MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Should Alan give the laptop back?
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I was brought up to accept that my mistakes were my responsibility and should accept the consequences.
If someone took advantage of them that was their good fortune.
Let us leave the concept of morality in the higher planes of human behaviour rather than lower it to the levels evoked by tabloid journalism.
Of course Alan should accept his good fortune and hope that there is no truth in the adage "what goes around, comes around".0 -
I dont understand how people can say the moral thing to do is give it back!!
If I decided to be morally just, I would take the laptop for £3.99 as every part in that laptop and been made out of profitable companies + the shop.. So its not that much of a loss for any of them..
If I was feeling especially moral and I was expecting to pay the money I would take it for 3.99 and then give the rest to a charity.. Get out of the box people!!
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Should Alan give the laptop back?
Yes, of course he should - would anyone really think otherwise? Alan presumably saw the price tag and knew what he should be paying. Even if he hadn't he would have known that 3.99 was an absurd price. The cashier made an innocent error and I am sure if it had been the other way round then Alan would have lost no time in pointing it out.0 -
It's wrong because the item was being offered at 399, and not 3.99. It's quite simple. Again, this is not the same as haggling a price down legitimately.
The original suggestion came from someone that thought it is good if you get a 40p tin of beans for 4p because of a pricing error.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11985555&postcount=10
What price does the mistake have to be made at for something to change from being a good deal, to being theft?0 -
Something like this happened to me in Ikea. I was buying a wardrobe with lots of component boxes and they forgot to scan four boxes worth about £50 each. The amount was much lower than I was expecting and when they gave me the receipt I saw what the mistake was and told them. To knowingly walk out when you've not paid for something is wrong, whether they've made a mistake or not.0
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MikeyBoosh wrote: »I dont understand how people can say the moral thing to do is give it back!!
If I decided to be morally just, I would take the laptop for £3.99 as every part in that laptop and been made out of profitable companies + the shop.. So its not that much of a loss for any of them..
If I was feeling especially moral and I was expecting to pay the money I would take it for 3.99 and then give the rest to a charity.. Get out of the box people!!
If it's coming from a small business you are effectively taking £390 out of their till. That's a direct loss to the owner, and will hit his/her pocket.
If it's a chain, the £390 could very easily come out of the checkout assistant's or the manager's wages, meaning, even if you do donate the difference to charity it's effectively their money you are giving away. What would you say if your boss said that you had to give £390 to charity because you mistyped something?0 -
Something like this happened to me in Ikea. ..... To knowingly walk out when you've not paid for something is wrong, whether they've made a mistake or not.
This is different. The customer has paid the price that the retailed asked for, for the item they wanted to buy. It is not due to an item being hidden in a trolly or forgotten. They paid for everything they took to the cashier.0 -
My gut feeling would be to offer to pay the full price. I once had a holiday job in a shop where any mistake like that would be deducted from the cashier's pay: don't know if that is still legal! And it could affect (if a trainee) the person being employed or their contgract terminated at the end of the training period. Some shops and other businesses have woefully poor training systems.
BUT I have, some years ago, "accepted" a mistake by a cashier. She was talking to someone else as she rang up the items (not a swipe reader till) and rang in 19.99 instead of 199.99 French Francs, about £20 in those days. If she had been polite and taken notice of me as a customer, I would have pointed out the error. As she was so rude, I didn't bother and don't care if it was deducted from her salary.
A few days ago I bought some vegetables at a 'pick your own' place nearby, and the girl missed one item off. I pointed it out to her - I go there often! Same principle when my vet omitted one visit from a bill: I have an account and the vets in the practice are supposed to give the details to the office manager. He had just plain forgotten, although it was in his desk diary. I reckon honesty like that does bring its reward as I've subsequently been given a few extra discounts (I already get an agreed discount on vaccines and certain items) since then. BTW, I'm in France, and I'm none too sure British vets behave the same way.0 -
The original suggestion came from someone that thought it is good if you get a 40p tin of beans for 4p because of a pricing error.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11985555&postcount=10
What price does the mistake have to be made at for something to change from being a good deal, to being theft?
If it's 1p or £100 it's still theft in my eyes. If something is mispriced at a till and I realise it, I correct the mistake and offer to pay full price regardless of the amount. Sometimes the price on the shelf is incorrect and the lower amount is right, but at least I've been honest enough to double check. Having worked in supermarkets and shops back during uni it's inevitably a member of staff who will suffer because of these mistakes, and not the profit line of the business.0 -
Something like this happened to me in Ikea. I was buying a wardrobe with lots of component boxes and they forgot to scan four boxes worth about £50 each. The amount was much lower than I was expecting and when they gave me the receipt I saw what the mistake was and told them. To knowingly walk out when you've not paid for something is wrong, whether they've made a mistake or not.
You have to take each case independently !!
If you go to Ikea and get away with not paying a couple of hundred who cares? They dont if they cared they would have been more careful....They make millions upon millions!!! Is it morally right you should pay or is it morally right that they make millions, when so many people in the world have nothing, wouldnt the morally right thing to do be to give the money you saved to someone who needs it!!! ??0
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