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.

I wouldn’t even send an email, tell the AI bot and leave it to chase you

I was going to say the same.

However, I have had refunds twice when I shouldn't have, and both times I called. I called instead of email because it was easier to explain in person, than type in a message.

One time they took the payment back again. The other, they told ne thanks for being honest, don't worry ( personally I think that was because it was an unusual situation and I don't think they knew how to rectify it!🙂)

You could email

Incompetence tax

I would put it to one side in case they ask for it back, so I would leave the ball in their court. Under normal circumstances I would call immediately, but if a company gives you the runaround and makes communication an uphill struggle then they have themselves to blame if people don’t want to go through the rigmarole again.

I….. would not tell them to be honest 😬

if I hadn’t received such awful customer service from them I would.

Me too. I got a ridiculous bill from a utility company once (more than the maximum for a year for a one-month period - it wouldn't even have been legal to charge me that much).

I spent months fighting it. I gave a pre-court hearing statement. Someone FINALLY picked up on the mistake before it reached court.

Further down the line, I got a cheque refunding me the disputed amount. Only I'd never paid it. I banked it without a moment's guilt.

I wouldn't say a word, call it compensation for the stress of it all.

I am currently having a nightmare with an only company so feel they deserve what they get if they are that unhelpful.

I brought something online, asked to return it, they took a week to advise the return address as nothing in the box, they evaded the question over and over. Now they are saying they haven't received the item even though I have a signature and pictures of delivery, now they are ignoring me completely and I have had to do a credit card charge back request and still awaiting the outcome of that.

It isn't the same though. Shoplifting is deliberate theft; it takes a conscious action. OP has been given something the company didn't intend to give her. The action was theirs, not hers. She can't steal something if someone gave it to you.

would regard it as payment for my wasted time and say nothing. I would not feel guilty.

I'd give the money to charity.

I would absolutely keep the money! see it as compensation for the hassle they have caused you.

Nope, I wouldn't. A huge chaotic company did something similar last year and I kept it with delight. Same shit systems that stressed you out is why you got the cash. It's on them.

I think I would email as I'd want to be the bigger person.

However, my email would say that I'm willing to refund as a gesture of goodwill but acceptance would mean no further correspondence would be entered into and that the refund may take up to 6 months to process.

Then "forget" all about it.

Absolutely not and I would not feel guilty about it. If it was a small company who had been nice to me then I would definitely try to get the money back to them.

Don’t bother, just keep it for a while and if they ask, pay it back. If they later accuse you, use their excuse and say you contacted them about it and it must have been a ‘ghost’ email. I had this with a large company, they made multiple errors, but after about 6 months they did realise and request the duplicate refund back so I sent it.

I did a shop in a supermarket and wanted to pay part cash/part card. (e.g. I paid £45 on card and owed £35 in cash) The cashier ended up freezing the till so I had to be moved to another till, waited 15 minutes for the manager to arrive only to be taken to another till where the cashier rudely said “go back to the other till”. Told them I was told to come to them, I was finally able to explain how much I owed AND they were given a printed receipt from the 1st till but instead they refunded me the £45. Didn’t realise until I got home. Did I go back and tell them? Absolutely not.

I'd feel much better by giving the money back. Assuming I didn't badly need that extra money, I'd give it back.

legally, it’s theirs and they can ask for it back. So I wouldn’t spend it just yet. But keep it to one side and keep it quiet - I would wait 6 months.

Fuck no that’s Devine intervention. Enjoy your money.

No I wouldn’t bother after the way they’ve messed about

I'd keep it.

My thoughts exactly

I'd probably contact them to let them know, but I wouldn't ring them about it.

If you're ever trying to sort something out and want to deal with a human being instead of an AI chatbot, type "agent" in the chat and you'll be connected to a real person instead.

Bet they'd be quick at processing this though!
I wonder if they will realise their mistake and ask for it back anyway!