How on earth...?

Given that most of these stories recount a lack of interest or appreciation for returned goods, I wondered if it just presents an administrative headache to whoever receives them. Presumably, they can't just be put back in stock but have to be documented and accounted for.

I think, in most of the circumstances described here, if the company did not offer to pay the postage cost or make arrangements within a reasonable time to collect the goods, I wouldn't make any further efforts to return them.

Although I believe most people are honest, I think if I found £60 in cash in the pocket of clothing bought from a charity shop, I would keep the £60 and send the charity a cheque for that amount, with an explanation.

Years ago I returned from work to find a large box. No name but my address on. It was near Christmas and was an insulated box containing many frozen cuts of meat. I went round all the neighbours but none of them had ordered a hamper. I phoned the company after eventually tracking down the number. They were as puzzled as me and had no clue who had ordered it. I was upset because I thought someone is going to miss out on this order for their Christmas dinner! I was advised to keep and enjoy it! The only problem was we are all vegetarians so my daughters bfs family at the time enjoyed a meaty feast!

Many many years ago we found what, I guess we'd call today, a 'retro' TV / record player unit with a cupboard and shelf underneath, in our porch. There was no packaging, no address, no nothing. We asked around and noone knew or had seen anything. We contacted the police who told us to keep for a short while [can't remember how long] in case someone called but noone came round. It became a very useful piece of furniture though it has long gone now to the Great Tip in the Sky!

I bought a very expensive washing line ( nearly £100) and when I put it up the lines were very loose. I contacted the firm and they sent me a replacement and told me they would collect the old one. After 6 months it still had not been collected so I gave it to my son he tightened up the lines and it is perfectly fine.

A few years ago I ordered a tote bag and matching umbrella as a Christmas gift for a family member from the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift catalog. What arrived was a snow globe with a winter scene of New York City. I looked at my invoice and someone had scrawled "f--k you" across the paper! I immediately called the shop, when I got a customer service person she immediately directed me to her supervisor. The supervisor was shocked, asked me to send a copy of that invoice to her and just told me to keep the snow globe and then expedited the items I had originally ordered. I guess someone was having a bad day!

We recently bought some dining chairs from Next. A couple of days after delivery we noticed that the zip on the back of one of them was coming undone. I phoned Next and they very courteously apologised and arranged for a replacement to be delivered on a date agreed by me saying the driver would collect the faulty one. When it came it was a pack of two chairs. DH gave the driver the faulty chair and said do you want to open the pack and take one of the replacement chairs back. The driver said he couldn't do that as his instructions were to deliver the pack and collect the faulty chair. He told us to keep the extra chair so now we have an extra dining room chair.

Monica, my comment about an honesty test was not meant to be taken seriously!

Anyway, I have sent the other 2 back. I think the thin plastic wrapping of each must have somehow slightly stuck together, so that a hurried packer picked up 3 at once. There was definitely no 2 for one offer or anything - it's a new line that was included in an email they sent me.

A dd recently had 2 wooden garden chairs missing from an online order. They then sent - promptly enough - another six! All in cardboard packaging. And took ages to collect the extra, despite being told that they had nowhere to keep them out of the rain.

As for couriers delivering to the wrong address, we recently had one - hadn't realised it wasn't for us - which was addressed to someone in a different road, not even a similar name.
Once we realised, dh delivered it to the correct address, only to have the courier coming back in a tizz once he'd realised his mistake!
Seasalt always use Royal Mail, with never a problem (so far) and everything has always arrived very quickly.

DH bought some trousers from Debenhams years ago. He didn’t have time to try them on and when he tried them on at home there was a £20 note in the pocket. He decided to return them and decided to be up front and return the £20 with the trousers explaining what had happened. Not much of a reaction from the sales assistant and certainly no thank you. We did wonder afterwards if a dishonest employee had taken the money when the till was open and hid it in the trousers with a view to retrieving it at the end of the day. Another explanation was that somebody had bought the trousers, worn them, then returned them for a refund.

Even longer ago in the 1970s I was waiting for a bus with my two boys. The younger one saw a man drop a £10 note when he was waiting to board a bus. He rushed and picked it up and gave it to the man who just pocketed it and didn’t even say thank you.

I once ordered some items from Wrap and in the parcel were two items for someone else (smaller size). I contacted Wrap who asked me to post them back. I took them to the post office (items worth about £150), which was not an inconsiderable distance. For my trouble I got nothing. I would have thought a voucher from Wrap, even if only a fiver, would have been nice. I didn’t buy anything off them for about two years after that......

Yes,most companies put '1' in quantity box when its a pack,same in item description box,so it could have been same for lady who got six baby vests too,they could have got 1 out to check it then realised so put all 6 in maybe,same with scarves,so when i have to return a pack of things,i write on '1 pack of 2'(or whatevers amount,just so they know exactly how many items are in- i recently ordered a pack of two school shirts for my youngest child,still at school,(15) (1 on,1 in wash)he had to change to new colour for last term at school,as well as in new yr when they return in september,so i got bigger size,went to collect instore at M&S,i asked lady if she could show me them as i wasnt sure of size(hes often a size smaller than his age, hes not a big kid)lady showed me,and offered to go up to get smaller size to see difference,so she did this and i opted for smaller ones.(id paid online already)He started wearing shirts nxt day but end of wk after washing shirt twice thought ill put his name in,as hes forgetful.lol &P.E may lose shirt- i wrote in label then got out other new shirt- to find she had MIXED UP the pack with 2 different sized shirts! How on earth had she managed that? I did ring&they said i could return,but id already written in the label,so carried on just washing his shirt every day,and am hoping bigger one will fit this new term,where ill continue to wash it daily which defeats why i bought two in first blinking place!!

A bit different story but I bought a pair of unicorn slippers for one granddaughter two years ago after a couple of wears the stitching came undone I emailed and told them they apologidpsed and returned my money I pareked up the slippers and asked for the address to send them back to they said don’t bothe4 just bin them we actually sewed the seam and two years on she’s still wearing them ?

jocork if the addresses you've mentioned are genuine, I'd ask GNHQ to take down your post if I were you. This is a public forum, and anyone can read it. Indeed threads often get posted to Facebook, Twitter and even get picked up by newspapers and published.
I'm sure you wouldn't want your personal data published online (especially if your username is wholly or partly your real name?)

Message deleted by Gransnet. There are very specific personal details mentioned so have withdrawn it as a precaution.

Ordered a mattress topper for our double bed. It arrived but with a small nick on an edge, I phoned them up to inform and they said they would send out another and collect the one already delivered. Replacement arrived but the driver would not take the other one because it was not on the invoice to do so. Phoned company who said they would collect. Heard nothing, phoned company again, same reply will collect - heard nothing. Eventually gave up and had a very comfy bed abet a bit of a bugger to climb into ! !

Maybe it's overworked and underpaid employees hitting back? I wouldn't condone it but I could understand it.

I would have donated the money- possibly to a charity of my own choice though- but if there was stuff inside like that camera etc id return to shop as someone who donated it could have gone back to shop asking for it?! I found a pair of prescription specs in a case stuck down behind my radiator when i moved into my house,so i found the opticians inside the case and returned them to them,giving them the name of people who lived here previously(had gotten their post too)as a glasses wearer,i thought they might need them,and glasses arent cheap these days,even with a nhs voucher you can pay over £100-£200 a pair.i hope they got them back I have rung places up when theyve sent me wrong items to be told to give other item to charity,so i do.

My sister and partner ordered a case of wine online. It was supposed to have been delivered, but they couldn't find it (they have a very long drive at their house, bushes at the entrance.)
So they got in touch, and another was sent...meanwhile they found the first one. Having contacted the sellers again to tell them this - another one was sent and they found the second one! They gave up at this point..... with three cases....

It might have been sold as a pack of three - which would still say quantity = 1.

Never had a freebie from Boden!

I splashed out and ordered a Gudrun Sjoden skirt...and they sent two! The money I made selling the second one on ebay almost covered the first!

Some years ago I bought a portable DAB radio from Sony and packed in with it was a high-capacity computer micro drive worth about £200. I contacted Sony and told them - and they replied that I must be mistaken as their systems would not allow such an error to occur!

I sold it for £150 on eBay.

Could be worse- i got sent the wrong colour cardigan in THE CORRECT BAG FOR ITEM-(right colour code,size,etc,)from a clothes catalogue but when i sent it back and reordered it i still got charged for TWO cardies- i rang&explained then they said theyd remove charge,but only took off 2thirds of the cost,as by then it had been reduced in price ,so i rang again,and because correct colour code had shown on packaging they had treated it as a normal return,still no proper refund- i rang again,to be told they could see an adjustment for said amount so that must be it- no i said,thats for something else i returned on a different date- anyway,several months on and its still me paying them for an item i didnt want in first place! I may write ti financial ombudsmen just to stop them doing it to everyone else!

stanlaw I would have taken the cash back to the shop too. I had a friend who bought a bag in a charity shop. When she got it home it contained a camera and equipment. She did not take it back. Shame on her.

Companies don’t seem to like returned goods. More trouble than it’s worth for them to check them and put them back in the right place in the right warehouse.
They often sell returns off in bulk to eBay or market stalls or discount stores for next to nothing.
Nowadays lots of online shoppers buy two sizes of clothes and return the one that doesn’t fit. That means a lot of returned goods - I don’t know how they make any money!

On a slightly different note, picked up a beautiful linen jacket for DH in Oxfam--got it home and found £60 in the pocket.
After sleepless night decided to take money in to them even though the jacket was not gift-aided so presumably they couldn't trace donor.
Friends thought I was mad--what would you do?