Amazon sent us a free smartwatch on accident- and we get to keep it!

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd post about a stroke of good luck my husband and I had last week, in case this happens to anyone else during the holiday shipping rush and they are unsure of what to do. I came home to find a strange package on our doorstep. It was from Amazon, and it had my name, address, etc on it. I was confused, since I'd only sent in a book to trade-in on Amazon recently, and this package wasn't the right size to be that book being sent back for some reason. I took it inside and opened it to find a $400 smart watch inside that we didn't order. Of course, I immediately panicked thinking our credit card had been stolen and the item had still ended up at our address somehow, but after checking all of our accounts I confirmed that wasn't the case.

So I called Amazon, and got a really nice lady on the phone who informed me that the package must have been sent to us by mistake and that we could keep it. At first I protested, seeing as I was sure someone else was out there waiting for this to arrive, but she told me they couldn't take it back and that I was welcome to "keep, sell, or donate" the item, and that they would send a new one out to the person it was meant for right away.

I thought this was a little too good to be true, so I asked for written permission to keep the item, which they happily emailed to me. After doing some research after I got off the phone, I found that by law, they cannot attempt to coerce you give the item back or try to collect payment for it in any way. If they send it to you on accident, it is considered a "gift".

So anyhow... my husband now has a new smart watch and I guess we just got lucky!

Has this ever happened to anyone else? When I did research this seemed to be relatively common, which I found surprising.

 

[clori]

I had something a bit different but the same idea though much less pricewise. First was an order from Crayola for a kids easel/chalkboard. I ordered it for a friend for her kid's birthday and shipped it to her apartment. When it said arrived but it wasn't there I called Crayola and said we couldn't find it. They said no problem and sent out a new one. A few days later a person knocked on my friend's door and said I think I accidently took your box. I called Crayola back and they said not to worry enjoy both.

Another time from Amazon I ordered a lego friends house. It never came and shipping status never said arrived etc. It was closer to 2 weeks when I called for a prime shipping item. They apologized and said they would send another out asap. I got one two days later then the day after got a second one. Amazon said to keep both.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I had something a bit different but the same idea though much less pricewise. First was an order from Crayola for a kids easel/chalkboard. I ordered it for a friend for her kid's birthday and shipped it to her apartment. When it said arrived but it wasn't there I called Crayola and said we couldn't find it. They said no problem and sent out a new one. A few days later a person knocked on my friend's door and said I think I accidently took your box. I called Crayola back and they said not to worry enjoy both.

Another time from Amazon I ordered a lego friends house. It never came and shipping status never said arrived etc. It was closer to 2 weeks when I called for a prime shipping item. They apologized and said they would send another out asap. I got one two days later then the day after got a second one. Amazon said to keep both.

Wow that is awesome! It's crazy that this seems to happen relatively often!

 

[Aryn]

My neighbor got 3 tablets from Walmart sent to her house. She also got to keep them. I think she sold one and kept 2 for her kids as gifts.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

My neighbor got 3 tablets from Walmart sent to her house. She also got to keep them. I think she sold one and kept 2 for her kids as gifts.

That's amazing! When I read up on it I saw someone say this happened to them with Best Buy.

 

[Vijoge]

I ordered a $2000 refrigerator from Sears.com that was supposed to be delivered and put on my Sears credit card. I got the refrigerator, and waited for my statement to arrive. it wasn't on there so I thought, ok it will be there next month. It wasn't. So I called them. They said they couldn't find where I owed them anything and not to worry about it. I was never charged.
I also bought bunk beds for my son at a place that did their own financing. I think I had to pay $12 down. (it was a gazillion years ago). I never received a bill from them. Once again I called and they couldn't find any record.
One year at Christmas I ordered a Dora Talking Kitchen for my Granddaughter from Walmart. They sent me an email saying the item was out of stock and would not be available by Christmas. A few days later it arrived, along with a very nice note saying "Please accept this gift from us with our apologies".

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

My mom ordered herself a $1600 set of All-Clad pots and pans from Williams-Sonoma about 10 years ago. Two identical sets arrived at her house. She called Williams-Sonoma and they said they had no record of the second set being sent and that she could just keep it. She gifted me that second set, which I have been using ever since. They are such amazing quality, I can't imagine that I will ever need another set of pots and pans. So in that case, I lucked out too!

 

[mich311e]

Yep. I ordered an Instant Pot a few months ago. Another box showed up with the delivery. Inside was 2 of those big bug zappers that you hang on your back patio. I called Amazon. Since there was no packing information with the other box, it was just labeled to ship to me they told me to keep it.

They are worth $30 each but I haven't had any luck selling them on facebook sale groups yet.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

I got 4 of the three piece settings of Fiestaware just yesterday delivered to my door. Totally did not order this. Going to use it though.

 

[Hikergirl]

Wow I'm shocked that they let you keep it. I ordered a Firestick, and got a couple music CDs instead in the box. They made me send those back.

 

[tobikaye]

Sometime in the last decade, my parents ordered a Kitchen Aid Blender and two were sent. When they called about returning the second one, they told them to keep it. It was great since I think at that time they were retailing for about $200. They gave me the spare.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Wow! I can't believe how many people this has happened to!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I haven't had anything in my box sent to me yet from any online retailer that I didn't order but I have had a few duplicate things.

It's not from Amazon but I've had a little oops with LTD, Commodities a few years back. In error they sent me two of the same light up canvas prints instead of just the one that I ordered and paid for. I called them up and they said just keep it-in my case I'm pretty certain it would have cost them more to have me send it back (it was only like $8 or $9 to begin with). The shipping label showed only 1 too.

My husband got 2 HDMI cables from this cable warehouse last year when he only ordered one. We called and the guy said "oh well just keep it"

I don't know if it's more common nowadays but I imagine some of it is due to human error or machine automation depending on what the facility is using for that particular order. Or it could have been a computer glitch that shows an item is supposed to go to X person but was put in Y person's box. It's bound to happen wit the sheer amount of things purchased online nowadays.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I ordered a $2000 refrigerator from Sears.com that was supposed to be delivered and put on my Sears credit card. I got the refrigerator, and waited for my statement to arrive. it wasn't on there so I thought, ok it will be there next month. It wasn't. So I called them. They said they couldn't find where I owed them anything and not to worry about it. I was never charged.

That is truly awesome to not have to spend the $$ for that fridge.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

We were talking about this last night at work. Where I work at, at a GE appliance plant, their current turnover rate is at 25%. They can't keep help because of the low pay and the horrific amount of work that is now on the jobs. It didn't used to be like this. It used to be a challenge to get a job there, but no more. They run them through like cattle. I imagine this might be what is going on with other companies too.

If they are just hiring anyone with a pulse, (like they do in our plant) then they are getting the anyone with a pulse work ethic. Believe me, some of the appliances we send out now are horrendous. People who don't care either way what gets shipped out or not. It has worked out good for me, I got a lot of free Fiestaware through Kohls. But Kohls now has to pay for that error. Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but everyone I talked to last night agreed with me and it may just be an issue with the workplace now a days.

 

[Vijoge]

That is truly awesome to not have to spend the $$ for that fridge.

It was, and I really tried hard to pay them for it but they kept insisting I didn't owe.

 

[Hook326]

I've had this happen twice. The first time I placed an order for about 15 items from the Disney store online. I arrived home to two large boxes. I opened one box & it had 7 of the items in it so I figured the rest were in the 2nd box. The 2nd box however had all 15 items in it! I called to try to return the doubles and they said no, keep or donate.

The second time was a tv from target. I arrived home to find two identical boxes sitting next to each other. I checked my account, had only been charged for one so I called. They said they'd send me a return slip to return it at their cost. They noted in their system it was an extra so don't refund the money to my account since I kept the one I paid for. Well, they refunded the money when they received the double making the one I kept free! So I called them again, and the person said they couldn't reverse the refund but I could send the one I still had back. It was a Christmas present for my mom and had been hooked up at her house already, box gone so I said no but I want to pay for it. They said again that they couldn't. It made no sense to me but I tried to do the right thing!

 

[Albort]

havent happened to me but my cousin bought a small speaker for $20. They sent him a 5.1 surround sound speaker that retails at $300. They told him to keep it AND they sent him his speaker... LOL

 

[SC Minnie]

We had this happen with a tv as well. We ordered it online and received what we ordered. The next day we get a call from the delivery company asking if we received our shipment. We thought it strange to even get a call but told them yes and it was in good condition and working fine. We still had the box so DH happened to look at it and it had someone else's name and address on it. We assumed 2 people in our area ordered the same tv, we got theirs and they got ours. No biggie. Well, about a week later someone else from the delivery company called to see if we received our tv. I told them again we had, it was in good condition and working fine. Several weeks later we get a refund for the tv on our credit card due to no delivery. ????

Another time we ordered a hammock. It never showed up even though UPS website showed it being delivered. DH had been home all day that day and UPS had never come. We called the place we ordered from and they sent us another one. About a week later, after already receiving the 2nd one, a neighbor one street over brought over a package for us that had been left on their front porch in error. It was the first hammock. The place we ordered from told us to keep it.

 

[jreed]

Why does this kind of stuff never happen to me? LOL!