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I once was shipped a _very expensive_ server motherboard from Amazon by mistake when trying to buy something cheaper. The customer service agent (Indian non nat

I once was shipped a _very expensive_ server motherboard from Amazon by mistake when trying to buy something cheaper. The customer service agent (Indian non native speaker) failed to understand that Amazon didn’t ship the correct item, and refused the return. I spoke to another agent and they thanked me and I got the correct item exchanged. I previously posted about this on HN and one of the responses was “who cares? Az makes $100k/min” You know what? It matters. Doing the right thing fucking matters. Have some integrity, don’t take what isn’t yours, give back what was a mistake. Don’t fall into the trap of relativism. You don’t know the whole story either... I’d like to think by returning that item I saved someone from getting fired; or a saved a small low margin retailer from losing their shirt. I’ll never know, but at the end of the day I can sleep with a clean conscience.

WalterBright 4y ago
You've got it right. Nice to see a post like yours.
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  ^
ffhhj 4y ago
On the other side of things, search for laser safety goggles on Amazon, there are lots of cheap ones that won't provide real protection, and comments of people being hurt by using them. Should Amazon remove those products and affect many low margin retailers?
- bathtub365 4y ago
  Yes, and the retailers should be sued.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  I refused to buy any of those solar eclipse goggles from Amazon. No amount of "sorry" and $millions is worth losing eyesight over.
jiggunjer 4y ago
The way I see it, Amazon accepted this risk of losses because they make more money by skipping additional QC checks. If people stopped generously returning profits maybe they'd get their orders right more often?
- mritun 4y ago
  I can’t speak for my employer but respectfully, that’s not true at all.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Accepting a risk of loss is not granting a license to steal.
  - amanaplanacanal 4y ago
    At least in the US, I believe you are not required to send back things that are sent to you by mistake. Not sure I would call it stealing in that case.
    - WalterBright 4y ago
      Just because you aren't required to doesn't change anything. You might be surprised how much people appreciate others doing more for them than is required.
  - jiggunjer 4y ago
    Are you "stealing" if someone delivers their tv into your possession and never asks for it back? Your awareness of their mistake doesn't obligate you to correct it, especially when the mistake is easily avoided and fixing is a non-trivial effort. In the case of a business, I wouldn't be surprised if they count on exploiting that free labor in their cost projections.
    - tekknik 4y ago
      > Are you "stealing" if someone delivers their tv into your possession and never asks for it back? by law no, but if this were a mom and pop operation, would you then return the TV? if so, then you know it’s wrong.
Nextgrid 4y ago
On the other hand, respect needs to go both ways. If a company can't be bothered to maintain a basic standard of competence in their customer support department, I see no reason to waste your own time fighting them. I'd actually be more lenient on this when it comes to a small business, but when a big faceless corporation can't (or rather intentionally doesn't want to) maintain a decent standard in their CS department - literally the only "escape hatch" for when things go wrong - they don't deserve respect.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Your honor is independent of the honor of the other party.
  - pixl97 4y ago
    My time is both expensive and limited. At some point you have to shrug and move on at their incompetence.
    - tekknik 4y ago
      Your time is so important you can’t send an email? What company do you work for? Should we test their customer service?
      - Nextgrid 4y ago
        > Your time is so important you can’t send an email? The company literally makes it impossible to "just" send an email, and even if he could send an email, in his case the first advisor was an idiot that couldn't even understand the problem so he had to explicitly try again and talk to someone else.
- awillen 4y ago
  The problem with this logic is that a whole lot of products on Amazon (even those labeled as Prime) are fulfilled by Amazon for third party small businesses. I own one of those businesses, and getting Amazon to pay up when they screw something up or lose something is a huge pain. At my product price points of $12-30, it's not even worth my time to bother any more. For a very expensive product where it's clearly worth it, somebody's spending hours on the phone trying to get it made right.
illwrks 4y ago
Not enough integrity in the world. We'll done on being a decent person and highlighting the error.
fmajid 4y ago
It's sad to see how surprised and delighted small retailers get when you do the right thing.
762236 4y ago
Totally agree. Amazon sent me two memory cards when I ordered one, so I called them and told them to charge me for the second.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  I like people like you.
- Tijdreiziger 4y ago
  They refunded me for a product I didn’t return. I told them to charge me again and they said they would, but they never did… Another time they refunded me for a product I had returned, and months later they refunded me another €6 for ‘shipping’ (I hadn’t paid for shipping). I called them and they told me to keep it, so I did.
nullhack 4y ago
I had a package go to the wrong place, and went to ask the neighbor for it myself. Similarly, called to complain, and they, misunderstanding me, offered me a full refund for the item that I had on my desk.
js2 4y ago
Apparently when ordering server racks from Amazon, they occasionally accidentally ship too many, but they are so expensive to ship back, they have you keep them. This person ordered 1 42U rack, got 9: https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/unbqtg/moving_to_a_new_place_soon_and_decided_to_order_a/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/unbqtg/moving_to_a... Here's another person who ordered 1 12U rack, got 12 12U racks: https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/giaw1x/i_bought_1_12u_rack_off_amazon_they_sent_me_12/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/giaw1x/i_bought_1_... Same: https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/eemzef/so_amazon_sent_me_a_pallet_of_12u_server_racks/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/eemzef/so_amazon_s...
ksec 4y ago
>I can sleep with a clean conscience. "When did you acquire this taste for luxuries?" - Sir Humphrey >You know what? It matters. Doing the right thing fucking matters. Have some integrity, don’t take what isn’t yours, give back what was a mistake. Don’t fall into the trap of relativism. I’d like to think by returning that item I saved someone from getting fired. Yes. As someone who once worked in Retail and E-commerce, a small action like this help people stay sane in a world where rampant fraud happens every single day. ( And I have been told it is only getting worse )

WalterBright 4y ago

You've got it right. Nice to see a post like yours.

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
^

ffhhj 4y ago

On the other side of things, search for laser safety goggles on Amazon, there are lots of cheap ones that won't provide real protection, and comments of people being hurt by using them. Should Amazon remove those products and affect many low margin retailers?

bathtub365 4y ago
Yes, and the retailers should be sued.
WalterBright 4y ago
I refused to buy any of those solar eclipse goggles from Amazon. No amount of "sorry" and $millions is worth losing eyesight over.

jiggunjer 4y ago

The way I see it, Amazon accepted this risk of losses because they make more money by skipping additional QC checks. If people stopped generously returning profits maybe they'd get their orders right more often?

mritun 4y ago
I can’t speak for my employer but respectfully, that’s not true at all.
WalterBright 4y ago
Accepting a risk of loss is not granting a license to steal.
- amanaplanacanal 4y ago
  At least in the US, I believe you are not required to send back things that are sent to you by mistake. Not sure I would call it stealing in that case.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    Just because you aren't required to doesn't change anything. You might be surprised how much people appreciate others doing more for them than is required.
- jiggunjer 4y ago
  Are you "stealing" if someone delivers their tv into your possession and never asks for it back? Your awareness of their mistake doesn't obligate you to correct it, especially when the mistake is easily avoided and fixing is a non-trivial effort. In the case of a business, I wouldn't be surprised if they count on exploiting that free labor in their cost projections.
  - tekknik 4y ago
    > Are you "stealing" if someone delivers their tv into your possession and never asks for it back? by law no, but if this were a mom and pop operation, would you then return the TV? if so, then you know it’s wrong.

Nextgrid 4y ago

On the other hand, respect needs to go both ways. If a company can't be bothered to maintain a basic standard of competence in their customer support department, I see no reason to waste your own time fighting them. I'd actually be more lenient on this when it comes to a small business, but when a big faceless corporation can't (or rather intentionally doesn't want to) maintain a decent standard in their CS department - literally the only "escape hatch" for when things go wrong - they don't deserve respect.

WalterBright 4y ago
Your honor is independent of the honor of the other party.
- pixl97 4y ago
  My time is both expensive and limited. At some point you have to shrug and move on at their incompetence.
  - tekknik 4y ago
    Your time is so important you can’t send an email? What company do you work for? Should we test their customer service?
    - Nextgrid 4y ago
      > Your time is so important you can’t send an email? The company literally makes it impossible to "just" send an email, and even if he could send an email, in his case the first advisor was an idiot that couldn't even understand the problem so he had to explicitly try again and talk to someone else.
awillen 4y ago
The problem with this logic is that a whole lot of products on Amazon (even those labeled as Prime) are fulfilled by Amazon for third party small businesses. I own one of those businesses, and getting Amazon to pay up when they screw something up or lose something is a huge pain. At my product price points of $12-30, it's not even worth my time to bother any more. For a very expensive product where it's clearly worth it, somebody's spending hours on the phone trying to get it made right.

illwrks 4y ago

Not enough integrity in the world. We'll done on being a decent person and highlighting the error.

fmajid 4y ago

It's sad to see how surprised and delighted small retailers get when you do the right thing.

762236 4y ago

Totally agree. Amazon sent me two memory cards when I ordered one, so I called them and told them to charge me for the second.

WalterBright 4y ago
I like people like you.
Tijdreiziger 4y ago
They refunded me for a product I didn’t return. I told them to charge me again and they said they would, but they never did… Another time they refunded me for a product I had returned, and months later they refunded me another €6 for ‘shipping’ (I hadn’t paid for shipping). I called them and they told me to keep it, so I did.

nullhack 4y ago

I had a package go to the wrong place, and went to ask the neighbor for it myself. Similarly, called to complain, and they, misunderstanding me, offered me a full refund for the item that I had on my desk.

js2 4y ago

Apparently when ordering server racks from Amazon, they occasionally accidentally ship too many, but they are so expensive to ship back, they have you keep them. This person ordered 1 42U rack, got 9: https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/unbqtg/moving_to_a_new_place_soon_and_decided_to_order_a/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/unbqtg/moving_to_a... Here's another person who ordered 1 12U rack, got 12 12U racks: https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/giaw1x/i_bought_1_12u_rack_off_amazon_they_sent_me_12/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/giaw1x/i_bought_1_... Same: https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/eemzef/so_amazon_sent_me_a_pallet_of_12u_server_racks/ https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/eemzef/so_amazon_s...

ksec 4y ago

>I can sleep with a clean conscience. "When did you acquire this taste for luxuries?" - Sir Humphrey >You know what? It matters. Doing the right thing fucking matters. Have some integrity, don’t take what isn’t yours, give back what was a mistake. Don’t fall into the trap of relativism. I’d like to think by returning that item I saved someone from getting fired. Yes. As someone who once worked in Retail and E-commerce, a small action like this help people stay sane in a world where rampant fraud happens every single day. ( And I have been told it is only getting worse )