Money Moral Dilemma: Should I take advantage of an online supermarket error?

murphydavid

Isn't the main feature of MSE news flash email to give advice for making or saving money? This one fails in that objective.
For me the only difference between this trick and "Trick gets TWO boxes of £2 Shreddies cereal for 60p"  Both of which feature in the MSE news flash is that without specifics we and the unknown store can't take advantage of this one. (Thank you for saving me from having to make a dreadful moral judgement and the store from free advertising)
I don't click on many of the subjects and only clicked on this one because it contained the phrase "Take advantage of a supermarket error".
I think that if we could take advantage the error would get more immediate attention and their losses would be a small part of their advertising budget and in turn the store would come to the attention of quite a few more people which they might not consider a bad thing. 
Also wondering if the question is just hypothetical.

primrose_penguin

Although you are receiving individual items instead of multipacks, as long as you are being charged the cheaper multipack price why would you complain about it?? Sometimes if they do not have the multipacks in stock you get the equivalent individual items for the same price, so no I do not think you should continue to complain about this and expect refunds as well as keeping the items. Don't be greedy, that's the trouble with the world today.

CrispyUK

primrose_penguin said:

Although you are receiving individual items instead of multipacks, as long as you are being charged the cheaper multipack price why would you complain about it?? Sometimes if they do not have the multipacks in stock you get the equivalent individual items for the same price...

I think the wording of this dilemma is a little ambiguous, I had read it as a single individual item was delivered, rather than the expected multipack. So for example, they had ordered 3x triple-packs of baked beans, so were expecting 9 cans in total, yet just received 3 individual cans. 

Fitzmichael

! would consider myself to be unfailingly honest but, as previously posted, it's not your duty to inform the business that they seem not to be following your warning.

Howard20

There isn't a dilemma here for you to worry about!
You've done the right thing when first noticed; reported their error for which they generously refunded you & allowed you the keep the incorrect items f.o.c.
From then on it is up to them to correct THEIR mistake to ensure it doesn't reoccur & cist them further losses. If they are too stupid or lazy to correct their mistake, then why not continue to help yourself at their expense? After all you've told them if their mistake...........fill your trolly!

Bilbo101

I've had supermarket deliveries ever since April and often there are minor problems such poor quality/damaged groceries. These are too small to claim a refund so any advantage to offset the losses is to be welcomed. My emailed receipt shows the full price but does not list any substituted items and I wonder if this is illegal?

jedav

You have notified the supermarket of the error, so you have been initially honest.  If you want to carry this on you could, as has been suggested, notify head office.  If this is too troublesome, now that you know about the problem, perhaps you could only order the items if you needed them anyway.  Our culture tends to see large companies as faceless organisations devoid of individuals.  What we often forget is that they want to maximise their profits so it's probably all of the customers that will pay in the long run, averaged out.  It is interesting that you do not name the supermarket or the products, possibly giving you a clue as to your own thinking.

newpuppy

Mister_Magic said:

It seems unfair when they have been good to you by refunding even though it was their mistake.  I bet it wasn't Morrisons, they don't like refunding for their mistakes , I've experienced them being very offhand when I've pointed out a 50 pence overcharge three weeks on the trot. I don't shop there unless it is absolutely unavoidable and I ALWAYS examine my till receipt before I leave the shop. 

At our Morrisons they are lovely about refunds (in store, at least) and week after week I've been back with the same issue - eg bread on special, but I get charged full price - but the message never gets thro to those in charge of rectifying the ticket on the shelf!  ALWAYS check your receipt at Morrisons, especially when you're buying stuff on promotion or with bonus More points.  It might only be a few pence each time, but it's so frequent and soon mounts up.

crmism

As consumer, you've done all that's expected of you and, if it continues to repeat its mistake, that's its problem, not yours.

portlandboy

Absolutely you should take 'advantage' of the supermarket error.
Almost every week without fail we get to the checkout and find an accidental overcharge on something marked as a special offer. I like to think we spot most of these errors, but I'd put next week's shopping bill on the fact that we miss one or two here and there.
So, in all honesty, you taking advantage is probably, at best, only getting back a little of what you've previously been overcharged for.
If the supermarket cared, they would have sorted the problem out by now.