How on earth...?

Mistakes happen in the best regulated families - and companies. I like Seasalt and they seem to be surviving the retail down turn

Why on earth would they want to test your honesty? What possible interest can it be to them?

Read the invoice carefully. My DH was about to send back a duplicated article when he noticed that the second one was a free gift. ? Although three for the price of one does seem a bit extravagant.

I ordered some soap for my rashy skin which cost me £8. When it arrived there was a large bottle of skin lotion in the parcel which I hadn't ordered. The invoice said 'free gift'. I looked on their site and it was priced at £18.99. There was no catch and this lotion improved my skin no end!

I’ve had some lovely freebies from Boden, even though I only ever buy from the clearance section.

A few years ago I ordered a waste paper basket from John Lewis. I received 6 in one parcel. They cost I think £15 each. Being honest I returned them to my local store. Well they looked at me as if I was mad! Not a thank you or anything from the staff. It was if I'd made work for them. I'd think twice about returning items again. If I did I'd make sure they came and collected it.

When youngest son was due to start at secondary school,we went along to buy some of the uniform. At home and unpacking, I found not one tie, but a packet of six.
Needless to say we returned them and were thanked by the school shop volunteer. His own little one is due to start school soon, brings back memories. Aah!

The National Trust sent me five small diaries instead of the one I had ordered. I had no response to my email telling them that I would return them after Christmas when the post settled down (this was about the 20th of December), and no offer of a postage label. They weren't heavy, so it didn't cost much to return them, but I got no acknowledgement when I did so. I may well order one again this year, as they are exactly what I want and I can't find them anywhere else, but I was a bit taken aback at the lack of customer care. I can't buy it in one of their shops as it's the English National Trust and it's a bit far to go from here just for a diary!

I doubt they are testing their customers' honesty.

Check if the scarves are free gifts. You never know!

If not, I guess it was just a mistake made when they made up your order.

I was recently sent 5 baby 'vests' at £4.50 each instead of the one I ordered from M&S online. As far as I could see, there was a packet of 6 and one had been removed to send to me but instead they put the remaining 5 and the packet in the parcel - just rushing I supposed.

Years ago we received a child’s personalised clock, from a company in the US. The house number, road and post-code were correct, but it was addressed to a name we didn’t know. There was no other information. I contacted the delivery firm and asked them to collect it. They said they would notify me when.
A week later I came home from work to find a note to say a parcel had been delivered to my next door neighbour. It was an identical clock. I phoned the delivery firm again and asked them to collect two clocks. A week or two later a delivery van drew up, but instead of collecting the two clocks the driver presented me with another one. He was adamant he couldn’t take back the two previous clocks, nor the one he eventually left on the doorstep. It took more phone calls and a letter before the damn things were collected.

They are classed as unsolicited goods and if not requested back by the company you have the right to keep them (someone who deals with delivories etc) so some nice Christmas gifts for friends perhaps?

Deliveries

Unfortunately the clock was personalised, and it was meant for a little girl who loved Barbie. I thought the delivery company should have been able to track the sender-I couldn’t, depite my best efforts. It was a shame that little girl didn’t get her birthday present on her birthday ( if ever.)

I splashed out on a £40 scarf from John Lewis for DD’s wedding. Paid in the shop for one, found two when I got home. I had a similar experience to Kitte, when I returned it, slightly are you mad look, no acknowledgement or thanks. I’m not dishonest but might not do that another time.

Ring them to tell them what's happened, they may tell you to keep them or at least send a prepaid label for the return.

I won a hamper in a competition last year and when it arrived there was a second box which had some very nice razors in it with a note thanking someone for his hard work. I emailed the company and they told me to keep them so I gave them to someone who fund raises for a charity. I hope whoever they were intended for did get some.
I would always email them first before sending them as it is their mistake and they should either collect them or send you a postage label. It is likely that they will think it is more trouble than it is worth.

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?

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

Never had a freebie from Boden!

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