Yeah, I guess. I’d like for them to recognize the stress they’ve unnecessarily caused me and express remorse. Isn’t that what you expect from a decent person? Why not a decent group of people (a company)?
Come on. You’re blowing this way out of proportion. Frankly it sounds like you’re trying to get us to justify keeping the money and I won’t do it. You know it’s wrong.
And frankly, if a company was supposed to apologize every time they caused someone a bit of stress, no work would ever get done. 
:rolleyes:
So you’re saying it’s OK for companies to treat people like shit? And my only recourse is to “suck it up?”
Give me an alternative to keeping the money. Give me something that’ll make me feel better – that will make a difference.
If it was your company how would you like the customer to act?
If it was your $135 you’d want it returned.
But, as has been stated, you know the answers, you’re just looking for like minded people to make it easier for you to do something that you know isn’t right.
Stress? Pftt.
Grow up already. You’re either an ethical person who does the right thing, or you’re a not so ethical person who does the right thing - unless there’s someway to equivocate not doing so.
This action will make you guilty of perpetrating a fraud. If not legally, ethically. And you know it.
I’d expect the customer to act in accordance with how they’ve been treated. If they were treated well, then I’d expect to be treated well in return. If I dismissed them with a computerized statement sans an apology, I might expect them to be pissed a bit.
The company inconvenienced you, but I would hardly say you were treated so badly.
It doesn’t sound like you want an alternative to keeping the money–now that the situation is resolved, what else can they offer you? It seems like you know the answer of what the right thing to do is. You just want a justification for why you should keep the $135.00.
Wrong. See post #21.
The stress of writing a letter, waiting six weeks and receiving a bill?
So if it’s not about the money, why are you asking about whether or not you should cash the check? Just rip it up, ask them if they’ll apologize and then go on your merry way. There’s not a whole lot else you can do.
Yes, companies treat people like shit. Is it ok? No, but what can you do. Wait - actually, your recourse is to NOT DEAL WITH THEM ANYMORE. Oh - that’s what you did. So where’s the disconnect?
And why in the world should they have to make you “feel better”?
Well sure. They should have apologized, I’ll agree with that.
I’d call them one more time. Say, “I got this check for a credit and I’m not sure why.” Give them about 15 minutes total, including your time on hold, to figure it out. Tell them that you’re not staying on the line forever. If they ask you to write anything, explain anything that takes more than “I cancelled my service and hadn’t paid anything anyway, and then was notified I had this other credit,” document anything, call back, etc., say “Um, NO, I’ve done enough of that. If this was an error, fine, I’ll tear it up. If you can’t tell me if it was an error, I’m cashing it. You have 2 more minutes and then our 15 minutes is up.”
Then count to 120, get off the phone, and either tear it up or cash it.
It’s wrong.
It’s as if you handed the cashier at a store a $10 bill for an item costing $9.99 and they handed you back change for a $20 bill
then, you return what you bought, they refund the $9.99.
So, you’ve kept $10.01 that you were given by mistake.
The cashier was rude, irrelevant.
The product was broken, irrelevant.
The store has a history of overcharging, irrelevant.
I feel sorry for people who take the attitude that since the money is in their hands by mistake its “finders keepers”. I hope I never find myself at their mercy.
The ethical thing to do is send it back, or just throw the check away.
This isn’t about the company, it’s about you. What kind of person do you want to be? Answer that and you’ll know what is right to do.
Seconded. If you believe they made a mistake, you need to make a good-faith effort to correct it. If they still maintain that the money is yours, well, I’d say it’s yours.
I don’t think you should just send it back or toss it just in case, for whatever reason, it IS legit. Maybe you paid a deposit of some sort and have forgotten. Maybe your wife/husband/roommate did. I forget this kind of crap all the time. That’s why I’d ask them. But if they can’t tell you or want you to do yet more hours of work for them to tell you, at that point I’d say screw it and keep it.
If you are absolutely positive 100% that it’s a mistake, then you should return it even though they made cancelling a pain in the ass. If you are not absolutely positive, give them a chance to confirm an error and then return it.
It wouldn’t be any different if you were a customer and had a 135.00 credit on a 270.00 monthly bill. My guess is not everyone who has posted would call and have them remove a credit of unknown origin on a bill, so I don’t see why it would be any different just because you are pocketing money instead of writing a smaller check. If you bought 200 dollards worth of groceries and got home and saw a 20.00 discount on the bill, would you go back and question it?
Also note, this is not the same as a cashier at 7-11 giving you an extra ten by mistake, and they’ll be disciplined/fired when the manager counts their till at the end of the shift. This is a huge faceless corporation, and the chances of them noticing the mistake are probably nil. Free money from a big corporation, with no one to get in trouble for it- sounds ideal. No one person is out anything, you’re not robbing granny’s pension or anything. Taking from a person is wrong, this is what, one less ivory backscratcher for the CEO?
I agree. This might sound odd, but I would actually be more offended by someone who tried to rationalize taking the money than by someone who just said, “fuck it - I’m keeping the money”. If you just want to keep the money, go ahead, but don’t try to ease your conscience by concocting some false reason why you think you’re entitled to the money.
Good play. I’ll do this.
It’s yours. With your being an American, I’m sure you’ve spent more than $135 of your time and concern on this, if not solely during the day where you had to wait for the installer. Your entire ordeal is their fault (is there any argument about this?), they owe you, more than just leaving you alone.
If you were awarded the money after taking them to court on grounds that they stressed you, that would be fine. Take them to court and see if they’ll award you the money that they’re giving you by mistake. You asked about the ethics. Ethically, it’s wrong to keep the money. If you want to behave unethically, by all means keep it.