• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Moral Dilemma, Vendor Errors.

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

pauldriver

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Location
The Land of SIN
When a vendor screws up in your favor, what should you do?

Background:

While working on my briefcase mod that houses a short ATX board (305x220mm), full size cards, two 5.25 drives and two 3.5 as well as water cooling gear (custom built heater-core), and a LCD screen in the lid, I dropped a [expletive deleted] screw into the case while trying to affix the clear acrylic top.

This wayward screw hit the power section (next to the CPU) of the motherboard and fried the board and the CPU.

R.I.P. Soltek P4X400 based SL85ERV and an Intel P4 1.6a Retail.

Well shoot, I killed it, so I do the honest thing, and instead of trying to RMA the broken stuff (which is still under warranty) I order the cheapest P4 DDR board I can get (amazingly a P4X400 based SL85ERV2-L), and scrounge up another low-end P4 pull (1.8a).

The new board I ordered shows up today and it's an Asus A7N8X Deluxe-UAY, this board sells for more then twice the price of the Soltek board, and has three times the features.

Question:

Should I return this board to the vendor?

Should I keep this board?

Paul.
 
The background info has nothing to do with your dilemma :rolleyes:

You got more than what you paid for.

The honest person returns the board, you're likely to be rewarded by the vendor for your honesty... and you'll feel better knowing you did what you knew all along was the right thing... but if you just want someone to help justify keeping it I'm sure you'll find plenty of help...

We're talking morality over legality, as whatever is addressed to you is yours to keep. Morally it's wrong since it's not what you ordered.
 
i would keep it

if they screwed up in there favor they wouldnt come to you

you would have to hunt them down

if they call you on it then mabey give it back
 
it's just a moral dilemma.. do whatever feels right for you.

However, it's not anything illegal with this.. if you received the package and picked it up it's yours.. so it really comes down to if you feel that you need to return it or not..
 
I'd give them a call and let them know about the screwup. Tell them if they want the board back they'll have to send you a paid shipping ticket.

I'd also let them know that your rig will be down considerably longer thanks to their mistake; so it would be nice of them to send the correct motherboard with the shipping ticket. (They'll probably have to charge your credit card to cover their butts. Once they get the board make sure they deduct the charge.)

Of course, they may just tell you to keep the board. You never know.
 
I would send them an e-mail informing them of the mistake.

It might not be worth having you return it if the motherboard box has been opened. But it would help them find the problem in how the order was pulled so it doesn't happen again.

They should give you some kind of reward if you do return it. Not for being honest. This is an inconvienence for you, you might have to pay a return shipping charge, and your system is down for another x days because of their mistake. If you do the right thing, you should make certain they will, too. If this was a vendor I liked doing business with, I'd ask for a $20 credit towards a future purchase and expedited shipping on the correct board.

If morality is "do(ing) whatever feels right for you" is a whole other debate. But the morality in this case is an easy call for me. If they sent you a lesser product than you paid for, you'd probably be on the phone before the UPS truck was off your block. If they refused to correct it, you'd go ballistic. And rightly so.

If it is immoral or sleazy if they didn't correct a mistake that would be in their favor, how is it any less immoral or sleazy not offer to correct it when it benefits you?





BHD
 
The little voice in your head says to do the right thing.

Call them up or email them and tell them what happened. Tell them that you were extremely happy with the board that you received, but that it was the wrong one and that your conscious got the best of you.

Let them know that if they want to arrange for an exchange, that they would of course have to cover all shipping costs, since it was their error to begin with.

If they are nice and a really good vendor, they will say "the error is on us, keep the board".

But even if you have to give it back and you end up getting that cheap board, you can rest tonight knowing you did the right thing. :)

The little devil on my other shoulder told me this: If they try to make you pay for the shipping, tell them too bad. Then keep the board. :D

~Jeff
 
diggingforgold said:
The little devil on my other shoulder told me this: If they try to make you pay for the shipping, tell them too bad. Then keep the board. :D

That was a very thought out and concise post. And, yes, I agree that if they were to ask for you to pay shipping, laugh as hard as you can (shouldn't require any special effort ;) ) and hang up.
 
I would say that the morally right thing to do would be to contact the vendor, tell them their mistake, and offer to return the board. They will probably tell you to keep it, but if they don't at least you will know that you did the right thing.
 
No one's losing anything if you keep the board. What, does the store lose a couple of bucks? And think about it this way: what if instead of the board you ordered, they sent you a worse board - or, worse, not even a board for the p4 or not even a motherboard!? (woah got a little carried away there). You would've been p***ed off at the their negligence! The error's their problem - its their mistake - its their screw up. Not yours. Now you have to give them a call and switch boards out of the goodness of your heart when it was their mistake to begin with?! Its gonna take at least a week - probably two! And, face it, the store's not gonna give you jack. A nice, "Oh, thank you, sir," and thats it - when you're sacrficing time and money (by losing a more expensive mobo). Plus, i bet the individual store workers dont even care - its just more work for them. Keep the board. They made a mistake. They should pay.
 
The thing is, it's not the board he needs/wants. He could easily sell the board and recoup the money for the busted board, and for the new one.....but that's a fairly big hassle just to break even.

The point is, they screwed up and it's going to cost you at LEAST a week of additional downtime. I personally would call them up and tell them what happened.....they will probably want the board back....if you haven't opened it, they could sell it for new. If you have opened it, they could sell it refurb and get back most of the money they would have lost had you kept it.

Also, think about it this way. If you keep it, you will have paid for the board that you NEED 3 times over. While selling the asus will put a rather large dent in that, you will still be out a little bit of money. Yes, that IS partially your fault, but still. The point is, it's going to cost you money to buy the board you NEED, and it may take a while to get rid of the one they sent you. I don't think it would be worth the time.....

Now, this is only because you have a P4 system....anyone with an AMD system would keep the board, lol. But, since you have no use for it, I would tell them and get the board that you need.
 
it depends on how big the mistake was, if it was a huge difference like 100's of dollars, I would tell them, if it was rather small, I would be happy and keep quiet.
 
DaveSauce said:
Now, this is only because you have a P4 system....anyone with an AMD system would keep the board, lol.

I resent that comment.


I don't care if it's some half-brain vendor with a resellerrating of 2 or Newegg, I'd ask about returning it. I wouldn't pay for their mistake, but I'd treat them like I'd want to be treated if I were in their shoes.
I wouldn't worry about compernsation for your time. Personally, I'm much too patient to stress over a couple weeks more of having an unbuilt computer. If you care, ask them about it when you call them and mention why they should compensate you.
Good luck!
 
I'd figure it out on how much it would cost to put straight, if the additional shipping both ways would come to about 80% or more of the difference in price, I'd just not say anything, since if you're happy to keep the better item, their real costs to "put it right" would probably match or exceed the cost of the error, so I'd tell my conscience to shut up, and keep it. If however the difference was more substantial than that, I would contact them.

Actually there's a law most places that says something like if you receive unsolicited merchandise, you don't have to pay for it, and the sender has only a limited time to arrange for it to be picked up again before it's yours. So theoretically, you could get on the phone and state simply (without lieing!) that you did not receive what you ordered, so please would they send it, and if they haven't got the smarts to ask more questions (to which you'd have to respond honestly) then theoretically you could get the thing you paid for and the "freebie". Not a recommended course of action however. Note though that this protects you from their demands that you pay the difference or that you pay for it to be shipped back. IF they try that and get shirty with you, you can try the tack above, tell them you are bouncing payment due to not receiving what you paid for and under law you can keep the unsolicited merchandise if they don't pick it up. You'll only need to do that in case of extreme buttheadedness on the part of the company you're dealing with though.

Anyway. Be nice, figure out if you're actually ripping them by much when all costs are taken into account, if you are, contact them, if not, save the hassle.

This is just my opinion really, and should not be mistaken for actual fact :D


One time this sort of happened to me, I ordered some SIMMs a long while back and got "better" ECC SIMMs that wouldn't actually work in my board. I contacted the vendor and they were meant to have UPS call for pickup, but they never did. Most frustrating.

Road Warrior
 
Update:

I contacted the vendor, had a discussion, and we worked out a deal that eventually gave me the board for another $25.00 (in the process of my purchasing some additional equipment).

I now get warrenty support, and from reading the forums, that's a real important thing when dealing with an Asus A7N8X :)



Paul.
 
pauldriver said:
Update:

I contacted the vendor, had a discussion, and we worked out a deal that eventually gave me the board for another $25.00 (in the process of my purchasing some additional equipment).

I now get warrenty support, and from reading the forums, that's a real important thing when dealing with an Asus A7N8X :)



Paul.

Good deal! I'm glad you did the right thing.
 
And when they want to see proof of purchase for warrenty verification?

Or what about in the first 90 days, when all Asus says is 'talk to your vendor'

my way is better.

BTW, show me where I can find a A7N8X V2 Deluxe for $102.00 USD shipped?

I did O.K.
 
I dont know about Asus but other than PNY I have never been asked for proof of purchase to return any hardware to the manufacturer. Most use the manufacture date of the hardware for warranty claims.

but to be honest i dont really care b/c its your money and you can do what you want with it :D
 
Back