Ebay/Company freebies

Kemik · 10 May 2012 at 23:34

Komedy said:
Its not stealing.

None of the examples in this thread to date, the boat, the ipads or the phones. Distance selling regulations covers this. If you order goods or services and for whatever reason the seller sends you the wrong item or items, you are under no obligation to return it and they in no way can charge you extra for their mistake. Even if you contact and tell them of their mistake they have no legal right to ask you to return it or ask for any additional payment.

Therefore as the law sits none of the examples in this thread can be classed as stealing.

Law and ethics aren't always the same.

(I have no opinion on the issue that people are moaning about though)

Cleeecooo · 10 May 2012 at 23:39

Komedy said:
Just to clear this up for you..

The law states they have no claim on it what so ever and cannot demand to collect or have you post it.

Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971

The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 makes it an offence for a company to send you goods you have not ordered. The legislation is intended to discourage companies from sending customers unordered goods in the hope that they will be induced by lethargy or ignorance to pay for them. Companies who send out unordered goods in this way do so at great risk since once you receive the goods you do not have to pay for them and they are yours to keep.

Under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, (as amended) it is an offence to demand payment for goods known to be unsolicited, in other words, they were sent to a person without any prior request made by them or on their behalf.

Someone who receives goods in these circumstances may retain them as an unconditional gift, and does not have to pay for or return any unwanted goods. Anyone who receives a demand for payment for unsolicited goods should report the matter to their local Trading Standards Department.

What, so a company, if it makes a mistake, can't even ask for them back if they pay for shipping?

Komedy · 10 May 2012 at 23:48

Moses said:
They're not unsolicited goods, though... it's a mistake if they send you two of something. If they randomly send you a Ferrari, yes... if you order a Ferrari, then they accidentally send two, no.

You ordered one and paid for one. The second was unsolicited. you didn't ask for it. The law is clear in this matter. In fact by sending you a second item the company committed an offence.

The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 makes it an offence for a company to send you goods you have not ordered.

The fact you ordered one and got two is irrelevant under the terms of the law.

Someone who receives goods in these circumstances may retain them as an unconditional gift, and does not have to pay for or return any unwanted goods. Anyone who receives a demand for payment for unsolicited goods should report the matter to their local Trading Standards Department.

Komedy · 10 May 2012 at 23:49

Cleeecooo said:
What, so a company, if it makes a mistake, can't even ask for them back if they pay for shipping?

Nope they have no claim what so ever.

Komedy · 10 May 2012 at 23:59

Moses said:
Not when it's an obvious error . The quote you gave us says how the law's to stop companies sending out random stuff and then asking for payment. It's not to punish companies who accidentally post out two of something.

What I quoted was the extract from the current UK law

The law is clear. The receipt of a second, third fourth ... item is unsolicited. you didn't order it. Simple

again it states

The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 makes it an offence for a company to send you goods you have not ordered.

Komedy · 11 May 2012 at 00:05

In fact under the letter of the law the little bag of Haribos that Gibbo sends us in our packages is against the law. By including those sweeties OCuK are committing an offence.

Komedy · 11 May 2012 at 00:23

Moses said:
Edit :: Just cba.

yeah cuz you read again wot you were gonna post - the section from the top before u deleted it :rolleyes:

.

I have represented several disputes for clients on this very issue and none were contested.

Slade2 · 11 May 2012 at 00:30

A few years ago we had a delivery guy at work who was dropping something off for someone who had missed it off the previous days delivery. It turned out he had a lorry full of brand new flat screen TVs that he had been told to take to the tip becuase they were `fire damaged` I dont actually think the guy made it to the tip becuase most of the people at work managed to get a tv off him. The TVs in question where in a warehouse that had a small fire and the owners of the company had claimed on the insurance for the cost of everything since they couldnt be sold as new Tvs.

horrorwood · 11 May 2012 at 00:33

Komedy said:
yeah cuz you read again wot you were gonna post - the section from the top before u deleted it .

I have represented several disputes for clients on this very issue and none were contested.

So if for example I buy a 7850 graphics card and they send me a 7870 I can keep the 7870 and demand a 7850?

nick1988 · 11 May 2012 at 00:39

I bought a NAD amp from a company and the model I ordered was no longer available through them but they had forgotten to take the product off of their site so instead they sent me the next model up which had just been released and was about £90 more. Was pretty happy with that!

Komedy · 11 May 2012 at 00:41

Moses said:
You're such a pro, but you bang on about The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, yet don't mention The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (the bit about inertia selling) .

You will find that in my very first response to this thread that I stated the DSR (Post no:32) and then followed with the The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 and strictly speaking the previous provisions were repealed and replaced by para 24 of the Distance Selling Regs.

Emphacy · 11 May 2012 at 00:45

I ordered 1 bag of potatoes from ASDA and they sent me 2 bags...

Makes up for all the times they replaced my Crunchy Nut with Cornflakes.

Komedy · 11 May 2012 at 01:02

horrorwood said:
So if for example I buy a 7850 graphics card and they send me a 7870 I can keep the 7870 and demand a 7850?

If you ordered goods A and they supply goods B, then the goods generally won't match the description, and are therefore a breach of contract

Komedy · 11 May 2012 at 01:09

Moses said:
But, according to you, B goods arriving = unsolicited goods, so the recipient can keep them .

in this case it really depends wots on the invoice

Kosmiche · 11 May 2012 at 01:36

Received a Antec P182 for free once...don't ask.

Also got Spectrobes for Nintendo DS when I ordered Stalker PC, never played it but it looks like a pokemon style game. It wasn't really free though as I paid for Stalker and ended up buying it "again" from another website.

nemtizz · 11 May 2012 at 01:41

The odd packet of Haribo from a Bike retailer, and a free T-shirt and Lanyard from Altamont, which were both pretty bad-ass!

No free iPhones though. :mad:

Komedy · 11 May 2012 at 01:49

Moses said:
Christ, so now you're accepting that receiving an order twice won't be unsolicited goods? (Considering both will have packing slips/invoices with the same order number/details/etc...)

Nope you ordered one and paid for one, anything else is unsolicited. I'm not sure why you have such a problem with the law, I didn't write it. And to fully answer the post earlier about the item A and B - some years ago I represented a client with this very issue.

He ordered some stuff for the home and one of the items turned out to be a more expensive model. About 4 weeks later he received a call from the store who from the outset were quite aggressive. As he had used the item for 4 weeks he was reluctant to now have to pay extra for it or send it back. Further calls with the store became more threatening to the point of the store stating a van would be round in the morning to collect the item.

This is when I became involved and a quick "Notice of Removal of Implied Right of Access" was issued. The van did not arrive.

It went to court under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act with the ruling in favor of my client. It is very easy in court to present a case on these grounds, which is why they don't often get that far.

Immediately after that hearing we filed a breach of contract on the store for not supplying the item ordered, paid for and invoiced.

This was settled out of court to my clients satisfaction.

Benjyshwa · 11 May 2012 at 02:40

Well that's all good to know.

Only thing I've ever got free in this case is ordering a Vinyl.

Nothing turned up so I e-mailed the seller, a week later 2 identical Vinyl's turned up

I used the 2 records to make sure my decks were both working at the correct speeds lol

Buchanan0204 · 11 May 2012 at 04:47

Bennie-Mac said:
Everytime sky send me out a router I get 2 by mistake. They just said keep it each time, so a couple of friends got a free upgrade to the wireless N routers.

How did they manage to program in their own username/password?

bhavv · 11 May 2012 at 05:14

Its not stealing if its given to you in error.

I ordered a £20 bedlam cube from play. I got an £80 mp3 player instead. I didn't even bother contacting them to get the bedlam cube, I just ebayed the mp3 player.