posted on December 7, 2000 09:09:11 AM
I recently (about 2 months ago) received a $500+ M.O. from an eBay user who bough several of my items, paying via one of the companies that charges your CC and sends the seller a M.O.
About 4 days later I received an identical M.O. from the same company.
I deposited both M.O.'s on my account, knowingly that If the customer and/or the company contacted me about the screw-up, I was to make out a check inmediately.
But the customer hasn't contacted me (obviouisly the company did not double charged his/her CC), and neither does the company, for about 2 months.
posted on December 7, 2000 09:36:46 AM
hmmmmm.....you know you're going to have to return it when and if they find their mistake, so you really can't spend it. I suppose that you could put it in an account and draw interest until they ask for it back. The interest would be yours to keep.
Too bad you can't list the name of the company here. I'd like to recommend it to my customers.
posted on December 7, 2000 10:20:32 AM
They may discover it and then again they may not. I guess it all depends on whether you can sleep at night.
I know if it was me I would return it as I would live in fear that my truck would break down or my cat would be run over or my house would burn. But that's just me.
posted on December 7, 2000 10:37:57 AM
Speaking of which, I ordered a CD from Amazon two months ago. They sent it when it was released in November.
Yesterday I get an email from them saying they are sending it.... again.... But they have no record of that first shipment in November, and have not charged my card.
Is Amazon double-shipping all their orders?
No wonder they aren't making any money.
"My possessions are causing me suspicion." - Neil Finn
posted on December 7, 2000 10:49:40 AM
I would have sent the original MO back and not kept it at all.
If I had deposited it before I realized it was a duplicate, I would have contacted the company to find out what their proceedure would be for returning the funds.
posted on December 7, 2000 11:14:03 AM
It depends who you voted for, Bush or Gore. On the serious side, I would get in contact with the company and tell them about their mistake. They may want the money back and they may not.
posted on December 7, 2000 11:43:01 AM
You must be related to the woman who had all that money deposited erroneously into her bank account and did not report it because she said she thought she won the lottery. Pulease!!!
I think you were highly unethical and dishonest to keep the money order. I would have contacted the company immediately upon receiving the duplicate.
posted on December 7, 2000 12:01:19 PMI think you were highly unethical and dishonest to keep the money order.
I receive dozens of payments on a daily basis.
Mi wife opens the envelopes, goes to the bank and makes the deposit. When I arrive home on the evening, I check on the envelopes and mark of the auctions whose those payments were for. On this routine, It was obviously too late when I found out about it.
On my original post, I stated: "knowingly that If the customer and/or the company contacted me about the screw-up, I was to make out a check inmediately"
kidsfeet, you should learn more about the facs, before making those kind of harsh judgements.
posted on December 7, 2000 02:28:50 PM
Free money?
Upon discovery of duplicate m.o. issuance, I would have returned the money immediately too. Regardless of how much the m.o. was for, it's best to handle the situation by returning it to its rightful owner. That way, it's not on your conscience either .... and a nice feeling to know the right thing has been done.
posted on December 7, 2000 08:52:24 PM
If it were me, I would contact the buyer, and tell him of this mistake. I would definetly return it, even if he told me to keep it, but that is just me!
Good luck,
Kelly
posted on December 7, 2000 09:33:35 PM
Hi, I would return the money. I guess I would want someone to do that for me if I was the other party, even if it ends up being a corporation. Someone has to pay. I guess it is good karma (just my opinion).
posted on December 7, 2000 10:13:16 PM
I think there must be a lot of goody-two-shoes out there. Clearly the mistake does not fall on this man, and he holds no liability. I would draw interest on it, until they asked for it back, if they even did. I've worked for a lot of corporate offices, and my guess would be that they'd never even notice it. It's not dishonest, it's simply in his best business interest.
posted on December 7, 2000 10:53:29 PM
What you do when no one is watching,
That's who you are.
--------------
Don't take life so serious, it ain't nohow permanent.
posted on December 8, 2000 05:35:44 AM
Yes, it was a harsh judgement, BUT you indicated that you realized it was a double payment, and yet did not contact the issuer of the money order, or the buyer. I STILL feel that is highly unethical and dishonest. Hell, I've walked back into a store to return $1.00 too much in change. I don't consider it free money. When one of my suppliers sent me one to many of a $25.00 wholesale item, I immediately contacted them to inform them of the mistake and sent out a check. Another supplier of mine accidentally sent a duplicate of a $500.00 order without charging me. Did I thank the bad accounting gods and consider it a gift? No, I contacted them THAT DAY to inform them of the mistake, and opted to keep the delivery and paid for it that day. That does not make me perfect, but I can sleep at night, and know that when I teach my children honesty and integrity, they have a good example to follow. They can do as I do, not just as I say.
posted on December 8, 2000 07:22:31 AM
If the service figures it out and wants to, they can charge you with fraud for knowingly depositing a payment that was not yours. Whether or not they can prove it is another matter. The people who spend their suddenly-larger bank accounts are usually hauled into court, where, if they aren't convicted of anything, are made miserable for a while. Do the honest thing and return the money. You are not even entitled to earn interest on it while they figure out their mistake. Am I naive, or does this seem like a no-brainer, folks?
posted on December 8, 2000 07:56:00 AM
I had something like this happen before. I contacted the company and told them what happened. The insisted that this was not possible, and isinuated that I was too stupid to realize that I had not actually received 2 payments. One must have been a receipt or something.
posted on December 8, 2000 08:23:25 AM
I had something similar happen to me a few times. I ordered two digital cameras from a site, had my CC charged and the cameras never showed up. Two months later, they were still giving me grief, so I threatened a charge back and they credited me. Four months after that, the cameras suddenly showed up. By then I didnt want them, so I called to arrange a return. They argued with me and told me all sales final - no returns. Since the box came with no paperwork at all, I demanded a copy of the order form. They emailed me the order form but it had a recent date on it, as if I had just ordered it. There was also no price showing on the form. I decided to wait until the charge showed up on my CC. It never did! I decided to follow their policy: all sales final - no returns.
Another company I dealt with merged with a second company and started screwing up all my orders. They charged me shipping for items that they had advertised free shipping. When I complained, they said it wasnt shipping, it was handling. But there was no handling charge on their site. They held up an order of mine for 4 months while emailing me weekly saying "your item has been shipped." Then I cancelled the order and a month later it shows up (and I was charged for it). Rather than do a charge back and send it back at my expense, I sold it at cost. They sent one of my orders to a completely wrong address in another state and then tried to tell me that as long as they had proof of shipping, I had to pay for it even though it didn't go to me. I stopped dealing with them. About a month or two later, they sent two laser printers to me with no explanation and no charge. I waited for them to either bill me or ask for them back, but they never did. I figured that after what they put me through, I had earned them.
posted on December 8, 2000 09:06:34 AM
A long time ago, my husband and I bought our first VCR at store. There was a mix up and they ended up sending through a refund to our credit card, so we never ended up paying for the VCR. I was angry at the store, so I said, their loss.
A few years later, I was thinking about things in my life that I would do differently, and I remembered this. I decided that even though it was their mistake (and I didn't like who they were or how they had treated me), that I still really owed them the money. To clear my own conscience, I sent them a check.
I couldn't really afford to send them that check, but I'm glad I did. WIthout realizing it, that feeling of having "stolen" something (through no fault of my own) had stayed with me for a long time, and sending the money helped me get rid of it.
posted on December 8, 2000 09:56:34 AM
The larger the company, the worse they are about dealing with the unexpected it seems. A few months ago, I ordered contact lenses online. I got an email invoice, they arrived in the mail, all was well.
Six weeks later, I get a cc bill with a charge on it from a company in Clearwater, FL I've never heard of. No unmatched receipts from that day, no phone listed, none in Information, and Visa has no record. So I charge it back. Visa takes the charge off the bill when they can't get a response from the company. A month or so later, the connection occurred to me randomly, don't remember why. I went through my email and found an invoice from two weeks before the charge for the right amount. So I call up Visa and tell them "all is well. I know who this was, I'll pay the bill." Twice I call them. They still haven't removed the charge. The idea that anyone would actually revoke a chargeback doesn't seem to fly. So at this point I figure if the company isn't smart enough, or doesn't care enough, to give them any information, that's their problem.
posted on December 8, 2000 05:27:16 PM
Sir,
You might want to check the laws where you live, in my state what you've done is considered THEFT by Deception(knowingly keeping monies or property that you are not the rightful owner of) IT is a crime punishable by fines and/or jail time, I say return the money order.
Law Student
www.baresinsations.com
\"Your Online Boutique for Sexy & Intimate Fashions\"
[ edited by baresinsations on Dec 8, 2000 05:32 PM ]
posted on December 9, 2000 07:33:15 AM
I once bought merchandise "MCSE" from a seller on ebay. I sent him payment via paypal. Unknowingly I sent him another payment by money order a week later due to my carelessness. This guy emailed me immediately to find out whether i was aware that i was paying for the same mercahndise twice. He sent the payment back to me. That was an excellent excellent human being. So whereas it might be tempting to keep the money, you might just notify your buyer.
posted on December 9, 2000 08:33:58 AM
Is this subject a troll? No-brainer to return the money, lack of ethics to do otherwise. I will agree that *if* one documented the double-pay to a bureaucracy and they continued to respond, after several tries up their chain of responsibility, "We can't make mistakes like that" and kept refusing to tell you how to give them a refund, I'd sympathize with anyone keeping it all. Me, I'd just send a check with documentation and only get the money if they sent it back or didn't deposit it.
Some years ago a museum store that was buying items from me wholesale sent a double-pay check mixed in with correct amounts for multiple invoices. They were a fairly confused bureaucracy and I suppose they might not have noticed.... so I called the manager and launched into a polite "complaint" about an incorrect payment to me. Boy, was she shocked when I got around to asking where I should send the $5000+ I owed them...
