Significant business error in our favor

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MarysLurker

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We bought our child a playground for Christmas for around $600, plus $80 to pay for assembly. When they were halfway through assembling it, the workers realized we had been shipped two playgrounds. The receipts, invoice and even the shipping label say one!

We can’t send it back because it’s almost 200 pounds. That is more than UPS and company can handle.

I’m concerned that if we call the company, they’ll get greedy and try to make us pay full price for the second unit for that reason.

Any ideas on what the right thing to do is here?
 
MarysLurker said:
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Call the company, under no means allow them to charge you for it. Tell them it is too big for you to move, let them come and get it. It was their mistake, you are correct that morally you should give it back, but you do not have to go too far out of your way to fix their mistake.
 
I assume the assembly crew was the one that also made the delivery? Why didn’t they pick up the extra playground?
Contact the seller and simply refuse if they ask you to buy the extra unit. Well, unless you can make use of it and they offer a really good deal.
Ask them to come pick it up, agree on a reasonable deadline and if they don’t pick it up by then, tell them you will donate the playground to charity or to a local daycare or something.
 
Just guessing, I would say they will tell you just to keep the second playground — it did not cost them $600 to acquire it to sell to you, and especially if it is a big company, they will probably judge that it is better, and more customer-friendly, for them just to eat the loss. I checked on UPS and it would cost over $500 to ship it — it’s not worth it. You could always resell it online, using a “local pickup only” option, or if you are so moved, donate it to a poor family, a children’s home, or a thrift shop. Or you could assemble both, side-by-side, and have one humongous playground set.

Under no circumstances are you obligated to pay to send it back. This may just be one of those 1970s urban legends (back in the dark ages when there was no form of instantaneous, consumer-driven mass communication, and you would hear outlandish stories of something that happened in the next town over, or to your cousin’s dentist’s niece’s son in Ypsilanti), but the story was, at least where the post office (USPS) was concerned, if you received something in the mail that you did not order, you could keep it and did not have to pay for it. Again, that has a kind of self-serving urban-legendary feel to it. I seriously doubt they shipped it to you via USPS (which is not the same thing as UPS).

You may want to go out and measure your yard to see if both sets will fit.
 
MarysLurker said:
I’m concerned that if we call the company, they’ll get greedy and try to make us pay full price for the second unit for that reason.
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Well, consumer laws prevent such tactics. They cannot charge you for something you did not order. You can verify this with your state attorney general’s office or the FTC.

Call and tell them two units were in the delivery and the delivery people left the second one behind.

They will likely tell you to keep it. That has been my experience when I received something in error, they just told me to keep it. Or they might make arrangements to pick it up. Who knows.

If you make a good faith effort to notify the company and they don’t take action to retrieve it, it is yours to do with as you please.
 
Yeah, but it can be a mixed blessing. You’re left with what’s essentially a heap of junk until it’s assembled and unless you find somebody to take it.
If they offer to let you keep it, make sure you can find a use for it.
 
MarysLurker said:
I’m concerned that if we call the company, they’ll get greedy and try to make us pay full price for the second unit for that reason.
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If you call the company?

The right thing to do is call them, tell them what happened and let them decide if they want to pay you to ship it back or pick it up. It is not yours just because someone made a mistake somewhere.
 
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MarysLurker said:
I’m concerned that if we call the company, they’ll get greedy and try to make us pay full price for the second unit for that reason.
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Doubt it. They can’t make you pay for something you didn’t order.
MarysLurker said:
Any ideas on what the right thing to do is here?
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Call the company and let them know they made a mistake and that they can recover their property if they want to. It IS their property, after all. They may want to arrange to have it shipped back to them at their expense, but they also might think it worth recovering, and let you keep it. In any case, they cannot ask you to ship it back to them at your expense.

Once my mother ordered a pound of crocus bulbs to plant in the yard. What arrived was a huge bale of bulbs. We called the company, and they said that it was their mistake, but that it was not worth having it shipped back at their expense. So I got to plant thousands of crocus bulbs all over my mom’s yard.
 
It’s kind of funny. Here we are all thinking the company is so nice saying “keep it” and the law in fact says keep it. 😊
 
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Even for us non-believers (I know many here think we have no more standards, but we do) this sort of thing is a burden. I really dislike having something I have no right to or that I got by mistake. I once told a store they had undercharged me for a book and was met with complete incredulity. Apparently no one had ever reported such a thing before! Anyway from my entire secular point of view the moral situation is this: the company that made the mistake has caused you difficulty. They should apologist you and put it right. You should make it possible for them to put it right by telling them and asking them if they would like to come an collect their stuff. If they don’t want to then you are free to profit from it (as you can with any saleable junk you have), or give it away. You’ll probably feel better giving it away. Maybe ask a welfare group to find a family that would like it. Or a daycare facility or school etc.
 
MarysLurker said:
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Irishmom2:
It is not yours just because someone made a mistake somewhere.
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Well, we did some research… and you might be surprised to see this as I was.

What To Do If You’re Billed for Things You Never Got, or You Get Unordered Products | FTC Consumer Information
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And the relevant extract:
Q. Am I obligated to return or pay for merchandise I never ordered?

A. No. If you receive merchandise that you didn’t order, you have a legal right to keep it as a free gift.
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Well done! I tried to find the legal opinion, rather than speculate, and wasn’t successful. 🙂

It’s an interesting issue morally. To me the moral position is the same as the legal, ie. it is now yours. Full stop. You can either ask them to remove it at their cost and trouble, or keep it and on-sell it.

Certainly, you should do no more for the company than make one phone call to offer them the chance of picking it up at their expense.

What would sway it for me would be to make a guess about the company I bought it from. Is it a large company, such as A-Mart? Then have no hesitation in keeping it. If it’s a smaller company, then maybe consider whether the loss of an expensive wholesale item may endanger someone’s livelihood. Smaller companies are more prone to mistakes and vulnerable to losses. Also consider whether the individual who made the mistake is likely to get roasted over this, and whether you returning it may make a difference.

Those are all factors I do consider in my dealings with business, and whether to “play hard” with my rights.
 
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Edmundus1581 said:
Certainly, you should do no more for the company than make one phone call to offer them the chance of picking it up at their expense
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Great to hear from you again!

Given that civil law doesn’t obligate, I’m on the fence about calling them, leaning towards not. Reason being that, having looked at the invoice again, it looks like the manufacturer, warehouse, and truckers are all different companies. If I call the manufacturer they might take it out on the very nice men who trucked it to us, or the warehouse folks who loaded and counted it, and so on. I would hate for any of those people to lose their jobs.

As to what to do with the second playground… I think we could keep it and make a big playground, as someone suggested above, or donate it to our parish or the sisters’ orphanage if they want it (which is the fate of both playgrounds once outgrown).

What do you think?
 
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MarysLurker said:
We bought our child a playground for Christmas for around $600, plus $80 to pay for assembly. When they were halfway through assembling it, the workers realized we had been shipped two playgrounds. The receipts, invoice and even the shipping label say one!

We can’t send it back because it’s almost 200 pounds. That is more than UPS and company can handle.

I’m concerned that if we call the company, they’ll get greedy and try to make us pay full price for the second unit for that reason.

Any ideas on what the right thing to do is here?
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You are not obliged to pay for their mistake. Call the company and tell them what they did and to pick up the item at their expense otherwise you will charge them for storage of this item at your place until they pick it up.
 
MarysLurker said:
Great to hear from you again!
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Thanks! :cowboy_hat_face: And welcome back to the fray here! 😁
MarysLurker said:
Given that civil law doesn’t obligate, I’m on the fence about calling them, leaning towards not. Reason being that, having looked at the invoice again, it looks like the manufacturer, warehouse, and truckers are all different companies. If I call the manufacturer they might take it out on the very nice men who trucked it to us, or the warehouse folks who loaded and counted it, and so on. I would hate for any of those people to lose their jobs.
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I agree with your thinking there, ie. you are entitled to keep it, but does that mean someone who made the mistake is going to suffer?

This decision then involves some guesswork as to the chain of processes here. As the order is correct (ie. One set) then it is likely the error occurred at the warehouse, while packing the truck.

Will any individual get roasted for this? Will returning it make any difference? As there seem to be three large companies involved (original vendor, warehouse, transport) then we can only guess.

For me, my conscience would be uneasy about keeping it unless I made a small effort to rectify the situation. But maybe that’s just me. Don’t feel obliged!

So, after re-consideration, I stick with my first advice which you highlighted, ie. to make one phone call informing them of the mistake offering to allow them to pick it up.
MarysLurker said:
As to what to do with the second playground… I think we could keep it and make a big playground, as someone suggested above, or donate it to our parish or the sisters’ orphanage if they want it (which is the fate of both playgrounds once outgrown).
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For my trouble, I’d go with the first. Having been through family life with kids at this age, I would definitely put my own family first. The only exception would be if I knew of someone (eg. a struggling family) who I was quite sure would appreciate it, and was also able to assemble it.

You may prefer to sell it while it has maximum value in its original packaging.
The good man takes pity and lends,
he conducts his affairs with honour.
The just man will never waver:
he will be remembered for ever.
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[Ps 111]
 
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MarysLurker said:
What To Do If You’re Billed for Things You Never Got, or You Get Unordered Products | FTC Consumer Information
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It’s not clear to me that this is a case of unordered merchandise, and I would want to examine the law to be sure. In the case of the OP, an item was ordered, and the order was incorrectly filled.

What if they had sent the wrong playground? Would you tell them “I will consider that a gift. Now send me the item I ordered.”?

How far can you stretch the definition of unordered merchandise?
 
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