Moral Dilemma

[LeeRevell]

If it is THEIR money, they WILL come back for it.  I once had an employer pay me some $800 too much in a monthly paycheck once.  I went to the accounting/payroll department and told them of the error.  They huffily told me their "computers do not make mistakes!"  Hehehe.......   that was before my IT job but even then I knew the fallacy of that.  I put it in the bank and sat on it.  Sure enough, months later they realized their error.  They did NOT ask for the money back.....   they docked my pay for it!  So I used the money saved to make up the shortfall.  It all worked out in the end - They were happy, I was satisfied. 

 

[gcal]

If it is THEIR money, they WILL come back for it. 

The auditors probably caught it.

 

[Almost There]

I popped in to the insurance brokers office shortly after the money landed in my bank account.

The agent had already been notified of the transaction and simply shook her head. She thought I not aught to screw up their books by sending the money back...

10 days later I finally got an 'Account Summary' from them. The silly fools backdated the cancellation to the date that the policy first went in to effect way back last September and then refunded every penny I had paid in premiums from the beginning of the policy year, hence the refund.

I give up at this point - I had no claims against the policy, I rent so there is no mortgage lender to get upset that I had what is essentially a lapse in coverage, the insurance company is apparently happy, I'm happy I have another $193. to play with. The only one who may come out short is the broker who won't be getting commission on the policy.

 

[HarmonicaBruce]

The silly fools backdated the cancellation to the date that the policy first went in to effect way back last September and then refunded every penny I had paid in premiums from the beginning of the policy year, hence the refund.

So they're doing you a real nice favor and you call them "silly fools"? It wasn't an accident, if they did this all the time they'd be broke.

 

[Almost There]

So they're doing you a real nice favor and you call them "silly fools"?  It wasn't an accident, if they did this all the time they'd be broke.

 I called them silly fools because the company provided coverage from the date of policy inception (last September) through to the date that I cancelled the policy (May 6). I would have been quite happy to pay the premiums for the period used and they would have been justified in charging me the premiums.

First they ignored their own cancellation form that I submitted, then they tried to process a payment I didn't owe. When that was returned by the bank, they tried to charge me an NSF fee on something I didn't owe them in the first place. At the same time they notified me that they were cancelling my policy for non-payment of premium. They then reinstated the policy and tried to charge me the entire remaining premium. When the broker told them that that wasn't correct either, to pay attention to the fact that I had cancelled the policy as per their form dated May 6th, they then cancelled the policy all the way back to the anniversary date and refunded every penny I had paid in premium.

I stand by 'silly fools'. I sincerely hope that their accounting department isn't this inadequate all the time for all their customers because their financial statements will be bleeding red in no time.

 

[Belinda2]

One can sin in thought, word, and deed (omission or commission).

 

[Queen]

Assuming one believes in sin. I do not.

 

[Almost There]

Assuming one believes in sin.  I do not.

Me neither!

 

[SternWake]

It all comes back around. Something for nothing, even if unasked for, will come around as something paid for and not required.
I can be dead broke and return that extra dollar the cashier tries to give me by mistake.


I'll only expend so much effort to do the right thing though

 

[Sameer]

We have to do the right thing in all circumstances in this world. To do otherwise is dishonest.

 

[Queen]

Dang, AT, looks like you not only a sinner but dishonest and not doing the right thing.  You bad person, you!  

 

[Almost There]

Dang, AT, looks like you not only a sinner but dishonest and not doing the right thing.  You bad person, you!  

I think I can still sleep at night....

The money (minus my actual costs involved) will be sent back to them if they ever figure out that their accounting department needs a little bit of reorganization and some new hires that can actually figure things out accurately.

Somehow I don't think that day will ever come!

All this because I dared to ask about putting RV insurance on a cargo van. This company will cancel your coverage if they find you changed the wheel rims out for something fancier than the OEM.

 

[FALCON]

I do believe that your reasoning of "it's a big company and they made $XX profit so they won't miss the money" is a very invalid reason to keep it.

I do also believe that, from skimming your post, you had to spend a significant amount of extra time to deal with the ineptitude of this company. Also, as I understand, you don't know why it is that they ended up backdating the cancelation date. Clearly, this could be another mistake due to their poor performance. As someone pointed out, it could be that a reasonable person reviewed what had happened with you and made a reasonable decision to backdate the cancellation. So they paid you more money than you expected, and you don't know why.

It is indeed an interesting moral question. From what I understand of the situation, opening up communication and and further transaction with this company is likely to result in more headaches and sloppiness. You don't owe them that sloppiness. But do you owe them the money? I don't believe that you specifically owe them the money unless you know for a fact that they paid you that much completely unintentionally (and that you specifically know that they intended to pay you a different amount). We're not talking about a huge amount of money here. That, on it's own, doesn't make it ok. But it does factor in. Say they overpaid you by $0.03? Of course it's not worth dealing with getting it back to them. Given the potential headaches involved, I wouldn't believe it to be worth spending my time (in what would end up as charity for the company) to point out their mistake and get the money back to them (unless you would subtract your time spent with them converted into an hourly wage - something that, if they do want the money back, you can count on them not agreeing with)

If they contact you and say "we made a mistake, can we have the money back?" ok, now you do owe them the money. Then you should pay them. Otherwise, I think you're ok.

A very similar thing actually happened with me recently, although, with less of the reasons to keep the money than you have. I'm just waiting to see if/when they ask for it (or, more likely, just recharge my credit card for it). If a lot of time goes by and they never ask for it or charge me, I will probably contact them and point it out. I'm not in a hurry to do this. I have a lot other things that are higher priorities for me. Overall, I don't feel that I have a responsibility to spend my own time pointing out their mistakes for them.

 

[Belinda2]

Alright. Maybe my comment was too right wing.
How about this less right wing approach:
Imagine yourself as the corporation owner. Would you want someone doing that to you?
Then, there is always the possibility that:
THIS IS A TEST from the owner, to see if they want to promote you to the next level. Hummm. Some people do, do this.
Belinda2

 

[Almost There]

Alright. Maybe my comment was too right wing.
How about this less right wing approach:
Imagine yourself as the corporation owner. Would you want someone doing that to you?
Then, there is always the possibility that:
THIS IS A TEST  from the owner, to see if they want to promote you to the next level. Hummm. Some people do, do this.
Belinda2

I've run my own businesses at various times during 50+ years of being in the workforce as well as had full administrative control of several businesses. I firmly believe that as the business owner or head of administration it was on my shoulders if I hired staff that were incompetent.

This whole accounting fiasco is the result of incompetent accounting personnel, nothing more, nothing less.

If some supervisor was indeed testing the capability of an employee then they should be receiving not only a failing grade but a pink slip as well.

I have ceased to be a client of this company and truthfully, will not recommend them to anyone, not because of their accounting errors but for their various company policies which resulted in a long term client (me) taking my business elsewhere. The accounting errors simply compounded a bad situation to begin with.