Dilemma: 2 iphones sent by accident - should I inform O2?

pazza

What's better, that smug feeling you get when you 'do the right thing' or an iphone?

Exactly :money:

ultracheapskate

redux wrote: »

This is the most perverse logic of the lot, that because the phone is more valuable, you're less obliged to do anything to correct the matter

You're only worried that they might catch up with you.

Guess what? See if we care. Take your false posturing and waste someone else's time

This is the worst interpretation of my post...perhaps you need some help with your comprehension skills. My point was in response to your claim that I should have negotiated some sort of special price with the manager, in light of my honesty. I was simply pointing out how futile this would be, particularly as O2 explicitly say they canNOT negotiate any discount on the handset, given their contract with apple.

And yes I have already said the point of this thread was to see whether it was likely that O2 would find out, and thus whether I could keep it. If you had read my earlier posts you would have noticed this. If I was concerned about the morality of keeping the phone, I would have gone to see a priest, not posted on a moneysaving message board.

As for wasting your time, nobody forced you to reply. If you feel this way, the most logical thing would be to ignore this thread and carry on with your "busy" life.

samba

I think you should know the law regarding your situation:

"A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving that other of it." s1 (1) Theft Act, 1968.

"Appropriation" is defined in s3(1) of the Theft Act 1968 as:

"Any assumption by a person of the rights of the owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as an owner."

Mens rea: dishonestly, intention to permanently deprive the other of the property appropriated.

It would seem that even tho the phone was sent to you by mistake, your intention not to return it is legally theft. (This may not apply 100% in your case as you have been charged £99 for the phone, although you know this amount is incorrect). Secondly, you say you will return it if they ask, however you intend to use it in between, so I think that would count as 'permanently deprive', as o2 sent a new phone, and you would give them back a used phone, however I am no lawyer so don't know the ins and outs.

Personally, I would contact o2 and sort it out with them, otherwise you would always be looking over your shoulder wondering if they will realise their mistake. Peace of mind is worth more to you than your mum having an iphone imho, especially as if she is anything like my mum she wouldn't use it for anything other than making phone calls

Leopard

ultracheapskate wrote: »

This is the worst interpretation of my post...perhaps you need some help with your comprehension skills. My point was in response to your claim that I should have negotiated some sort of special price with the manager, in light of my honesty. I was simply pointing out how futile this would be, particularly as O2 explicitly say they canNOT negotiate any discount on the handset, given their contract with apple.

And yes I have already said the point of this thread was to see whether it was likely that O2 would find out, and thus whether I could keep it. If you had read my earlier posts you would have noticed this. If I was concerned about the morality of keeping the phone, I would have gone to see a priest, not posted on a moneysaving message board.

As for wasting your time, nobody forced you to reply. If you feel this way, the most logical thing would be to ignore this thread and carry on with your "busy" life.

Forgive me if previously I interpreted your agonising over whether to keep this thing or not, and "justifying it to yourself", as being wrestling with your conscience (which I thought, given time, might win), rather than mere hard-nosed concern over whether or not you would get caught if you misappropriated a £350 mobile 'phone. I do to try to see the best in people.

One thing (apart from the risk of prosecution and the threat to your credit rating) that does not appear to have occurred to you is whether or not this was no mistake by O2 but actually a devious attempt to lure you into taking an ill-advised course of action that would then oblige you to pay the full price for a second iPhone that you had not intended to buy.

But at this point, disabused of my charitable hope that you might be fundamentally honest, I'll make my departure and leave you to your own, self-determining, fate.

Money_Grabber13579

Leopard wrote: »

Forgive me if previously I interpreted your agonising over whether to keep this thing or not, and "justifying it to yourself", as being wrestling with your conscience (which I thought, given time, might win), rather than mere hard-nosed concern over whether or not you would get caught if you misappropriated a £350 mobile 'phone. I do to try to see the best in people.

One thing (apart from the risk of prosecution and the threat to your credit rating) that does not appear to have occurred to you is whether or not this was no mistake by O2 but actually a devious attempt to lure you into taking an ill-advised course of action that would then oblige you to pay the full price for a second iPhone that you had not intended to buy.

But at this point, disabused of my charitable hope that you might be fundamentally honest, I'll make my departure and leave you to your own, self-determining, fate.

Hear, hear.

redux

What you're supposed to do is inform them you've got the phone, then let them arrange to either fetch it at a convenient time or you send it to them and they pay the postage. If and only if they fail to collect it by a certain time, which isn't a week or two, it can be deemed to be yours.

Slight omission there on your part, and treating everyone to this self-vindicating argument just goes on and on and on proving that posting the thread in the first place was a total waste of space and the efforts of all us idiots who replied.

ultracheapskate wrote: »

And yes I have already said the point of this thread was to see whether it was likely that O2 would find out, and thus whether I could keep it. If you had read my earlier posts you would have noticed this. If I was concerned about the morality of keeping the phone, I would have gone to see a priest, not posted on a moneysaving message board.

Don't flatter yourself that this is moneysaving.

The phone isn't yours. This is theft. Your point that it's too expensive to buy it, so you'll nick it instead is just a load of balls.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that you quite deliberately confused or lied to O2 to get this second phone sent to you.

This forum isn't here to advise you on how to commission and get away with a crime. To do so would be to become accessory to it. So stop abusing this place and its members, and go flaunt your cleverness somewhere else.