Receiving money not mine

[polomint]

So he should go out of his way to give it back?

Well from my experience, credits can sit on customers' accounts for ages, whether its B2B or end-user.

As businesses have so many accounts to deal with, stuff like this usually gets (deliberately, in some cases) ignored as it's too much effort to chase someone up. I always thought that if a credit was in your favour it made sense to hang onto it until the creditor asked for it back.
After all, the reason you put someone on 'stop' for not paying their bill is to put pressure on them to pay up. Legal proceedings can follow after that, but once the debt is paid everyone is usually 'friends' again.

Business is business, after all...

Put it in a high interest account and give it back if they ask for it.

If they never ask for it they will eventually write it off.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

id definately keep the money.

 

[Sequoia]

So he should go out of his way to give it back?

He should, yes. Whether he does or not is entirely his call. But he did ask "Where do I stand?" Where he stands, technically, is that keeping it is theft. His chances of getting done for it might be so close to zero as to be hard to tell from zero, but that's what it is. Which, apart from the moral imperative, is why in his shoes, I'd tell the company. Having told them, however, I'm not going to keep telling them. If, having been told, they don't chase it up, it's their lookout.

 

[MrWhippy]

well, my opinion, i'd keep it.
they made the mistake, it'd be up to them to work out they'd made it.
i'd give it back as soon as they asked for it but not before.

i mean, the OP doesn't work for them, ie. get paid by them, so why should he do work on their behalf.

ever been in a shop that has a sign saying "please check your change as mistakes cannot be rectified later"? it works both ways.

i doubt it's theft anyway. he didn't dishonestly appropriate the money, they gave it to him. and if he states on this forum that he intends to give it back as soon as they ask for it, neither does he have the intention to permanently deprive them of it.

but i'm no legal expert (only got as far as O and A'levels).
so it may or may not be legal.
and it may or may not be moral, but that very much depends on everyones own moral point of view.

and this thing about all the money companies lose every year due to stuff like this. eh, companies are not owed a living. they do well or go bust on their ability to perform. if they have policies that are so lax they can give money away and not realise it, either they're making so much money that it wont affect them, or it will affect them and they'll modify their procedures or go bust. really, it's for them to sort out their own mistakes, not the duty of their customers to chase after them and help them make their business work.

 

[Sequoia]

....
i doubt it's theft anyway. he didn't dishonestly appropriate the money, they gave it to him. and if he states on this forum that he intends to give it back as soon as they ask for it, neither does he have the intention to permanently deprive them of it.

The fact that they gave him the money, by mistake, has NO bearing on whether it's theft or not. The Theft Act makes it explicitly clear that it is the act of appropriating property, not how you originally got it, that determines theft, and that dishonestly appropriating the interest in that property (subject to the other conditions) is theft even if you originally acquired the property innocently, by mistake or even by simply finding it, if you had reason to believe it belongs to someone else.

If I lend you something, and you then decide to keep it, it's (subject to the other criteria) theft, regardless of the fact that I, as owner, originally lent you the item. When you decided to keep it, knowing I lent it to you, you are appropriating my interest in the property and therefore fulfilling that part of the necessary critieria for theft, depsite originally gaining possession legally, innocently and with my full knowledge and active compliance.

 

[MrWhippy]

If I lend you something, and you then decide to keep it

they didn't lend him it, they gave him it. anyway.

if you gave (or lent) me money and then came and asked me for it back, and i gave you it back, you couldn't expect me to get done for theft.

or could you?

 

[Retsef]

Keep it. Their mistake.

We had a similar experience when buying 2 sofas from a scandanavian furniture company. They failed to deliver the sofas, we complained. They credited £300 to our account (cost of sofa covers), as a goodwill gesture and promised to deliver. They delivered the sofas but did not take payment. We called 4 times requesting they take the money (as it was burning a hole in our pockets). They did not. Eventually we gave up. I think we did as much as we should reasonably have to do to get them to take the money. If they do not, we cannot be blamed. Upshot, they paid us £300 for 2 sofa. Personally I think they're idiots and deserve to be out of pocket.