companies are terrible when things go wrong because their processes simply don’t know how to deal with it. I would imagine if you call them you’ll spend hours on the phone etc then and they still won’t get it back. I think send an email to cover you, put the money in the highest interest account you have and wait to see if they contact you to get it back.

Nope I wouldn’t be contacting them.

It's best to be honest. You will feel better for it, albeit £150 poorer.
What goes around comes around. Sorry x

I’d send an email, and hope that nobody does anything with the information. That way, I’ve been honest, and if there’s any issues 6 months down the road there’s evidence of that fact.

I wouldn't give it back but I would give £50 of it to charity

Nope!

Send a very long email detailing the whole scenario from start to finish,and somewhere in there mention, briefly, the double refund and then leave it at that. Don't mention the double refund in the subject matter.

I was refunded twice by ebay , £1200, I rand customer services 3 times but every time I mentioned "refund" they just read the standard "how to get a refund from your seller" script to me.

I eventually got though to head office who refused to either give me their address ( send a cheque) or their bank details ( so I could do a direct bank transfer) so I gave up and kept the money .

I would contact them once by email and then it is up to them to follow up. I would actually state in the email that it is the only time that you will be contacting them about this matter and it is now up to them to resolve it. Covers you.

After they way you were treated I wouldn't spend it, but I wouldn't contact them either.
Let them come looking for it.

Yes. One email and their choice to act on it or ignore it. Or one message on live chat if no email address available, then end thr chat.

I agree with others, I would send one email, and then if they don’t reply at least you’ve done your bit and it’s their fault if they don’t then do anything about it

Honestly, I would try and send it back but I’d be pissed off with myself for it 😅. I’d send an email and see what happens.
I think if I didn’t hear anything back then I’d keep the money. (I wouldn’t spend it though as they reclaim it at some point)

This is what I affectionately call ‘c**t tax’ and no I wouldn’t be giving them it back unless they ask specifically for it.

Nah, I wouldn't.

I had something similar when I ordered an item through a well-known department store, and got charged once, but two items were sent. I sent one item back, but the form I completed for returns didn't have a space for this and although I wrote on it, the note quite clearly didn't get read, so they just refunded me! I tried their customer services no. but it had been outsourced abroad and the women I was speaking to just didn't understand. So, I salved my conscience by giving the equivalent amount of money to a couple of local charities!

I eould inform them via e mail what had happened. They can then contact u to arrange their refund

I’d email or chat bot and say you’ve received an additional refund payment, you assume it’s goodwill due to your considerable inconvenience but if there has been an error please contact you within 5 working days.

I'd put the extra I received somewhere safe for a while, seperate to my regular accounts. Keep quiet and wait and see if they try to re-claim it, after about 6 months i'd consider spending it then.

I had a similar situation and I kept the money. Their customer service was so awful, I wasn’t going through the whole rigmarole again. If they ever come calling they can have it back.

Fuck ‘em.

Ageee with PP. Send them an email. Leave it at that

I’d be making every effort to send it back as it’s theft!

Agree with others, let them know via email - then you have covered yourself. Keep a copy of the email. It's not up to you to then chase them to recover it.

This. Ping a message to their chat bot, screen shot it so you can prove you got in contact. Done. With how incompetent they sound they'd probably get the wrong end of the stick and try and take both payments back!