# Legal/Ethical: What to do if a merchant sends you a more expensive version of a product than you ordered? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787 "2025-06-18T02:53:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/21 "2025-06-18T18:33:33Z")
I would make a reasonable effort. If it is delivery from something like Amazon, i would write an email to customer service and see what they say; there is no way I’m going to try and navigate their phone system. If it was a small business like a fly shop that sent me the item, I’d probably call or go to the store if it was local. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/22 "2025-06-18T19:16:07Z")
Depends on why. More than once, I’ve ordered things on line that were the "v2’ model, and ended up with the “v3” because they ran out of “v2” after I ordered, and shipped me the “v3”, along with a note saying why. Now if you ordered say… a Bosch 400 dishwasher, and the delivery guys show up with a 800, then yeah, you should turn that away. That goes for most honest mistakes. However, if the difference is relatively small, I’d say to report it, but not necessarily ship it back, unless the vendor says to. There is a threshold where it’s just cheaper to let you keep it than go through the shipping and trouble to RMA it or whatever, and they’ll know that threshold. > [@Chronos](#): > > This is actually pretty common with computer hardware. With bleeding-edge top-of-the-line technology, the manufacturing process usually isn’t consistent, so they make a bunch and test them, and only the ones that pass all the tests get branded as the top model. The others, though, will quite often perform satisfactorily at some lower performance level, and so those get a different brand put on them and sold at a lower price. That’s almost exactly how Intel used to do CPUs in the late 90s. They produced _one_ model, and they’d basically test all of them, and grade them all out for where they would work. Some number of ones that would handle 200 mhz were sold as that, some number of ones that would work at 200 or 166 would be sold as 166 mhz, and some number of ones that would work at 200, 166, or 133 would be sold as 133 mhz, depending on how many they wanted to sell in each bucket and how each batch turned out. (right out of college, I worked for the testing equipment manufacturer) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/23 "2025-06-18T22:01:31Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > To me not much. If it is a simple web site report, an email, or a phone call that takes only a few minutes, sure. I’ll even go so far as a drop off with a preprinted label at the local UPS or FedEx. That’s as far as reasonable goes though. > > How far will you go? That is pretty much exactly as far as I’ll go. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/24 "2025-06-19T02:22:57Z")
Several years ago, helped a friend with a Western Digital hard drive that went out, but I pointed out to him that it was still under warranty (23months into a 1 year warranty). So we boxed it up and shipped to them, as requested, and they said they would ship a replacement. When that arrived, it was about twice the storage size of the original, and faster RPM. So we called them again, to tell them they had sent us a bigger replacement, They said they no longer manufactured the smaller one, and didn’t have any replacements in stock, so they sent us a bit better one – just keep it for our trouble. So we did, and it worked great for years. (And both of us chose WD hard drives whenever we could after that.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/25 "2025-06-19T11:59:02Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > (23months into a 1 year warranty) That’s a really remarkably elastic warranty. 😉 But good on 'em for sending your friend their latest and greatest. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/26 "2025-06-19T21:50:15Z")
Woops! That should have been 23 months into a 2-year warranty. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/27 "2025-06-20T03:13:42Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I’d contact them. If they didnt make it hard to do so. I have tried to contact some companies and it is nigh impossible. Emails come back undeliverable, etc > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I would try to tell them if it was easy to contact them. I wouldn’t spend a huge amount of effort if they made it difficult, though. Good point. And it depends on the price difference. Would any sane company want to pay return postage, then pay postage again to send the correct item? > [@madmonk28](#): > > I would make a reasonable effort. If it is delivery from something like Amazon, i would write an email to customer service and see what they say; there is no way I’m going to try and navigate their phone system. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/28 "2025-06-20T04:09:41Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > If it is delivery from something like Amazon, i would write an email to customer service and see what they say; there is no way I’m going to try and navigate their phone system. Fwiw, for most errors, their online system is pretty decent. So long as your problem is one of the boxes you can click. When they sent me a crushed sieve, it worked well. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/29 "2025-06-20T07:20:27Z")
If the price difference isn’t that great, I’d probably just keep it in lieu of compensation for the delay that would have taken place if I had sent it back and waited for a replacement. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/30 "2025-06-20T07:52:35Z")
> [@bump](#): > > That’s almost exactly how Intel used to do CPUs in the late 90s. That’s how everyone does it always. > **[Explainer: What is Chip Binning?](https://www.techspot.com/article/2039-chip-binning/)** > > You bought a new CPU and it seems to run cool, so you try a bit of overclocking. The GHz climb higher. Did you hit the silicon... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/31 "2025-06-20T07:59:43Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > A year or so back, I ordered a 500GB NVMe drive from Best Buy that was on sale. I received a 1TB drive of the same model with a 500GB inventory sticker on it. That reminds me of the time in college I bought four 1 MB SIMMs at Sam’s Club. Except afterwards I saw that they had given me three 1 MB and one 4 MB. (They were kept at the service desk, you had to take a slip of paper from a bin in the electronics section up front and they retrieved it for you.) At the time the cost was around $40 for 1 MB and $160 for 4 MB. I didn’t really have the option of keeping the bigger module, though, because I couldn’t afford to buy three more 4 MB ones and they only worked in sets of four. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/32 "2025-06-20T12:45:43Z")
I figured, but I didn’t want to say that like I knew for sure. I did know for sure about the brand and era that I mentioned though. (in fact, we actually got some burn-in/test chambers back for refurbishment once, and it had about six or seven unmarked pentium chips loose in the bottom, so we just basically slapped them into a spare PC and tested them, and did our own binning) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/33 "2025-06-22T23:41:50Z")
My mother was very excited when pocket calculator became a reality, and each of the kids got one for Christmas the first year they were widely available. We had the cheapest model. It didn’t take long until one of us dislodged the cover plate, and we discovered there was an extra button that was completely functional, except that the cover plate didn’t have a hole to access it. Yeah, this is how electronics have always worked. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/34 "2025-06-22T23:51:29Z")
I’m curious about your calculator, since I have a collection of many of the early models. Did you ever get the hidden button to work? I bet it was a percentage key. (And do you happen to remember the manufacturer?) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/35 "2025-06-23T00:13:50Z")
It was TI, and yes, it worked fine. Just remove the piece of metal blocking access, the click the bubble of foil, which is what was under all the other plastic buttons. That’s how we realized what they’d done. It may have been a percentage key. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/36 "2025-06-24T12:40:17Z")
I ordered a couple of dashcams before reading a review of the product. As soon as I did, I canceled the order and was refunded my money. Then the cams showed up. I contacted the seller 3 times and got no response. So I’ve still got them - sitting next to me at this very moment. I may or may not get around to trying one out. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787/37 "2025-06-24T12:42:56Z")
I’d guess square root, myself. That’s what’s usually the first thing to be added on a calculator, past addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-ethical-what-to-do-if-a-merchant-sends-you-a-more-expensive-version-of-a-product-than-you-ordered/1019787.md?page=1)