Reader Wants To Convert Retailer's Billing Mistake Into Charitable Act
Here's a good rule of thumb for determining whether something is a charitable act: if you have to steal money to do it, and you're not Robin Hood, it's probably not gonna count as a good deed.
Someone wrote in to "Dear Prudence" on Slate recently (see third question) asking whether she should keep silent on a double refund.
A giant bottom-feeding corporation [...] just e-mailed to let me know that they will be crediting my card back for a purchase I have returned, to the tune of $300. Only problem is that they have already credited me back the full amount, several months ago. Husband thinks I need to fess up about the double payment. I think I should take the money and donate it to charity. What say you?
We don't always think "Dear Prudence" is a font of wisdom—we're still scowling at her for some really, really lame sexual advice she gave a few years ago (and yes, we read far too many advice columns, and by "we" I mean just me). But Prudence gives just the right answer to this question:
Here's a way to make everyone happy: You call their 800 number and tell them you've received double credit for the return of a purchase; then you donate some money to charity, anyway.
"Dear Prudence" [Slate]
(Photo: soylentgreen23)
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Comments:
I read that particular Dear Prudence, and I laughed at the fact that the woman thinks she should take the money (that isn't hers) and give it to charity. Her good act was facilitated by what is essentially stealing.
I agree with what this Prudence lady has to say.
$300 is a biggish number. If someone like WalMart made a mistake of 15-20 bucks, I might donate it to charity. But that is still doubtful. I don't think it is good Karma to effectively cheat someone out of that money even if it is being used for good purposes. Not even if the other entity is slimy as hell.
Here is what I would do:
1) Call company and explain the error.
2) If the company wants their money back, give it to them.
3) If they insist you keep it, donate the money to charity.
For something like this, phone or write a letter, once. Make sure they have your contact information if they can't fix it right away.
After that, put the money in your savings and enjoy. With large companies there's almost no chance they'll actually end up contacting you again to get the money back, and it's not YOUR job to hassle them into taking it back. One call or one letter is plenty to assuage your conscience.
If you want to donate it to charity, wait a while (at least until the SoL is over). The company may have a couple of years to balance its books and it might decide in a year or two it really does actually want the money back. Once the money is free and clear, go for it then.
My credit card company did this to me earlier this year. I discovered an unknown charge on my CC and I got on a chat with the company about it, it turned out the charge was fraud and the company said they would reverse the charge. I then called my bank and had the CC canceled and they said they would reverse the charge, but also sent me a form to put it into writing.
I saw that the amount was credited a week later so I thought my bank had done it, but still put in the form because I knew they still needed it in writing. A month later another credit was issued for the charge. It turned out the first credit was not from my bank, but from the original company that had placed the charge, and the bank didn't notice there was already a credit so they had given me one again.
I called the bank, let them know of the accidental double-credit, and about 2 months later they put the charge back on, as they should have.
Here's what most people would do: Say "fuck the company" and keep the money, believing they are somehow entitled to it.
Not the right thing to do, but plenty of people don't do the right thing when it comes to money.
@Jesse:
I'd definitely call the company, because if nothing else you don't want them to figure it out later and come back to you looking for their dollars.
If they company can't figure it out, or otherwise just lets you have the money, then knock yourself out. Do whatever you want to with it. But just using it, in any fashion, without contacting them first is a bad idea.
I'm all for doing the right thing and trying to get the double payment reversed...but the little voice inside my head (one of many, this one's name is Murphy) keeps whispering that doing so might unleash a never-ending circle of erroneous debits and credits that might never get straightened out.
When a company mistakenly charges you extra money, usually it is YOUR responsibility to see it and contact the company within xx days (set by the company), then it is YOUR responsibility to navigate through their polices and their automated voice response systems and their CSRs to have any chance to get YOUR money back.
I don't see why it should not be vice versa.
I once stole $175.00 from U-Haul and gave it to charity. It was about 20 years ago and they didn't honor their "Guaranteed Reservation" I had made. I ended up with time delays & oversized equipment the cost me a lot more than it should have. They would not work with me on a resolution so I just paid by check and did a stop payment. I sent their collections people the receipt from the charity. I always enjoy when something good for someone deserving/in need can come from my assholeishness. They threatened to have me charged criminally for the "bad" check. I felt comfortable that most magistrates would side with me, score a win for the legal concept of nullification!
I wouldn't return the money, because it will either never go through or the company will botch it and take all the money or more money then they should have and the customer will never get it back.
It's probably a better idea for her to let the company know that there was a double credit, otherwise they might come after her for the money later on.
Aren't all those "dear _____" columns made up questions anyways?
I hope there is a follow-up on this. I'd like to know how it turns out.
@pecan 3.14159265:
I have both stolen in a variety of ways and committed illegal acts to facilitate the desired outcome. Here are the rules for doing such: 1) the act in now way can personally benefit you, 2) the person you are helping is in true need and all reasonable alternatives have been exhausted, 3) you are unable to personally help the person with their need, 4) you would feel comfortable telling your mother, reading about it in the paper, or explaining it to a judge. Life is not black and white, have the courage to do what's right even when hard to do. Just as it is said that just because something is legal doesn't mean it's not a terribly unethical or immoral thing to do, just because something is illegal doesn't mean it's an unethical or immoral thing to do. Think durable medical equipment and insurance companies. Rarely are such acts necessary, but sometimes they are: cowards say it's stealing and often hide behind religion or pedantic reasoning. Doing the right thing and taking principled stands is risky business, most just give the concept lip service.
keep it.
I believe the term is stealing. Not your money.
No matter how much you like a company or big companies in particular, not returning the money is stealing, regardless of what you do with the stolen money afterward. I like the original advice of returning the money to the company and making a separate donation to charity.
@pecan 3.14159265: Prudie's fun to read because she is so often wrong, and when that woman is wrong...yikes. The readers in the forum for her column can be vicious in their critiques, and reading THEIR advice (which often is at complete odds with Prudie's) is a lot of fun too.
Is it me or do only bad people give to charity?
@SybilDisobedience: I have no idea what I did to make my entire response a link. Must've inadvertently deleted the closing bracket or something.
A similar thing happened to me. Sprint gave me a double rebate for a new phone. Since it was hard enough to getting the refund out of them to ebgin with I said fuck it and donated the money to pit bull rescue group.
Even better was the time my land lord didn't cash my rent check. I told her about it as soon as I discovered the error but she never fixed it.
It's amazing to me that some folks work so hard to justify fraud. If a company credits you with a refund twice, it's not a "mistake," it's fraud if you know the company was wrong and keep the money. Giving the money to charity doesn't negate the fraud in any way. Don't try to turn a legal issue into a moral one.
I don't want to be a grammar/spelling pedant, but moral "delimmas"?
Call the company, explain the problem, send them a check. Because even if the CSR on the phone says "I can't find that mistake on my terminal" or "don't worry, just keep the money," when the company's accountants or auditors discover the mistake, they'll take your money back and it'll be nothing personal but you'll think you're getting screwed because you believed the low-level CSR when they told you it was all gonna be okay. And you know the low-level CSR is not authorized to speak for the company or interpret company policy. They are only allowed to read what's on their screen verbatim.
If she objects to "giant bottom-feeding corporations," why did she spend $300 there in the first place? What a hypocrite.
It's a bit convenient that it was okay to shop there in the first place, but now that she stands to gain $300, it's a bottom-feeding corporation. If a company is morally repugnant, don't shop there at all. Isn't that good advice for any consumerist?
Besides, what if the company finds out about it later, say, when you're $299 away from your credit limit?
@benh57: Oh it was something about breaking up with someone who wanted to talk about polyamory, or something like that. I just thought her advice was very conservative and status quo, and that the couple should at least go see a therapist first.
I read advice columns the way some people play Jeopardy at home while watching the show. When Prudence veers away from my backseat advice giving, it gets ugly.
If the advice seeker was truly appalled by this company's ethics (or lack thereof) why is she doing business with them in the first place?
@SybilDisobedience: Ack. I already corrected the spelling once. I just didn't correct it to something that was, you know, correct.
Fixed. Thanks.
@Chris Walters: Wowee, very conservative, especially considering how far liberal Slate leans as a general rule. I find her to be a little bit harsh about a relationship advice in general, too quick to tell people to just end it over stuff that I think can be worked out. Who knows.
@MostlyHarmless: And chances are, a big box retailer like this is either (a) not going to believe that they've credited you twice, or (b) be unable to undo it. So you get the money anyway, AND Prudence doesn't damn you to Advice Column Hell!
The bottom-feeding company is Amazon, right?
@Chris Walters: Thats why you should not edit on an empty stomach.
And thanks to you, now im craving some Deli food.
@Chris Walters: Well, atleast you did not get your early sex ed from Cosmopolitan like I did. (hey, it was my sisters subscription).
For years, I believed that I liked long legged girls because I am the younger sibling who got pistol whipped as a kid.
@dragonfire81: That depends. If a company has been giving you the run-around on other account issues, has been charging you far above market rate for some service, or refused other legit refunds, then I'm sure a large majority would keep the money as an F U to the company for their previous offenses. If it was a company has a history of treating the customer fairly and respectfully, I bet a relatively much larger number would return the money. (My hope is that the latter proportion would top 50%.)
I wanna know about the lame sexual advice. Was it not to have any?