# Accidental freebies through the post. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 21, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540 "2012-02-21T17:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/1 "2012-02-21T17:57:29Z")
Have you ever had any of these? Today I took a delivery of some dog food. I’d ordered rather a lot - two 15kg bags - but was accidentally sent two **50kg** bags. I don’t have enough space for this, and I don’t think my Jack Russel could eat it before it went off, so I’ve contacted a local dogs’ home to see if they want to take a bag. They’re going to call back if they can find anyone on their staff strong enough to lift a 50kg bag. 😃 (It’s not worth the while of the farm that sold it to pay for someone to collect the excess). I also recently ordered a six-pack of stamps from an online supermarket. They sent \*\*180 \*\*stamps. I’m still trying to decide on what to do with them - some arty project sending stuff out to 100 people or something. I might tie it in to last year’s museum project if I can think of a way - any suggestions? (I didn’t call the supermarket because the packer would probably have got in trouble). Over the last year I’ve also been sent three 12 bottle crates of rather nice wine. Addressed to me, but not charged. Then there was the time we were sent two Wiis instead of one. We gave the second one to a friend. There have been quite a few others that I’m forgetting right now. Anyone else get these? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/2 "2012-02-21T19:45:42Z")
Why’d it get moved to IMHO? Seems about MMPSIMS as it can be. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/3 "2012-02-21T20:34:15Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Why’d it get moved to IMHO? Seems about MMPSIMS as it can be. Hey, give it a day and it’ll end up in the Pit, once the bandwagon starts rolling. Don’t you know you did is no different than walking into a store, kicking the shopkeeper’s front teeth in and grabbing all you could while laughing manically before fleeing into the night? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/4 "2012-02-21T20:38:00Z")
Whoop, almost forgot – yes, I ordered a cheap memory card and received a much nicer one. I e-mailed the company and explained that there was a significant price difference between what I paid for and what I ordered, and what could be done about it? They responded by apologizing and sending me another nice memory card. I gave up at that point…if I pursued it further, I’d have likely wound up giving Chandler 100 memory cards if he promised never to smoke again. ---
**Author:** ![PacifistPorcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PacifistPorcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PacifistPorcupine)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/5 "2012-02-21T20:52:57Z")
Only thing I get free in the mail (other than spam) is Travel&Leisure. I had a subscription for a year when my airline miles were expiring, and it has not stopped coming since. It’s been 3 years I think. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/6 "2012-02-21T20:57:49Z")
Back in December I bought a 100 pack of blank hp brand dvds. When I opened the pack, I noticed some of the dvds had nicks and chips in them. Not large enough to affect the dvds, but still noticeable. There was also cigarette ash on some of the dvds, and one dvd wasn’t usable. I sent an email to the company to let them know about this stuff. I wasn’t expecting anything out of it, except the standard email saying that they would take care of it. To my surprise I got an email thanking me for letting them know, and that I would receive a replacement dvd. A couple of weeks later the mailman dropped off a fairly large package. Inside was a 25 spindle of blank dvds. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/7 "2012-02-21T21:17:22Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Hey, give it a day and it’ll end up in the Pit, once the bandwagon starts rolling. Don’t you know you did is no different than walking into a store, kicking the shopkeeper’s front teeth in and grabbing all you could while laughing manically before fleeing into the night? Ah, the companies don’t want them back. We did actually tell Amazon about the Wii and they said to keep it. I just remembered - I also got a rather nice leather sofabed for free; the first one they sent was faulty, but they never collected it after delivering the replacement. I tried numerous times to have them take it back, but their delivery company kept letting them down and eventually they said to do what I liked with it. We found a way to fix it, and it actually fits surprisingly well in my living room even with the other long sofabed and the armchairs etc. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/8 "2012-02-21T21:31:43Z")
A friend sent me a toaster as a gift, directly from the store to me by mail - and doing nothing by halves, it was a $120 toaster. When it arrived, one of the feet was damaged. It was merely cosmetically displeasing but didn’t affect the stability of the unit at all. I contacted the store, they apologised profusely and repeatedly and sent me a replacement toaster. It wasn’t worth their while to get the damaged one back so I have both and when the undamaged one dies, I can swap the feet over. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/9 "2012-02-21T21:39:34Z")
Not through the mail, but a friend of mine came home to a whole truckload full of mulch left in her driveway one day. It turns out, it was meant for a neighbor up the road. The landscape company told her she could keep it if she wanted - it was easier for them to write it off than come pick it up. She did need it, so she got a free (huge) pile of mulch. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/10 "2012-02-21T21:42:00Z")
The only such freebie that I can remember was a extra curtain panel when we ordered some curtains. We didn’t have any use for it so it just went in the bin. Along a similar vein though, I once checked our state’s “lost money” website (I can’t remember what the real name is) and it had like $900 listed for my wife. Apparently it was a last paycheck that they didn’t have a forwarding address for. Now we had had a problem with a check that was sent to the wrong address and they had given us all kinds of shit about replacing it, but eventually did issue a new one. We did’t _think_ she was owed any more, but if they insisted it belonged to us we weren’t about to kill ourselves to figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/11 "2012-02-21T21:48:52Z")
Many many years ago but worth telling: In the late 90’s I was really into wearing rugby shirts. I liked them super long, and in vertical stripes - which were hard to find. Sears had an online sale though, and the shirts were exactly what I wanted, so I ordered one of each color. A couple of weeks later 9 shirts arrived, in size “XL” instead of the “XLXT” which I had ordered. I called the company, and they said to keep the shirts I had,a nd they would send me the correct ones as well. “Great!” Thought I, I’ll wear the shorter ones with jeans and still have the long ones to wear with leggings as originally intended. Sears sent me 9 more shirts, still in the wrong size. I called, wash, rinse, repeat, four times. Until finally they no longer carried the particular shirt in the XT range, and just sent me my money back. And there I sat with my 36 shirts! The real worst part is that once I finally washed them and tried them on, I realized that the XL really was as long as I’d wanted them to be in the first place. The XT would have gone down past my knees! So one set I donated, and another set I dyed/bleached into different colors, and one set I just tucked away in a plastic bag for when the first set wore out. I only have one of them left in my closet, but I can tell you that my friends were all well and heartily sick of seeing me in rugby shirts by 2005. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/12 "2012-02-21T21:54:26Z")
36 near-identical shirts. 😃 I just remembered another one - getting sent 2 dozen USB to micro-USB cables instead of 2. They were all in individual packaging in a box, so I just kept digging through and pulling out cable after cable. This was shortly after the extra Wii, so I didn’t even bother calling Amazon and just gave most of them away. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/13 "2012-02-22T00:36:21Z")
I got a refund when a knife I ordered never came. Three months later we discovered that our terminally lazy UPS man had: Delivered it to my grandfolks’ house instead of mine, While they were wintering in a different state, Left it by the back door, Tucked in a flower bed, Beneath the snow-laden eves. Oddly enough, I didn’t think to look for my package at a different house under 3 feet of snow. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/14 "2012-02-22T01:32:43Z")
Years ago when I was planning my wedding to my now ex-husband, I found a veil that I absolutely loved but was way too expensive. I found something cheaper to settle for, so the store ordered it for me. Fast forward a week or so, I go back to the store to pick up my veil and in the package was the gorgeous but way too expensive veil I wanted to begin with. I pointed it out to the shopkeeper, but she insisted that she had ordered the cheaper veil, and that’s what I got charged for, so I just kept my mouth shut. ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/15 "2012-02-22T02:44:28Z")
I ordered a game console and three Bluetooth controllers from a company that sells, well, game consoles and Bluetooth controllers. The two items were sold through separate sites, so I emailed them and ask for them to combine the shipping. They agreed, and two days later a package arrived with a game console and three Bluetooth controllers. The next day another package arrived with three more Bluetooth controllers. I double checked PalPay, and yup, I definitely only paid for three. The three controllers cost $240 altogether. I emailed them and mailed them back, and they credited me the return shipping cost. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/16 "2012-02-22T02:51:26Z")
Bacon Salt Sort of. They had some terrible screw-ups with our order and ended up sending us 8 bottles instead of 3. What I mean is that they compensated us for the screw-ups by sending us those extra 5. Still, it was neat getting 5 free bottles on top of our paid 3. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/17 "2012-02-22T02:54:11Z")
Not me, but I remember my parents little cafe ordering two dozen eggs. What they _got_ was two _boxes_ of eggs; two dozen trays, each of a dozen eggs. They didn’t want to pick them up, so we got some very creative egg cookery for the next week or so. I think the company had just got a new person working there, as they had several orders on totally the wrong scale that summer. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accidental-freebies-through-the-post/613540/18 "2012-02-22T03:44:39Z")
I recently had an online retail experience similar to **emcee2k** ’s. I am not going to say with whom because I haven’t returned the duplicate yet… but yeah. It’s like the retail gods smiled down upon me. I can hardly believe my luck.