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 is what I would do.

Nope I would keep quiet 🤫

Not a chance would I waste my time pointing out the mistake of someone that had accused me of lying.

Gotta love the retail experience...

Send them an email and tell them that you're prepared to offer them a credit voucher, redeemable by them anytime they need to refund you in the future.

Point out that the small print on the voucher you're printing indicates that it must be redeemed within the next 24 months.

Don't forget to give them a number they can call to discuss if necessary, but do make sure it always responds with a recorded message of "Your call is important to us, please hold, you are number 128 in the queue, we are experiencing unprecedented call levels, you may want to hang up and call back later".

No. They treated you dreadfully. I would consider it compensation.

I would give them it back if they called me, requested it and listened to terrible music for 45 minutes before I replied.

Nah, they fucked you around, so you can now fuck them over! lol

Nope! About 17 years I ordered a tv on Amazon. Signed up to prime for the first time also to get it next day. This was a £1000 tv. I had just bought my first home and I had nothing but a small sofa in my living room and this tv. Tv turned up broken. Complained to Amazon. And to be fair to them they handled it well. But it was a lot of effort and I was mainly complaining that I paid for prime specifically for next day delivery as I had nothing else in my house and wanted to watch tv straight away. I was passed through to so many people and we discussed refunding me for the prime. And getting a new tv sent out. I got the new tv delivered. Then a little while later a refund… for the tv. I kept it in my bank for a good few months before I dared to spend it! Nothing ever came of it. I was definitely not going to tell them either. Randomly a very similar thing happened when that tv broke about 10 years later. I ordered a new tv, remote didn’t work on it. Phoned up. They realised they had sent out the wrong remote (after getting me to do troubleshooting) and discovered the remote I needed was out of stock and they couldn’t send me a new one. They said they would exchange the tv and send me a replacement. I said I didn’t really want that tv company anymore as they obviously don’t package things well if wrong remote, which they agreed with. They upgraded me a better tv for no extra charge. New tv delivered but no mention of taking old tv away. I waited again for a couple of months. Left it in my garage. Still had original box etc. ended up buying the correct remote and selling it on for nearly what I paid for it. Only time that kind of luck has really struck me and both happened to be with TVs! Not both Amazon the I think one was AO or something?

You need to try to return it - sorry. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/62/section/2/data.xht?view=snippet&wrap=true

@Queenlivi they have 6 years to chase you for it legally so put it in a high interest savings account for 6 years and if they don't ask for it, its all yours. If they do then at least you made some interest in it and can play dumb and say you didn't realise...

I'm a lawyer so due to 1) this being legally the correct thing and 2) the risk not being worth my career I would attempt to repay. I've been in a similar situation (I was refunded and then an expensive item was delivered). What I would do (and did) is contact them once: I'd clearly explain the situation (including all the hassle and difficulty so far) and state that you are willing to pay the duplicate amount back but they need to make this easy - either they send you a payment link, bank details or they give you a call and take details over the phone. Then the ball is in their court. I wouldn't chase them.

No, you gave them money but they didn't send the item and weren't able to sort it swiftly or politely, showing their incompetence. You then get two refunds, again showing their inadequacies, after causing you a lot of trouble. Let them get their act together and chase you for it, though they probably won't.

I once ordered a game for my child and they sent me two (not worth £150 though but it wasn't cheap). When I explained and tried to return it they were very surprised and told me to keep it even when I protested that I didn't need two versions of the same game.

Also a company this inefficient must be used to undelivered goods and repeated refunds etc. It's like the big supermarkets making allowances for shoplifting. No one expects to account for every penny. If it was a sole trader, that would be different. I can't believe so many pp would really feel 'guilty' for a mistake NOT OF THEIR OWN MAKING.

Ahh, you didn’t notice the extra money going in you say ;)

I would email them with a deadline saying if you dont hear back within x weeks its going to charity. Keep the record of doing so

I would keep it. Think of it as the cost of your time spent dealing with their utter incompetence.

If it was a big company, no I wouldn't contact them. I'd give it back straight away if asked, but otherwise no.

I once got sent an expensive playstation game from Amazon that I hadn't ordered actually, and I did tell them, and they told me to keep it. I didn't have any use for it, but just sharing as often it's more hassle in admin for them to reverse these things.

Absolutely not. Of course not. It's payment for your time and effort, wasted hours they forced upon you. Your time matters just as much as theirs.

I wouldn't tell them. But I'm hardly a moral compass in these situations.

A few years ago when I remortgaged the bank must have owed me $1,700 for something with the settlement, which they sent - twice.

They did send an email asking for the second payment back, but I never sent it and never heard anything else.

I would let them know and ask for the best way to return it. It’s not mine and I am not entitled to it just because they stressed me out to get my refund.

Nope!

More fool you

I’d keep it 100%. It was a much smaller amount but it happened to me once before and I didn’t even think twice.

I had a similar thing with a subscription item which I’d cancelled and received confirmation of, but the next month they charged me so I emailed to tell so they could stop
delivery and refund me. They still sent the item regardless but accepted it was their error and refunded me and asked me to send the item back. After many emails about payment for postage and delivery address etc they told me to keep the item.