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Stupid conscience

CWS

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Moral/Karmic issues aside, that part doesn't matter.
He's only liable for what he ordered and agreed to pay for.
I dont think finders keepers works well in the real world. If he told them that he was misshipped, his choice was to return at their expense of pay for them. Now if he just didnt say anything.....but that is shaking the karma dogs.:rofl:
 

Kingston

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I dont think finders keepers works well in the real world. If he told them that he was misshipped, his choice was to return at their expense of pay for them. Now if he just didnt say anything.....but that is shaking the karma dogs.:rofl:
Finder's keepers is exactly what works in this case. It was an unsolicited gift.
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/merch.htm
Otherwise, what's to keep companies from always sending you the "deluxe" version of whatever you ordered and then trying to charge you for it?

However, I agree about pissing off the karmic dogs.
 

djs134

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Don't know if I believe in karma or not, but I had a situation some years ago and handled it in a similar way. I just don't generally feel good if I try and take advantage of an honest mistake.

When I was in my last year of college, I was walking down the street in town (the day after Veteran's Day to be exact) and saw what looked like one of those vinyl bank bags that I was so familiar with through my various retail/food service jobs over the past several years..

Sure enough, that's exactly what it was. Not only that but inside was $3000, a pen, a slip of paper with a name/address/phone number/SSN on it and a lot of little pieces of hair....

So, thinking that some poor minimum wager was sent for a "change order" and lost the money, I took the few steps into the bank and asked if anyone had reported some lost money. The clerk said no, but she would be happy to hold onto the bag in case anyone showed up. I declined her kind offer, but left my name and phone number.

I got home and counted the $, pulled out the slip of paper and then imagined some poor sole making a payment or deposit on their farm. So I called the number on the paper and received a rash of crap from the guy who answered 'cause I'd asked for what turned out to be his wife. I asked if they had lost anything of importance, got a negative and more shit, left my number and hung up.

Turned out that it was a payroll drop from the barber down the street who had forgotten the bank was closed on the previous day. He'd realized that he'd lost the bag the next day when he'd gotten ready to go to the bank the following day.

He gave me $300 for my honesty and took me to breakfast. Have to say, I feel a hell of a lot better about the situation having returned the payroll money than if I'd've looked back and known that I'd kept it.....
 
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I guess what I worry about is "What comes around goes around" so to speak. Not only that but keeping it without paying is basically stealing. I could have probably rationalized it was a mistake in my favor but every time I spoked one of them I would have felt a little more dead inside. I can't expect to raise my daughter to always do the right thing if daddy is swiping cigars over 40 lousy bucks.

Karma has already decided to shine in my favor thanks to Fox so it was all worth it. :thumbsup:
 

Texas Cop

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I can't say what I'dve done in that situaiton, though I'd like to say my response would be the same...A while back, CBid sent me an extra fiver, and when I shot them an email, they said to keep it on the house, not quite as much money involved, but similar.

I've always tried to do the right thing in life, though sometimes, I'm ashamed to admit I don't. My biggest 'did the right thing' moment was out at the paintball field. I used to work with a group of guys and put on 24 hour scenario paintball games. At one of the games, I saw what i thought was just a buck laying out on the field, and picked it up. Honestly, if it was just a buck, I'da pocketed it, and bought a soda with it later, but when I picked it up, it turned out to be a roll of cash, about $700 if I remember correctly. I put it in my pocket and went back to the company directors RV, explained to him what I had found. He asked me what I wanted to do about, and I said, well, there's no choice really (by this I meant that I felt the only choice was to try and find the person who dropped it), and said there were several. I could pocket the money (though both of us knew that was absolutely not an option. I'm not sure if he actually would've let me do it, but I don't even want to know how he would've felt about me [or how I would've felt about myself for that matter] if I had), I could announce that I found it, or I could just hold on to it and see if anybody came looking. At this game, there were about 1000 people, so announcing that I had found $700 on the field would probably have not gotten me the result I was looking for, so I opted to put the cash, as it was, in the safe in the RV and wait to see if somebody came looking. About an hour later, a father and teenaged son came up to the RV, the son had obviously been crying and was very upset. The father said the son had lost something on the field, which he then explained was the money from his last two paychecks at work. He had cashed them before the game to pay for his entrance and to buy a new paintball gun from a guy at the field. He asked if anybody had mentioned finding any money, so we retrieved it from the safe and gave it to him. He thanked me profusely, offerred me a hundred dollars for finding and returning it, which I refused, and then the father found me later, took me aside, and gave it to me anyways, saying it was from him, not his son, and he really wanted me to take it as a reward for honesty.



drew
 
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I would do exactly what I would teach my kids to do. Send em back or pay for them. I don't care whose mistake it was, I would want to keep MY side of the street clean.
 

CWS

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Finder's keepers is exactly what works in this case. It was an unsolicited gift.
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/merch.htm
Otherwise, what's to keep companies from always sending you the "deluxe" version of whatever you ordered and then trying to charge you for it?

However, I agree about pissing off the karmic dogs.
Ah but you are twisting the law slightly my friend to make it work in this situation. This was not as the postal inspector statute states an unsolicited gift. This was a purchase in which an error was made. An honest mistake of commerce versus an attempt to defraud. I dont believe the postal statute would apply. After pointing out the error to the seller, the liablity shifts to the buyerr upon response from the seller I believe.

Again, doing the right thing by notifying te seller is always a good response the reward, sale at wholesale or return.
 

Kingston

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Twisting the law is what lawyers get paid to do. :rofl:
I think it can be interpreted both ways. You could argue that the box was an unsolicited gift, as a fiver was what was solicited/ordered.
I think the responsibility is on the seller to make it attractive for the buyer to help them.
What's to stop CI from doing this every time somebody ordered a fiver, hoping that the buyer will pony up for the whole box?
 

Irritech

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Yeah, you did the right thing. BUT, I would have been thinking about all the split wrappers and dried out cigs I've recieved since joining C-bid. Maybe I would have thought tit for tat. Not only that, it sure would be cool to hear that they told you "our mistake, just keep em", but oh well.:bouncetau
 

CWS

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Twisting the law is what lawyers get paid to do. :rofl:
I think it can be interpreted both ways. You could argue that the box was an unsolicited gift, as a fiver was what was solicited/ordered.
I think the responsibility is on the seller to make it attractive for the buyer to help them.
What's to stop CI from doing this every time somebody ordered a fiver, hoping that the buyer will pony up for the whole box?
Fully agree. That would be fraud. A consistant action on CI's part with intent. Easy to prove.
 
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They were going to give them to me but after discovering the cost discrepancy they could not afford to. For which I do not blame them. They did however; give me the cigars at wholesale. That means I received a $95 box for about 61 bucks. I kept the box not necessarily to be nice but because I saw that beautiful box full of smokes and couldn't let them go. :)
 

Kingston

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They were going to give them to me but after discovering the cost discrepancy they could not afford to. For which I do not blame them. They did however; give me the cigars at wholesale. That means I received a $95 box for about 61 bucks. I kept the box not necessarily to be nice but because I saw that beautiful box full of smokes and couldn't let them go. :)
A good deal is a good deal. Glad they made it worth your while.
 
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