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Last week I ordered 2 kits of impact drivers due to the unbelievably low price.

The product was discounted from 300EUR to 100, so I bought 2 of them. Next day I received an email from the company, that the given price was a mistake and that the order will be cancelled any my money was refunded.

But to my surprise, today I received the package that I have ordered, but my money was already refunded so I haven't paid for them but receive them. What should I do next? I ordered from the UK and it was shipped to Slovenia - both EU countries.

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    If the whole transaction had been in the UK, your only legal obligation is to take "reasonable steps" to keep the items in good condition while they are in your possession (i.e. don't leave them outside in the rain!) and to allow the company to recover the goods at its own expense - either by paying you the return postage, sending a courier to collect the items from you, or whatever they choose. I don't know if the same law applies to international transactions, though.
    – alephzero
    Dec 24, 2018 at 17:51
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    I think you would get a better and perhaps more expert answer at law.stackexchange.com
    – Jon
    Dec 24, 2018 at 20:35
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    @alephzero I'm not even sure if that applies here. It depends on the timing. In UK law, the product description on the website is an invitation to treat, OP's order was an offer, and then we have a potential acceptance (the shipping of the item) and a purported rejection (the refund and email). If the acceptance took place first, then the rejection is invalid as there is already a contract. The OP's obligation would then be to pay the 100 euro. I agree with the above comment - this question should be moved to law.stackexchange.com.
    – JBentley
    Dec 25, 2018 at 3:21
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    What is your desired outcome here? Keep the tools for free? Pay the E100? Send them back so you don't have to store them?
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Dec 25, 2018 at 3:52
  • @JBentley: whether the website constitutes an invitation to treat, or an offer to sell, is not certain. However, either way, a contract almost certainly was concluded. Whether it can be annulled by unilateral mistake is however another matter...
    – eggyal
    Dec 28, 2018 at 20:27

4 Answers 4

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Contact the company and let them know you have received the product even though the cancellation was made.

Ask them if they want you to ship it back (this implies that they pay for shipping since it was their error). They should be able to arrange for a courier to pick it up from your house so that you don't have to drive anywhere.

You can also offer them to pay 200EUR per the original order to keep the merchandise. However, they may request the additional 400EUR in order for you to keep it.

There is a slim chance that they will say "This was our mistake, please keep it as a token of our appreciation; Happy Holidays!"

You can choose to not say anything and just keep the item but it's morally wrong even though the company will probably not seek restitution.

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    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica ♦
    Dec 27, 2018 at 0:27
  • Well, if the product is worth 600 EUR I doubt the company will say to just keep them. If it was worth 10 EUR, yeah, the cost of return shipping and having someone process the return would be more than the value of the item. Besides that I think this is an excellent answer and I upvoted.
    – Jay
    Mar 31, 2020 at 19:23
  • @Jay Thanks, I've made an edit so that it sounds more plausible now.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Mar 31, 2020 at 19:51
  • BTW: My daughter wanted one of those little 3 minute hourglass timers to time brushing her teeth. She ordered on line, but it's a cheap item, so the company only sold it in packs of 6 for like $3. So okay, fine, she ordered a pack of 6. By mistake they sent her 6 packs of 6. She was honest and called and asked about returning 5. They said to just keep them -- I presume they figured it wasn't worth the shipping and processing to get back $15 worth of merchandise. So now she has 36 toothbrushing timers. She's set for life.
    – Jay
    Apr 1, 2020 at 13:29
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I doubt its worth the company's time to try to get anything from you forcibly(through legal means or otherwise) after they messed up as described here.

That being said, you did end up with items you 're not entitled to by their mistake. I still think the honorable thing to do would be to contact them to let them know as a gesture of good will and work an outcome that satisfies you both.

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There are a few different angles to this.

Firstly, morally and legally you certainly should inform the company of the situation and offer to pay the 200EUR you ordered the two items at.

The question then is what happens if they instead demand the return of the items. Here things become more of a grey area.

On the legal side, companies who want to rescind mistaken prices they advertised will generally claim that a contract to buy the item at the low price hasn't yet been formed, either because of the exact sequence of legal events or because the price was an obvious mistake. A discount of 300EUR to 100EUR, particularly in a commercial environment where discounting is commonplace, doesn't seem that extreme to me, though you yourself described it as "unbelieveable". Overall you may well have some room to argue that a valid contract was formed and you are entitled to keep the items but pay the 200EUR.

On the practical side, you have possession in your favour, along with the fact that at a minimum the company will lose out on two sets of international shipping costs if they do get the items returned. If they do want to pursue you legally they'd have to do it in the Slovenian courts. So if you do feel you have a valid case to keep them, you can probably just stand your ground.

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  • By not contacting them and simply being quiet and waiting for them to write something to me, am i doing anything illeagal?
    – Žiga Gazvoda
    Dec 24, 2018 at 15:04
  • @ŽigaGazvoda It could probably be considered dishonesty (and hence theft/fraud) - certainly in the UK people who have kept quiet about accidental deposits into their bank accounts and spent them have been convicted.
    – GS - Apologise to Monica ♦
    Dec 24, 2018 at 15:33
  • If the company argues no contract has been formed, on what basis can they demand the return of the items? If you send me something through the mail without a prior agreement, isn’t it just mine? Of course I agree morally it is much better to just return the items when asked (as long as the company covers the shipping fee).
    – 11684
    Dec 24, 2018 at 15:57
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    @ŽigaGazvoda There is no illegality under UK law. The legal situation is that the company notified you that they refused your order (which they can legally do) and then sent you some "unsolicited goods." Your only obligation under UK law is to take "reasonable steps" to keep the items in good condition, allow the company to recover them at their own expense.
    – alephzero
    Dec 24, 2018 at 18:07
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    Dont forget to put a time limit on your offer. Like one month or so. Worst case, they dont reply, then you buy these items elsewhere (because you need to use them) and then out of blue they take your offer.
    – lalala
    Dec 25, 2018 at 9:06
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You did nothing wrong. The seller made two gross mistakes: Offering a product for €100 instead of €300, and shipping the product after refunding your money.

If you have a bad conscience about benefitting from their double error, you can contact them and offer to pay the €200, or allow them to pick up the product. The result will be equally likely that they say "yes, please pay €200" or that they will say "our mistake, keep the product".

For financial reasons, they will not try to get the product back, because that will most likely produce so much work, it's not worth it. Why would they say "keep the product"? Because that hides the fact that someone made a big mistake (and that someone might not want their boss to know), and quite likely the company has no process in place to handle such an unusual request.

If you have no bad conscience, you can keep the product - it is most unlikely that they will do anything about it, and most unlikely if they do something that they can get more than your €200 which you were willing to pay anyway.

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