Poll: Moral Dilemma...

[thermionic]

Hi,

About 3-4 months back I ordered some goods from a family-owned manufacturer of boutique audio components. The order, including delivery to the UK came to $14O USD. The goods arrived after a couple of weeks and were fine.

Last week, out of the blue, I received a customs demand for approx $45 USD for a mystery parcel from the US… Not knowing what it was, I paid the fee with trepidation and waited for parcel to arrive. As many will tell you, Parcel Farce didn’t earn their name for nothing. A week passed and no package. PF then told me that, even though they’d charged me their ripoff customs handling charge + import duty, they’d lost the parcel… I was preparing to take them to Small Claims Court just to get the import fee back, not knowing whether the parcel that’d gone missing was worth a dollar or a thousand…

Whilst preparing to file my online claim, my door went and the parcel arrived…

It turns out that the aforementioned firm have sent me the goods twice, 3 months down the line in the second case…whilst only billing me once.

Which option would you take, bearing in mind we’re not talking about Harman Audio or Apple Computer here?

a) STFU. Their internal communication should be better, and I’ve paid $45 for something I never ordered anyway.

b) Call the firm, tell them it feels dishonest accepting $100 USD’s worth of goods for free, even though I paid $45 to get it, and see what they say?

What say you?

Justin

edit - please note I'm having a bit of fun posting this question. I know which way I intend to jump.

 

[rodabod]

Come clean, but get your $45 or whatever back somehow. Don't cut yourself short.

 

[Gustav]

Tell them.
They will tell you to just keep the goods.

oh, and Fuck dolphins!

Gustav

 

[thermionic]

Don't just post your opinion. We need hard votes here.

Reading the comments will appear one-sided. Who's gonna be honest, come out and say 'screw them, keep the goods and STFU'? Once you read someone say this, you won't be trading much with them, will you?

Just vote anonymously, guys. Be honest.

J

 

[thermionic]

BTW - The only reason I haven't contacted the firm yet is that it occurred to me, with the goods coming from another guy from who sent the 1st batch, it could get him in trouble...

It would be 'bad karma' for me to say nothing, but then again, it could land someone in trouble for giving away company goods... That said, I guess most of you will say that me keeping schtoom is more morally wrong than landing an employee in trouble, bearing in mind he f*cked up.

J

 

[thermionic]

Oh yeah - I'm not saying which firm it is, but I will give a slight hint: CJ would be sore-tempted to vote option (a)

 

[radiance]

Running an online store myself (well my wife runs it, I only help) I chose for the option : tell them..

Give them the choice to either:

.. transfer both $45 + return shipping costs & handling to your account after which you return the package

or...

tell you to keep the goods since the $45 + shipping costs are probably more than what the goods cost to them.

99% sure they'll go for the second option....

 

[jdbakker]

Who's gonna be honest, come out and say 'screw them, keep the goods and STFU'?

I was tempted to do just that a few years back. Different circumstances, of course.

I needed a small, portable digital recorder for location work. with more capacity than the ubiquitous DAT recorders. For various reasons the best fit at the time was the Nomad Jukebox, a hard drive mp3 player with the ability to record uncompressed digital audio. I found one at a reasonable price in an online store linked from the Nomad user forum. So I ordered it, and waited.

And waited.

After three weeks of not even receiving an order confirmation I started e-mailing their sales department. No reply. I mailed their alternate customer service address, mail bounced. I googled, found little information. Got the phone number for the domain's administrative contact from the WHOIS database, called a few times at timezone-appropriate times and always got a Spanish-sounding answering machine. Oh shit.

At this point five weeks had passed, and I feared that (at best) my money had gone to a defunct store for which the web frontend was left active for some reason. I decided to start a PayPal claim. The very next day I received an e-mail from someone claiming to be the owner of the store, saying that there had been a mix-up in their East-European warehouse and that he would send me an unit by express mail, if I could only cancel my PayPal claim first. So I called PayPal, where they explained me that (a) once the seller could show them proof of shipment the claim could be resolved and (b) if I were to cancel this claim I could never re-start the claims procedure for this transaction. I decided to stick to the PP procedure, and after a week I received notification that the seller never got back to them and my money was refunded.

A week later a deliveryman appeared at my door, carrying what could only be ... a Nomad Jukebox. Apparently the warehouse confusion was even larger than first assumed. I was briefly tempted to take the Jukebox and, as you put it, STFU, but in the end I simply declined to accept the shipment and had it Return To Sender.

JD 'never attribute to malice what can be sufficiently explained as stupidity' B.

 

[okgb]

I agree with the " let them know "
paying your customs & return post
may not be worth it to them
[ as long as you get your fee back FIRST  ]
but at least they'll know and you may save them money
not letting it happen again

Could try calling and asking to speak with someone responsable for
orders and see if you can save THEM the spanking

Hey Gustav , they're far too slippery and move waay too much
what are you talking about

 

[Nele]

let 'm know. they'll probably let you keep the stuff.

I ordered some books form amazon a while ago and one was damaged. I mailed them them about it and they asked me to return the book and they would send me a new one. A few hours later I got an email saying that given the fact that I was in The Netherlands shipping would be higher than the cost of the book so they told me to keep the book an just sent me a new one.
Not an entirely similar situation, but good service nonetheless..

 

[JohnRoberts]

This one is easy...  If it was your business, how would you want your customer to act...?

Discuss with yourself... It doesn't much matter what we think.

Legally you are not obligated to do anything, but it's always nice to be nice...

While Karma is not instant I believe balance is all matters is good.

JR

 

[thermionic]

Here's the response from the OEM:

Hi Justin,

Please keep the transformers as a gift for the inconvenience that we have caused you.

Merry Christmas.

Well, you can't say fairer than that, can you?  

4 dirty dogs voted for option (a)... Tsk!


Justin

 

[desol]

This one is easy...  If it was your business, how would you want your customer to act...?

Discuss with yourself... It doesn't much matter what we think.

Legally you are not obligated to do anything, but it's always nice to be nice...

While Karma is not instant I believe balance is all matters is good.

JR

 

[MartyMart]

I know a band who had a studio and opened a bank account for it, it had about £300 in.
One day a few weeks later they got a statement that said over £20,000 was in the account !!

So, they simply waited a few months .... nothing happened, money was still in  

Then they started spending it  !!

That NEVER happens to me :-(

MM.

 

[skipwave]

We've all been there before. It's the old "Found a $20 bill on the sidewalk" dilemma. The crux of the outcome is whether you saw who it was that dropped it. In this case you did, and you offer it back to them.

This type of humanistic concern for shared welfare/common good is all that keeps us from degenerating into anarchy. And governments, though they often create more anarchy than they prevent. They... they.... they... <shaking head dejectedly>

Remember that scene from "Edward Scissorhands" at the dinner table? 

 

[sahib]

Tell your supplier the truth. Deduct your $45 and refund the rest.

In two occassions I was paid over £10,000 twice. My clients are multi national and the projects were in 100s of millions of pounds. It was unlikely that they would detect it as each payment had the invoice against it. Even though the duplicate copy, as far as the accounts were concerned nothing would flag up. In both occassions I refunded as soon as I was aware.

 

[kambo]

oh, and Fuck dolphins!

Gustav

is this a joke ?

 

[Mbira]

Of course you should tell them.  

And of course, if they want them back, they need to pay the shipping and your fee.  I'd bet you money (if I had any to spare) that they will tell you to keep the goods.  Think about it: if they charge you $100 that means it costs them $50 at most.  They would lose money to ship them back, and they minds well eat the cost and make you happy...

Let us know what they say.


EDIT: just read the whole thread.  cool  enjoy

 

[Gustav]

oh, and Fuck dolphins!

Gustav

is this a joke ?

Yes, sorry. I was watching South Park.

Gustav

 

[kambo]