News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by exabrial on Saturday August 06, 2022 @08:38AM (#32367547)
I once was shipped a _very expensive_ server motherboard from Amazon by mistake when trying to buy something cheaper. The customer service agent (Indian non native speaker) failed to understand that Amazon didn’t ship the correct item, and refused the return. I spoke to another agent and they thanked me and I got the correct item exchanged.

I previously posted about this on HN and one of the responses was “who cares? Az makes $100k/min”

You know what? It matters. Doing the right thing fucking matters. Have some integrity, don’t take what isn’t yours, give back what was a mistake. Don’t fall into the trap of relativism.

You don’t know the whole story either... I’d like to think by returning that item I saved someone from getting fired; or a saved a small low margin retailer from losing their shirt. I’ll never know, but at the end of the day I can sleep with a clean conscience.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by Nextgrid on Saturday August 06, 2022 @11:27AM (#32368936)
On the other hand, respect needs to go both ways. If a company can't be bothered to maintain a basic standard of competence in their customer support department, I see no reason to waste your own time fighting them.

I'd actually be more lenient on this when it comes to a small business, but when a big faceless corporation can't (or rather intentionally doesn't want to) maintain a decent standard in their CS department - literally the only "escape hatch" for when things go wrong - they don't deserve respect.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by awillen on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:57PM (#32372342)
The problem with this logic is that a whole lot of products on Amazon (even those labeled as Prime) are fulfilled by Amazon for third party small businesses. I own one of those businesses, and getting Amazon to pay up when they screw something up or lose something is a huge pain. At my product price points of $12-30, it's not even worth my time to bother any more. For a very expensive product where it's clearly worth it, somebody's spending hours on the phone trying to get it made right.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by WalterBright on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:52PM (#32372317)
Your honor is independent of the honor of the other party.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by pixl97 on Saturday August 06, 2022 @10:01PM (#32373230)
My time is both expensive and limited. At some point you have to shrug and move on at their incompetence.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by tekknik on Sunday August 07, 2022 @08:04AM (#32375825)
Your time is so important you can’t send an email? What company do you work for? Should we test their customer service?
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by Nextgrid on Sunday August 07, 2022 @10:34AM (#32376781)
> Your time is so important you can’t send an email?

The company literally makes it impossible to "just" send an email, and even if he could send an email, in his case the first advisor was an idiot that couldn't even understand the problem so he had to explicitly try again and talk to someone else.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by jiggunjer on Saturday August 06, 2022 @09:52AM (#32368082)
The way I see it, Amazon accepted this risk of losses because they make more money by skipping additional QC checks.

If people stopped generously returning profits maybe they'd get their orders right more often?

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by WalterBright on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:53PM (#32372321)
Accepting a risk of loss is not granting a license to steal.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by jiggunjer on Sunday August 07, 2022 @05:00AM (#32375017)
Are you "stealing" if someone delivers their tv into your possession and never asks for it back?

Your awareness of their mistake doesn't obligate you to correct it, especially when the mistake is easily avoided and fixing is a non-trivial effort.

In the case of a business, I wouldn't be surprised if they count on exploiting that free labor in their cost projections.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by tekknik on Sunday August 07, 2022 @08:06AM (#32375836)
> Are you "stealing" if someone delivers their tv into your possession and never asks for it back?

by law no, but if this were a mom and pop operation, would you then return the TV? if so, then you know it’s wrong.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by amanaplanacanal on Sunday August 07, 2022 @12:54AM (#32374006)
At least in the US, I believe you are not required to send back things that are sent to you by mistake. Not sure I would call it stealing in that case.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by WalterBright on Sunday August 07, 2022 @02:49AM (#32374439)
Just because you aren't required to doesn't change anything.

You might be surprised how much people appreciate others doing more for them than is required.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by mritun on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:15PM (#32371205)
I can’t speak for my employer but respectfully, that’s not true at all.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by WalterBright on Saturday August 06, 2022 @08:44AM (#32367592)
You've got it right. Nice to see a post like yours.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by aaaaaaaaata on Saturday August 06, 2022 @10:50AM (#32368603)
^
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by js2 on Saturday August 06, 2022 @08:15PM (#32372743)
Apparently when ordering server racks from Amazon, they occasionally accidentally ship too many, but they are so expensive to ship back, they have you keep them. This person ordered 1 42U rack, got 9:

https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/unbqtg/moving_to_a...

Here's another person who ordered 1 12U rack, got 12 12U racks:

https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/giaw1x/i_bought_1_...

Same:

https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/eemzef/so_amazon_s...

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by ksec on Sunday August 07, 2022 @12:59AM (#32374020)
>I can sleep with a clean conscience.

"When did you acquire this taste for luxuries?" - Sir Humphrey

>You know what? It matters. Doing the right thing fucking matters. Have some integrity, don’t take what isn’t yours, give back what was a mistake. Don’t fall into the trap of relativism. I’d like to think by returning that item I saved someone from getting fired.

Yes. As someone who once worked in Retail and E-commerce, a small action like this help people stay sane in a world where rampant fraud happens every single day. ( And I have been told it is only getting worse )

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by 762236 on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:38PM (#32371391)
Totally agree. Amazon sent me two memory cards when I ordered one, so I called them and told them to charge me for the second.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by Tijdreiziger on Saturday August 06, 2022 @08:15PM (#32372741)
They refunded me for a product I didn’t return. I told them to charge me again and they said they would, but they never did…

Another time they refunded me for a product I had returned, and months later they refunded me another €6 for ‘shipping’ (I hadn’t paid for shipping). I called them and they told me to keep it, so I did.

Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by WalterBright on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:54PM (#32372325)
I like people like you.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by fmajid on Saturday August 06, 2022 @01:13PM (#32369817)
It's sad to see how surprised and delighted small retailers get when you do the right thing.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by ffhhj on Saturday August 06, 2022 @09:09AM (#32367766)
On the other side of things, search for laser safety goggles on Amazon, there are lots of cheap ones that won't provide real protection, and comments of people being hurt by using them. Should Amazon remove those products and affect many low margin retailers?
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by bathtub365 on Saturday August 06, 2022 @10:00AM (#32368146)
Yes, and the retailers should be sued.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by WalterBright on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:56PM (#32372337)
I refused to buy any of those solar eclipse goggles from Amazon. No amount of "sorry" and $millions is worth losing eyesight over.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by nullhack on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:24PM (#32372145)
I had a package go to the wrong place, and went to ask the neighbor for it myself. Similarly, called to complain, and they, misunderstanding me, offered me a full refund for the item that I had on my desk.
Re:Counterfeits, fraud, and theft: Why Silca changed its ret... by illwrks on Saturday August 06, 2022 @11:30AM (#32368962)
Not enough integrity in the world. We'll done on being a decent person and highlighting the error.