Money Moral Dilemma: Should I return the 100+ stamps that Royal Mail sent to me by mistake?

phillmmorris

ENJOY with a clear conscience. You have exceeded the effort which would be expected of you and that most people would have put in

JayD

If I believe this dilemma, I would expect you to send the stamps back again with a short note explaining that this ha happened twice. Use the dame Freepost address that non bar-coded stamps are returned to. Is it really so much hassle to do that and pop them into a pot box? And are we really such a grabbing, something for nothing society that we rub our hands with glee when a mistake has been made in our favour?

Ridgehead

With the Post Office's immoral actions in discontinuing valid stamps so quickly and making swapping more difficult than just changing them at the post office I would just keep the stamps. You have wasted enough time sorting out their incompetence.
Or charge them @ £30/hr for your time.

G3R5K

Unsolicited merchandise must be returned if requested within a certain period (not sure exactly how long) but there is no obligation to inform the sender. AS you have already done your part I would leave it for them to start any further process. If it goes outwith the allotted period then they are yours to keep.

MarvinDay

G3R5K said:

Unsolicited merchandise must be returned if requested within a certain period (not sure exactly how long) but there is no obligation to inform the sender. AS you have already done your part I would leave it for them to start any further process. If it goes outwith the allotted period then they are yours to keep.

That is incorrect.
If goods received do class as unsolicited then they become the immediate property of the person they were sent to and that person can treat them as an unconditional gift and if they wish, could use, sell or otherwise dispose of them as soon as the desire.
However, I don't think that the stamps would class as unsolicited goods, simply goods sent in error.
For the stamps to be unsolicited, they must have been sent with no prior request by the consumer and the sender needs to have demanded payment.
The stamps are not unsolicited, simply the result of someone screwing up a couple of times.

soosoosmum

You have behaved honourably by telling the Royal Mail what happened and they messed up again how is that your fault? If you feel that you should contact them again, which it appears that you do, then do so. If not, you have done what was right and proper and any further mistake is yours to keep.

honestcove

Use them to send Christmas cards to the people you feel you have to send cards to, but you don’t really like them much.

Littledaler

"Items that firms send to you, but you didn't actually order are called "unsolicited goods". You're well within your rights to keep them. You have no obligation to send them back to the company or to pay for them.2 Dec 2014."  I disagree with Marvin Day, the extra stamps were not ordered, just the exchange ones.  And to those contributors asking how hard can it be to contact RM, I would say you have clearly never spent 35 minutes listening to awful music, just to inform a company they have sent the wrong item or for the call to be terminated and to those up there on the moral high ground asking if we have become a money-grabbing society, I would say that when someone has tried to rectify a situation but is coming up against a brick wall of incompetence, you deserve a token reward.  Any "windfall" could be donated to or shared with a charity.

SimonHolland1

I think this MAY actually be covered by law?  (I sometimes get 'returns' packages for an unoccupied registered business address in an office block with a similar address to mine)...  
Contact the sender and give them a date (I think it needs to be at least a month) to collect the goods at their expense and inconvenience, otherwise you may presume they don't want them.  
If I find the link to the law I'll paste it hear. 

Ath_Wat

phillmmorris said:

ENJOY with a clear conscience. You have exceeded the effort which would be expected of you and that most people would have put in

I'd question how much enjoyment you can actually get from using stamps, but other than that I don't disagree.