12-10-2012, 01:05 PM | #1 |
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Why you should shop online at Best Buy this holiday season ...
Apparently, there are at least two recent instances where they have sent out 5 ipads to a customer who has only ordered 1. Their response was to say "keep them." But actually, according to the article and comments made underneath it, the law is that if you are sent items that you didn't order, you can consider them a gift! You have no obligation to return them.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57...ays-keep-them/ This does present a quandary in some instances. Such as if someone were in jeopardy of losing their job because of the error, or if the mistake were extremely costly to a small company struggling financially. I think only in such circumstances would I go out of my way to return the items. --Pat |
12-10-2012, 01:18 PM | #2 |
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And yet, people get so outraged when companies like Enron screw them over. These companies are run by people who don't consider doing the right thing very important. Sort of like the OP.
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12-10-2012, 01:38 PM | #3 | |
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There are different shades to the meaning of the "right thing" and circumstances are rarely ever the same. Likewise there are different shades of "screwing" over consumers and one would have to know specifically what you are referring to in order to assess Enron's culpability. If you are referring to what caused their demise, well they broke the law, plain and simple. A consumer keeping an item sent to them is not breaking the law. Apples and oranges. Especially in the case of the iPads! --Pat |
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12-10-2012, 01:45 PM | #4 |
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While it may not be breaking the law, it is still intentionally screwing over the company, and in my opinion, not the right thing to do morally. In my opinion, you are just trying to justify doing something that is wrong. If you wouldn't do it "if someone were in jeopardy of losing their job because of the error, or if the mistake were extremely costly to a small company struggling financially" in these cases, you shouldn't do it all. After all, how do you know someone won't get fired because you weren't honest enough to return something you didn't order.
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12-10-2012, 02:02 PM | #5 |
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12-10-2012, 02:06 PM | #6 |
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well, you didn't steal them if someone gave them to you.
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12-10-2012, 02:12 PM | #7 |
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If I buy something at a store and someone mistakenly hands me $100 in change instead of $20, it is highly unethical to walk out of there instead of returning the extra cash even if it was technically given to me.
I should hope that is the lesson most people would teach their children. Not "get away with whatever you can't be prosecuted for." |
12-10-2012, 02:27 PM | #8 |
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I don't see why anyone is being harsh with the two customers who received the extra iPads. They both tried contacting BB, one got no response and the other was told he didn't have 5 iPads, only one.
What are they to do, pay to ship back 4 iPads, hoping someone will know what to do with them? We all know BB customer service is incompetent, can you imagine the run-around you would get if you tried to escalate up the ladder, only to be told that there is nothing they can do? Because there never is, really. If the customers tried to contact BB and were later told, through a third party, that they can keep the iPads, then what is the problem. As for the other customer that was told he only has one, I would hold onto the items and try one last time to contact customer service before I considered them mine. I see nothing that the two customers did wrong. Well, it wasn't really the customer that wrote in first, it was the girlfriend, but still. |
12-10-2012, 02:29 PM | #9 |
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I suspect that the reason for the law favoring the recipient is to avoid companies running a scam where they send stuff then try to charge for it or pursue the recipient for not paying for return shipping. This is a "good thing". (been a victim of such an attempted scam myself -- company sent me a bunch of garbage and tried to charge me $400 for it).
I usually draw the line at where it would be worthwhile for me to go back and claim the difference if I were overcharged. If I'm overcharged a few dollars and already made it home, I let it go. So... if I'm undercharged a few dollars, I'll do the same. When it gets to be ~$2000, I'd most definitely be spending quite a bit of time trying to get my money back, so it's only fair that I spend some time trying to give it back. |
12-10-2012, 02:31 PM | #10 | |
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I don't know. But that's where judgment and common sense come in. It's up to each individual to assess the situation and do what they deem fit. Take the ipad case, for instance. If the person returns the 4 iPads would that be likely to change either the company's bottom line significantly OR someone's job if it was in jeopardy? Definitely no for the bottom line. And highly unlikely for the job situation. I personally have had negative experiences with Best Buy online ordering -- specifically, ship to store -- where the left hand didn't know what the right hand is doing. So if an employee at Best Buy is going to be fired over the incident, the person doing the firing would probably not even be aware the customer returned the iPads. At any rate, to compare a customer keeping 4 tablets sent to them by mistake to a multi-billion dollar corporation intentionally screwing over millions of people including tens of thousands of their own employees is quite a stretch. --Pat |
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12-10-2012, 02:31 PM | #11 |
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I don't think any harshness towards the people in the story is warranted. It looks like they (or someone, anyway) tried to do the right thing by contacting the company and informing its employees of the error.
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12-10-2012, 02:32 PM | #12 | |
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And yes, I have pointed out at a store that I have received too much change. I once even went back into the store to return the extra money because it didn't hit me until I was at my car that there was an error. |
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12-10-2012, 02:33 PM | #13 |
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12-10-2012, 02:35 PM | #14 | |
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12-10-2012, 02:35 PM | #15 |
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In something like this, I would use a three "strike" rule. I would do my due diligence contacting the company and if they do not respond in a positive way. They are out and I will keep the items.
Give them three chances to help correct their mistake and do right, or, it is on their heads! Because I did my job trying to correct the mistake. Last edited by DustyDisks; 12-10-2012 at 02:39 PM. |
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