Money Moral Dilemma: Should I return the overpayment?

Sooler

The OP didn't appropriate with intent - not theft. The OP suggests they were not aware of the issue until contacted by the store person.

Sooler

mandi_moo wrote: »

I know that some people are of the opinion that Tesco makes millions of pounds etc etc but at the end of the day, thats not a reasonable excuse for retaining the money.
The circumstance of the victim (Tesco on this occassion) is irrelevant. Its the action of the offender/suspect thats will be viewed.

I'd consider that Tesco isn't the victim ...
"The employee accepted liability and said I was under no obligation to repay the difference, but if I didn't he would be in trouble with his boss." ... the employee can rectify it out of his own pocket if he wishes, that between him and his employer.

The employee being in trouble with his boss wouldn't be conditional on the customer.

The employee is just trying to recover his losses for his mistakes, it's nothing to do with Tesco. Tesco aren't asking the customer for any money.

VoucherMan

No - let him pay and get in trouble with his boss. Maybe next time he'll be more careful. If not he may add a 0 next time and hand out 10 times the correct amount instead of twice the amount.

We all (hopefully) learn from our mistakes. At least this time it was a relatively small sum that's been lost.

New_Martin_Lewis_convert

I am the one who sent in the dilemma and thx for all your thoughts. As NellySim wanted to know, I thought I'd post to let you know what I did.
I was worried about this employee getting into trouble and/or having it deducted from his wages so I figured that it'd be best not to involve his boss. This also then ruled out asking for any compensation that some of you suggested. I dug out my receipt and at 1st we both thought he'd split the money between mine and my partner's card. However we looked into it further and his initial concerns were right - he had overpaid me. So I paid the money back. He was very grateful and I felt great for about 10 minutes :A... unfortunately during this trip I managed to lose the silver fountain pen I'd used to write him out the cheque - then arrived back home, got out of my car, dropped my sunglasses and they were promptly run over by a passing car :eek:... so the whole trip back cost me an extra £60! Not his fault I know, and I'd do the same again... but I'm not sure I'm all that sold on the idea of 'Karma'...

Sooler

Inform the employee of your losses, ... I wonder if next week’s dilemma will be from a certain Tesco employee!

New_Martin_Lewis_convert

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:!!

Like it!

Marco12452

If you can confirm that there was a genuine mistake then it would be better for your own peace of mind to return it. I would check he has a right to have accessed any details on yourself and contact you via this method first as it may be a case he has broken data protection to get your contact number/address. If this is the case he would be better off facing the wrath of his boss rather than the police, but that also depends on yourself, if you find he has transgressed data protection and you so wish, you could take action too.

backfire

I read a few of the above posts, and were pleasently suprised to see that the majority of people out there are decent, honest human beings. I believe that keeping the amount (now that you know you have been overpaid in error) is literally the same as stealing. I would however want to look into the matter - to clarify authenticity of the matter. Though the reason the employee rang the customer could be because they actually "manage" the bureau. In which case he probably wanted to see if he could rectify the problem before it went to his boss.
Do the right thing. It was never yours in the first place, and what would you have done if it were the other way round???

Kiko4564

I would return that difference as otherwise it is technically stealing. He only said you didn't have to repay the difference as he was being kind, but I wouldn't get him into trouble with your action if I were you.

cheshire123

Good grief. Can't believe people need to ask a site like this the difference between right and wrong.

Ask for a statement to show the overpayment (for records and peace of mind) and then when you are satisfied this is not some sort of scam, pay it back, don't try to profit from some poor overworked guy's bad day, doesn't matter who he works for. Enough said.