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I need ethical help !!

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ebygum

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I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
 
Solution
S
You've been completely ethical and honest. They made a mistake, you tried to correct their mistake, and they have a bureaucracy in place that precludes a convenient solution. I think you do whatever you want with the extra hoods.
You are trying to be honest with them and it is apparently too much trouble for them to take it back. As I see it, you have 2 options -

1) Keep it since you tried to return it; or

2) Sell the extra camera and make a donation to a charity of your choice in the amount of your sale. This at least will make you feel better and a worthy cause will be profiting from their mistake.
 
I don't think you should give up just yet. I would suggest that you call Sony back, and ask to speak to someone higher up the ladder. And if that fails, try again. Sooner or later you'll find someone at Sony who will actually appreciate your honesty/integrity, and will figure out how to return the items. Your act of kindness may perhaps even lead to a discount on a future purchase.

I know you will do the right thing!

Glen
www.FocusOnNewfoundland.com
 
ebygum said:
ebygum wrote:

I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
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If they are too stupid to get back their expensive merchandise after you went out of your way to return it, then it is yours. Sell the hoods and keep the money. Or give to charity if you would like. Or since you have so many, give some away to some members here, have a contest for best pic from the RX1 and give the top four winners a lens hood, keep one for back-up.
 
Email them so you have a record of trying to do the right thing. Inform them that if they decline to pay for return of the items ( and at $150 each you'd think they would ), you will take that to mean they don't want them and you now own them.

You tried the honest way. Fine. Now just make sure some idiot in Sony doesn't accuse you of stealing them later when they change their minds.
 
ebygum said:
ebygum wrote:

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
I really appreciate your dilemma, because it indicates that you are a good person.

Considering the answer by Sony, I suggest that you sell the additional items, pay the eventual taxes, and give the money to a charity of your choice.
 
I ordered a camera from Sony. Sony shipped me 2 cameras. I called Sony to report the shipment of the second camera. The Sony representative told me our system shows only one camera was shipped. We can accept the return of the second camera because we do not know if it is a gray market camera that is a copy of a Sony product. Our shipping system would not recognise the returned camera and we would have to return it to the sender. Sony told me to keep the camera.

I gave the camera to a lady that badly wanted a camera but could not afford one. She still thanks me for doing this two year later. So enjoy your six camera hoods and spread the joy.


Yes, I am a priest.

Fr. Joseph Broz
 
ebygum said:
ebygum wrote:

I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...



Based on what I read the error of 5 additional at $150 each means a $750 mistake.


I know I'm picking nits, and the maths isn't a significant part of the story.

Suggest you take the well meaning advice from other participants and benefit some charity or needy person with Sony's unintentional generosity.

I commend you for your attempts to return them. I like to think I would have been as persistent, but somehow doubt it.

RS
 
and fair enough !.
Now let's wait to see if someone from Sony, really is reading these forums.

Reverse traffic to Sony seems to be impossible
according to one retailer I dealt with.
Ended up with a surplus battery in a freebie package offer.
They told me the system simply couldn't handle an undocumented return;
keep it, please.
I ended up giving it away here
 
ebygum said:
ebygum wrote:

I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
I've never really liked Sony as a company (for reasons unrelated to their photo gear) but now that three people have come out and said that Sony gave them extra stuff and were unable to accept the returns, I might actually give them a try some day.
 
Member said:
camperbc wrote:

I don't think you should give up just yet. I would suggest that you call Sony back, and ask to speak to someone higher up the ladder. And if that fails, try again. Sooner or later you'll find someone at Sony who will actually appreciate your honesty/integrity, and will figure out how to return the items. Your act of kindness may perhaps even lead to a discount on a future purchase.

I know you will do the right thing!

Glen
www.FocusOnNewfoundland.com
Click to expand...
Screw this. I would NOT waste my time calling back over and over. The OP tried to do the honest & right thing, but I tell you what, if this happened to me and I was told that, I certainly wouldn't be calling back again. They don't want to listen and take the item back, eff them. And I WOULDNT buy from them again, cause imagine if the mistake was AGAINST you next time?
 
Ethically, if the store agent dismissed it like that the error ain't gonna come out of their pockets (a big reason why I try not to keep extra change at clothing stores or such), and in a large corporation like Sony it's easily conceivable that the hassle of fixing their problem with your order would cost them more than the extra hoods would sell for---managerial time can be surprisingly pricey, plus possible consulting time for a technician in case they need to change something in the system to accept your return.

So, dunno; do whatever you want with them. Give 'em away, sell 'em and give the proceeds to charity, keep 'em as backup, use 'em to decorate your christmas tree, I don't think there'd be ethical concerns with any of them. So long as you don't break them and throw them away or something equally destructive (please do not see whether they'll blend, either), you've done all you should, and they've decided accordingly.
 
ebygum said:
ebygum wrote:

I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Ha ...and this is the problem with big business today ...ethically, as long as you tried, I would say keep them and feel fine. Heck, return one and get a refund ...I mean if you received six, called them and told them and they suggested sending one back ...talk about messed up.

You tried, and it doesn't matter what really happens, it's your intentions that count. There is no way you should spend your money on something that Sony messed up and is unwilling to fix ...unless you have alot more money than Sony, but still. Enjoy.
 
Draek said:
Draek wrote:

Ethically, if the store agent dismissed it like that the error ain't gonna come out of their pockets (a big reason why I try not to keep extra change at clothing stores or such), and in a large corporation like Sony it's easily conceivable that the hassle of fixing their problem with your order would cost them more than the extra hoods would sell for---managerial time can be surprisingly pricey, plus possible consulting time for a technician in case they need to change something in the system to accept your return.
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Agree with the above post- when I was a student and worked in a supermarket we would sometimes get odds and ends of extra stock delivered because they found it in a warehouse but it was too complicated to adjust the systems so they'd just ship it out to a store and let the store balance it out at the next stocktaking... now I work with these systems and understand why it's difficult! It's quite possible somebody in the sony shop found 6 hoods where the system told them there should be 1, and the easiest and cheapest way of correcting the system is to dispose of the extra hoods...

Plus, I am fairly sure the profit margin on a $150 lens hood is more than five 6ths of the cost, so you're not costing them money, you're just reducing their profit margin....

In short, stick them on ebay. If you feel guilty, give the money (minus your costs) to charity.
 
ebygum said:
ebygum wrote:

I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
I wish that the bank executives which received millions and millions of compensations after government bail outs would have similar ethics discussions.
 
Deleted1929 said:
sjgcit wrote:

Email them so you have a record of trying to do the right thing. Inform them that if they decline to pay for return of the items ( and at $150 each you'd think they would ), you will take that to mean they don't want them and you now own them.

You tried the honest way. Fine. Now just make sure some idiot in Sony doesn't accuse you of stealing them later when they change their minds.
Click to expand...
 
You did the right thing by advising them of the problem. I suspect that within their inventory management, quality and financial systems it's very difficult to "return to stock" more that what was originally recorded for the transaction, which was 1 unit.

When they do their periodic "wall-to-wall" physical inventory, it'll show up as a shortage and written off at cost (not retail) value.

This may sound like a waste, but manually overriding the system for a relatively low value item transaction like this costs more internally than the write-off.

Give them away, sell them and donate the proceeds are good dispositions.

I had something similar happen twice in the past, albeit both times the value was lower. When I lived in China, I ordered about a year's worth of books from Amazon, after several weeks the shipment was reported as lost, and could not be tracked. Without hesitation, Amazon did a replacement shipment at no cost. Both shipments arrived 1-day apart and when queried, Amazon did not want them back, so I gave the duplicates away.


--
Best regards,
Doug

Bird galleries on PBase
 
You did way more than you should have and if it's too much trouble for a corporation the size of Sony to accept them, then @^*@ them!

Sell them on ebay, donate half the money to charity, and invest the other half into making someone you love happy. End of story...
 
klauspauk said:
klauspauk wrote:
klauspauk said:
ebygum wrote:

I ordered a lens hood for my Sony RX1 from the Sony store for close to $150. They only charged me for ONE, but they shipped SIX - a $600 mistake. I am an honest man, so I called Sony so that I could ship the extra ones back. Guess what? They said that their records only showed one as being shipped, so "there was no way that they could accept the return of five, much less pay for the return shipping." They said I could return one of them and get a full refund, but that was the limit of what they could offer. You would have thought that I was asking a favor, rather than trying to do one.

The Sony store agent was very friendly and polite and actually suggested eBay !! Should I accept that suggestion, or send them back at my expense (assuming I can find a return address), or what? Advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
I wish that the bank executives which received millions and millions of compensations after government bail outs would have similar ethics discussions.
Click to expand...
It's not surprising to see that this thread is being derailed to begin a rant against Evil Bankers; some thread migration is common.

I happen to agree that many investment bankers are essentially the spawn of evil, manifesting themselves in personal and corporate greed, with complete disregard to the community at large, only looking at personal and/or corporate gains.


However, that is off topic as it relates to this thread.
 
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