Steve received an early, accidental Christmas present from Macy’s, which mistakenly issued a refund for a jacket he ordered online. Being paragons of moral virtue, Consumerist readers will no doubt tell him to let the retailer know about the goof and offer to pay for the jacket. But the question isn’t so much whether or not to tell Macy’s, but how much effort he’s morally obligated to exert in order to give Macy’s the chance to correct the error. Is an email to customer service enough? Does he need to follow it up until he receives a response?

Read his story and let us know how you feel:

After being involved in a rather serious motorcycle accident, my nice leather jacket had to be cut off me and thus needed to be replaced. I got money from the insurance to replace my personal property, including the jacket, and this past Thanksgiving a style very similar to my previous jacket went on sale and I jumped at the opportunity to replace it. My order was processed and the charge went through on 12/01 and my nice new leather jacket showed up in the mail 12/02.

However, I receive an e-mail the next day stating, “We have received the merchandise listed below and are processing your return.” Odd, considering I was staring at the jacket hanging on my coat rack. But sure enough I checked my credit card statement yesterday and to find that they did in fact refund my purchase of the jacket. So now you can see my dilemma. Do I contact Macy’s letting them know of their billing error? Or do I hope no one notices and consider it a pleasant early Christmas present?

Of course, there’s a difference between telling someone what you “would do” and what you have done. Answer our poll to let us know how you’ve acted when fate tempted you:

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