gearbest refunded me too much money... should I scam the scammers?

[___]

Hey there people, having a little crisis of conscience right now, maybe someone has some advice.

I got a company bonus for christmas back in december, as we keep a hardware budget for every employee. I bought a 3d printer with my bonus that now resides in a room at the office, where we are trying to set up our own little maker space.

Anyway, I ordered the printer from gearbest as they had a deal on these things (CR-10) and some filament, which they shipped seperately. The 3D printer arrived after some patient waiting, but the filament rolls never came. I checked their tracking history and sure enough the delivery company had returned the shipment to the sender, claiming they weren't able to find our company adress (lol... where we receive shipments pretty much every day and where they already dropped of the 3d printer a day before).

I do not know why the hell they just returned the package and why they never notified us or anything (usually they need to keep it at some place for at least a week and notify you so you can go pick it up).

Dealing with gearbest customer support was a nightmare of repeating customer service BS templates, mixed with some horrible google translate apologies and a shit load of false claims and ignoring my detailed issue. Adding to that their ticket system is completely broken, will not let you login to your account (it always fucks up the session and you need to login at least three times before you can even get to the issue dashboard, where your tickets are most likely not to be shown until you reload the page like crazy and click around until they finally randomly and magically appear in the list)

After three months of this crap I got fed up because they just didn't want to understand or assist so I filed a complaint with paypal. After a short while waiting I now got refunded the full amount including the amount I paid for the printer!!!

What should I do? I feel like they could have easily royally screwed me and only screwed my a little (soooo lucky that the printer arrived and no problems arose there). I read some reviews of gearbest and found this
site: http://www.gearbestreview.com/

a little devil is telling me to keep the money... they screw over customers on purpose and it seems like a lot of their customers pay for stuff that is actually never even shipped at all...

 

[elw3]

If said company sees this post you are screwed tho.

 

[comradekingu]

Maybe they gave you more so you wouldnt out them on their service, and then this.

 

[levi]

Now you've announced to the world you've got the money due to a clerical error, I think you need to make good on an attempt to return it. If their ticketing system is as broken as you suggest, I propose asking them where they want the excess money sent via that, and if they reply with a nonsense translated response, then that's their fault and you did try to return the money.

 

[erico]

Like @levi said.

 

[___]

@levi that's good advice, I think I'll try that. If they react to the ticket like they have before, I guess then I can say I was at least honest with them.

How does this whole refunding thing over paypal after filing a claim work though? Do they (gearbest) even have any say in how much is being refunded or did paypal just brute force refund all the money?

I guess juristically it is a bit like receiving a transaction to a bank account out of error and keeping it. If you touch the money, it'll get you in a lot of trouble. Only that paypal probably doesn't care unless gearbest makes a fuss.

Ah well, it was nice to dream, but yeah as I said I'll report it over their issue tracker. Rather not get my companys paypal account locked down because some stupid shit like this. I just wish I didn't have to waste any more time on this...

 

[levi]

Hmm, good question. I think with credit cards they'd just treat is as a broken contract and refund you the full amount, although then the complainee would be within their rights to ask for the return of the 3d printer. Maybe Paypal are acting in the same way, but yeah I'd be more worried about getting the account locked than I would the bank cancelling my credit card.

 

[Caine]

Betteridge's law of headlines clearly says no on this one, and the law of common sense states that if you are going to scam someone, then it is best not to announce that publicly. I would say that you have essentially stolen a 3D printer. Luckily you did not download one or you would be in really big trouble.

I have read quite a number of horror stories about paypal and locking of accounts. If there is any truth in there then prepare for an administrative nightmare. Hopefully these are false and/or resolved nowadays.

So, lots of wisdom to you and good luck doing the right thing.

 

[Binky]

To echo the replies above, somebody else's poor business practice doesn't justify unethical behaviour on your part.

If you received a 3D printer, you should make every reasonable effort to ensure that you've paid the advertised price for that 3D printer. If 'every reasonable effort' isn't enough, then so be it - but not making the effort is tantamount to fraud.

 

[WizardStan]

This reminds me, I've got a laptop that was mistakenly sent to me in December. I contacted them three times to let them know and they said "hold onto it, we'll investigate and get back to you".
That was over 3 months ago now. I should probably follow up.

 

[vcoleiro1]

I would send them a message explaining what happened and that you got a full refund . Tell them you are prepared to send them the full refund you got(minus expenses) once you receive a parcel with the missing filament.

I bet you get the filament pretty quick. This also saves you trying to get it elsewhere

 

[Kippykip]

I'd keep the money
Well if they don't even try at all to help/support you whatsoever and their ticketing system is completely broken, why support them? Especially knowing hundreds of others were screwed over in the reviews so uhhhh...

Spoiler

im not evil i promise

 

[Wally]

If you have tried to give the money back and you aren't having much luck then I guess they don't want it?

 

[benoitb]

Provided the piss poor customer service and annoyance it has been, I would have kept the money without ethical issue. Unless your seller looks like a small business that could possibly be hurt by the lack in funds.

 

[___]

Betteridge's law of headlines clearly says no on this one, and the law of common sense states that if you are going to scam someone, then it is best not to announce that publicly. I would say that you have essentially stolen a 3D printer. Luckily you did not download one or you would be in really big trouble.

I have read quite a number of horror stories about paypal and locking of accounts. If there is any truth in there then prepare for an administrative nightmare. Hopefully these are false and/or resolved nowadays.

So, lots of wisdom to you and good luck doing the right thing.

I do not think betteridge's law applies here, I am not a journalist and that isn't a headline but a question of moral. Also, I have not stolen anything, I have paid for an article, received only part of that article and now (after almost half a year after original payment) have received a refund for too much. Big difference.

I would send them a message explaining what happened and that you got a full refund . Tell them you are prepared to send them the full refund you got(minus expenses) once you receive a parcel with the missing filament.

I bet you get the filament pretty quick. This also saves you trying to get it elsewhere

Yeah that's true but I don't want their filament anymore. That ship has sailed and I do not trust the quality of their filament after all of this hassle. They had the chance to make good on this for several months and did nothing, I don't want them to make anymore money on me.

Provided the piss poor customer service and annoyance it has been, I would have kept the money without ethical issue. Unless your seller looks like a small business that could possibly be hurt by the lack in funds.

That's what I was thinking, because they are a multimillion dollar business, and run several sites apparently.

But as I have already said above, I will message them and notifiy them of the mistake. Because @levi and @Binky said it best: unethical business practices on their side does not justify me behaving the same way.

 

[Caine]

Also, I have not stolen anything, I have paid for an article, received only part of that article and now (after almost half a year after original payment) have received a refund for too much. Big difference.

Sure, that is a big difference. But your title "should I scam the scammers?" indicates that you know perfectly well that this crosses an ethical line if you do not undertake any action on this.

 

[erico]

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.