On January 24th, I ordered an item from an online retailer of good repute. On the 25th I received notification that the item had shipped, with a UPS tracking number. On February 2nd, the UPS website was still showing the item as "not picked up". I called the retailer to ask what was up. I was told that the item was likely lost, and they offered me a refund, which I accepted (and received). Today, the item arrived. What would you do?
No dilemma at all. Contact the retailer, tell them the item finally arrived, and offer to return the refund. (Provided the item wasn't something perishable and no longer useful.)
It has happened to me twice with Jeff Bozos (Amazon). I called and told them. Each time they told me to keep it and not to worry.
I did just that, and they took my money. I could have just kept it and said nothing, but a fellow's got to sleep at night.
If the package was shipped UPS, then the actual delivery was tracked. Best to play it clean when they have tracking. Untracked USPS would be an ethical choice, UPS/FedEx/Tracked USPS is a practical choice.
Ethical story... A customer mistakenly pays with two $100 bills, thinking that it was only one. Ethical problem: should you tell your partner?
Depending on the item and on the business's system for processing it, it is quite conceivable that it just isn't worth their time to deal with it. Special handling of abnormal circumstances. Especially on low priced items. But that should be their choice, not mine.
How on Earth can that be an ethical dilemma?! Finding a dollar bill in the street with nobody around is one thing. Seeing a dollar bill fall out of someone's pocket is something else entirely.
I bought an AV receiver on eBay. It had a defect. The seller refunded me and said just dispose of the receiver rather than ship it back as its heavy. With nothing to lose I contacted the manufacturer to see how much the hdmi board would cost and if they would sell it to me. The phone rep said they had extended the warranty because of this issue. I told him i had purchased it used and did not qualify. He said return it anyway and sent me packaging with prepaid return. Got it back after a couple weeks working great. Onkyo stood up and did the right thing by me. I contacted the eBay seller and repaid for the purchase. You should at least try and pay the seller. It may cost them more than its worth to process in which case they'll cut you lose guilt free.
I purchased the Breaking Bad Blu-Ray barrel (box set, all seasons) for something like $140 Canadian, on-line through a local store. Availability was delayed, my card would not be charged till it actually shipped, and if the price were to drop they would honour that. The price did drop once or twice in ensuing weeks, to maybe $120, and I got email updates to let me know they had noted that, would drop my price. It finally was in, they shipped mine, and I got an email notification that the price had been $25. Waah, ok... Anyway, a week or two later I got another email, saying someone had screwed up, it was supposed to be the $120, and they were going to charge my card for the difference. I was ok with that too. But if that last email had not come, I think I would have stayed quiet.
This Xmas I had a box containing 5 items delivered to the wrong address, I had tracking and was notified within 5 minutes that package was delivered. I immediately called Amazon, got the shipping company's number, contacted them, told them of the error. They told me they would send the driver back to the wrong address he dropped it off at, then he would correct his mistake. It never happened. I recontacted Amazon after reordering the order, and was informed the first package was lost. 5 days later the "lost" package was dropped off at my door, opened and gone through, but all items were present. Another call to Amazon and after being told I could keep the double order, I noted this was unacceptable and wanted to return the extra items. No assistance was offered. I finally figured out if I claimed I was shipped too many items in another order a return would be authorized. I used that return # to ship all 5 items back! The items were received, no problems were encountered. Sometimes companies give up too damn easy.
We get spoiled with online shopping & 2 day delivery. I recently ordered some (discontinued) parts for a power tool. After 2 weeks the order status was still "awaiting fulfillment". In the mean time, I decided to replace the tool so I called to cancel the order and apparently it takes their system 48 - 72 hours to send an email & show as cancelled online.
