what's a fellow to do?

[fred woltersdorf]

let me preface this thread by saying i'm painting wood(my house), so that's the ww part.i purchased some accesories for my ladder for painting my house, 3 in all. one of the items was broken in shipping due to poor packaging. i emailed customer service stating that fact and asked if they could replace that one item. i sent another then another,for a total of five over a two week period, no reply.
i was just about to write it off when i got an email saying they would send a replacement shortly. two weeks go by and no indication of anything shipped. another email from me and i get a response the item is being shipped that day. ok today brown shows up and i get the original order with all three items. don't they read the emails? so after 5 weeks since the original delivery i get a complete replacement which i didn't want.
part of me says it's their problem for not paying attn to my email , but the other part says i should tell them of their mistake. thanks for letting me rant fred

[John Daugherty]

Kind of puts you on the spot.

I was putting tile around my tub surround. I was using 4-inch tile. I bought more than I needed so I wouldn’t run out and have to make another trip. I had about 2/3 of a box left and I took it back to the box store that I purchased it from with receipt in hand. I gave like 11 bucks for the entire box. The guy at returns started counting each tile and told me I would be getting like 40 dollars back. I told him the entire box was only 11. I even showed him on the receipt. He said that was how he was told to do it. I again told him that I only gave about 45 for every thing that was on the receipt. He again insisted that I take the money, so I did.

Another time I was in line behind a guy that had a roll of that rubber membrane pond liner. That kind that is really expensive. He had about 400 dollars worth. The lady at the register charged him like 20 bucks. The guy told her that it was wrong; it should be a lot more than that. The clerk got really hateful with the guy and told him that was the correct price. He again told her that was the wrong price and she wasn’t charging enough. She basically told him that she was right and he was wrong and he needed to go on. The guy left with the membrane.

A friend of mine worked there and I mentioned it to him. He said that the manager found out about it and they fired her.

[Floyd Harper]

I got a $89 mailbox at lowes that rang up at $0. I didn't notice it until later though when I looked at the ticket.

[Tim Lynch]

I had a huge pile of moldings on a BORG cart... casings, baseboard, crown, etc.... at least $400 worth. The checkout person scanned a bunch of the pieces as I was helping to move the stuff around to get at all the bar codes. Next thing I know she's at the register saying my total is $250. She just gave up and couldn't be bothered sorting through it all.

I was happy to provide a little rest for her. :D

[Art Mann]

I would advise the vendor that he had shipped product to me that was not required and inform him that if he sent someone to pick the stuff up, I would be happy to hand it over to them. I might even return the stuff if they sent me a postage prepaid box to ship it in - though I wouldn't be in a hurry and inconvenience myself. Under no circumstances would I go to any expense or trouble to return the extra stuff. By law, people are not required to return or pay for items that were sent to them unsolicited. The vendor does deserve a chance to get his extra stuff back though.

[joe greiner]

Ditto Art's suggestion. Same with others: give them every opportunity (within reason) to charge the correct amount.

In your specific case, their cost (not necessarily yours) may justify sending all three vs treating separately, considering their administrative costs. For consistency of operating procedures, apparent waste may make more sense. Consider returns at retail for a low-cost product: Costs them much more than the value of the refund, but pays off for more expensive stuff. Seems bizarre, but many transactions work this way. Straightened any bent nails lately?

Joe

[Al Willits]

Personally I'd send the email advising them of the problem, inform them they have a week to respond, then keep it.
Not sure, but I doubt your responsible for their error, and the email should calm your conscience.

Al

[John Schreiber]

Ditto Joe's ditto of Art. We have a responsibility to be fair. Let them know and make a reasonable effort to set things right, but we don't have a responsibility to go out of our way to correct their mistakes.

Also, as Joe said, sometimes there are good reasons for what seem to us to be mistakes.

[Michael Schwartz]

I bought a 100 foot air hose at Home Depot and it should have been $40.00, instead they rung me up for the 50 foot hose ($20.00).

Another time the self checkout for a 10 dollar purchase paid for with a 20, gave me 15 dolllars in change.

[John Daugherty]

I ordered something once, I don't recall what it was but they sent the wrong thing. I called and told them of the error. The CS person said she would call me back. A little while later she called and told me the correct order was shipping and to keep the other stuff. I asked why and she told me it would cost more to return ship than it was worth.

[Jim Thiel]

part of me says it's their problem for not paying attn to my email , but the other part says i should tell them of their mistake.

What's a fella to do? Grab a hammer and peen the part of you that thinks you should not care about it, rub it out, then reward the part of you that wants to do the right thing.

It's better to suffer loss. But I'm the road less traveled sort.

Jim