About a month and a half ago my boyfriend and I moved into our new house and I spent a few hundred pounds on bits and pieces from quite a big and well established catalogue company. That was about a month ago, and still no record of this transaction has appeared on my account. (It would normally come up the next day). I don't know whether to contact them to find out what is going on, or just keep quiet and hope that I've got away with not paying!! They definately have my correct new address details, I have checked about 4 times with them to make sure! I feel like I'm being a bit of a cheat by not paying and the last thing I want is for them to charge me interest in a couple of months time if they realise their mistake. Any one had something similar happen to them? Thanks.

id keep quiet!

Me too!  :D  But keep the money there in case your asked for it at a later date.

If it was me, I would just keep the money to one side and wait. They can't charge you interest as it is their mistake. I'm sure they'll process it eventually.

Val

Wheres the dilemna? You have the goods, they must be paid for, so I would contact them ASAP and give em a nudge to avoid misunderstandings.

My ex had this with a sofa we bought,  we thought monthly payments were coming out of his account but when we checked when he moved out we found none.  The company has since moved.  I have asked him to trace them as I don't want to be hit with 1k bill.  So he has managed to trace them and they have no record of us ever buying a 3 piece suit last January 2003 in the sales, wierd very wierd. So I now have writen confirmation that we owe no money at all. I still feel a little bad though. But they were very insistent.

Same as the others :D - put it in a separate account and forget about it.  As someone else said, as long as you pay up as soon as they ask you, no reason they should be able to charge you interest.

M.

Think I would want it sorted out, as you know you have the goods, you also know they need paying for and I believe you are liable to pay interest should the error be discovered, it could be the paper work is lost in the post and if you don't get it sorted you may find you are charged interest.

On the subject of people doing themselves out of money, when I was running a business we sold a lorry to a firm and the deal was it should be paid for immediately. Well the cheque did not come and I have to chase it up for at least 14 days before they paid. Anyway about 3 months later they sent the cheque again, so once I realised what had happened, I phoned their accountant and told him what had happened and he point blank refused to deal with it saying he never made mistakes. Silly old fool would rather lose a substantial amount of money than admit to me, a woman, that he had made a mistake.

I agree with the others, keep quiet but have some cash put by just in case and keep your fingers crossed!

Hmmm, I wonder how you would feel if the positions were reversed?  Would the dilemma remain the same?

big company V little person!!!???
if it was a small company it would be different!

Oh so theft is ok from a large successful firm but not from a small one or an individual? 

Hmmm, interesting morals!  

So there IS one law for the rich(big company) and another for the poor (small one)?

Wonder how long anyone in business would stay afloat if everyone had this attitude?

This type of theft (which is what it is) actually hits ALL "small people" in the pocket as the shortfall has to be made up by increased prices!  So we ALL suffer for other's dishonesty!

What about Robin Hood - robbbed the rich to pay the poor! Dog eat dog world, if the company had a similar 'result' do you think they'd own up. Don't think so!! I had a similar result from a very large successful airline, ordering and recieving 3 airline tickets to America and still have not been billed (4 years ago) These situations we are talking about are small fish in a very large pond. If however it was a SMALL family run business then that would be different. All companies have money in the bank for 'oversights' similar to these. Chill out!!!!!

The trouble is, it's people not paying their debts on time that can send companies (even fairly large companies) to the wall, leaving people redundant. It's happened to my husband twice, so I'm afraid I don't have a great deal of sympathy.

3 years ago my hubby imported a car from Holland via a company that does all the paperwork for you. It took them a year to send us the bill! For a car!!!! We had the mulah in an account... gaining interest... for us.... but paid up right away when they asked! ;)

:)

Hmmm... thanks every one. I guess I have that little devil on one shoulder saying "don't say anything - they've made plenty of money out of you over the past few years" but the angel replies with " do the right thing and pay for the goods!" I am not a dishonest person (honestly!) I'm the type of person who gives back money in a shop if they give me too much change! But I just can't help think they are a HUGE company and £200 wouldn't matter to them... but then again Tohme made a good point as I wouldn't like it if it was the other way round and I was the one being fleeced. Oh dear, I think it's time to hold my hands up, or it will be on my mind. What comes around goes around...

"But I just can't help think they are a HUGE company and £200 wouldn't matter to them... "

But if EVERYONE thought that and that £200 was multiplied several hundred times over.........................

"What comes around goes around... "

Exactly!

You know you will feel better for it, would you ever feel comfortable with the fear that the bill may drop through the door at an inopportune moment?  You never know they MAY write it off but at least your conscience will be clear; after all two wrongs do not make a right!

is it theft though? if they cant organise their billing? she hasnt conspired to gain the goods without paying!itsjust happened,why not take advantage?? you dont get many lucky breaksdo you?

large companies are quite happy to ENCOURAGE peopleto run up HUGE credit that they cant really afford, i dont have any sympathy for these companies!

Sorry I think it is your responsibility, if you know you own money then it is up to you to pay it, the size of the company has nothing to do with the fact that you have kept the product and therefore you should pay the cost. It is more than likely that the bill was sent out, but because of the inefficiency of a third party it has not arrived. Think a phone call or letter is required because if no effort is made then a court would think that you were trying to defraud. The legal side apart, it is your own moral standing that is a risk and it is worth far more than £200.

Whether you have conspired to steal or whether you "take advantage of" someone, the outcome is the same!

No doubt you would feel exactly the same if someone "took advantage of" your pensioner mother etc if she happened to drop her cash filled purse into someone else's coat pocket by mistake?

One person's lucky break could mean another's bankruptcy or, as someone else pointed out, redundancy!  Some luck!

I am afraid whether or not people choose to run up huge credit that they cannot really afford is no one else's decision but their own and they have no one else to blame for the situation they get into but themselves!  Your sympathy is sadly misplaced when debtors cannot exercise the self discipline to refuse offers!

OK, I have just spoken to their customer services and they are looking into it for me. They will get back when they work out the problem.

In the greater scheme of things know I have done the right thing. Hanging onto the goods and not paying is very tempting but I would always look at that blind in my bathroom and feel like a criminal! Thanks for reminding me of who I am and what I believe in!

Nice one - you now have a warm glow inside. You know you've done whats right the next person may have left it alone and felt ok about that too.

I had this with my cars air conditioning. they put more gas in it and said wait to see if it works, well several weeks later after hols etc.. i realised i had not had the bill so i went in (for something else) and asked. They had no record of this and non of them could remember doing it! i had felt guilty for not paying even when they said to wait at least 4 weeks to see if it had worked so once i asked about paying and they said i didn't owe anything i did feel ok. I did try to pay for it but if they don't keep their records upto date what can you do?

All of us have been tempted to do the wrong thing from time to time; how we react to that temptation is testament to our character!

I bet you feel good now! :D

ive handed in a wallet containing 200 quid before! im not a bad person!

:D Good! :D

Your right Tohme... sometimes we lose sight. I have been burgled 3 times in the past, more recently my car was broken into and my debit card skimmed... it sometimes feels like I have a sign on my head saying MUG ME. I'm lucky enough to have been installed with what is right and wrong and no matter how much you are shat upon, you should keep to your standards. I just needed reminding! Any ways, that's my little moan for the day... better get back to work now so I can pay the bill that will no doubt drop onto my door pretty soon!

dont know what you have decided to do but i often have customers have goods fitted and move before paying there bills this happens alot i wish people would realise that were not a charity for nice new wood floors so its easyier to sell there homes . we have a right to ask for payment some years later if we like unfortunatly its hard to trace people who have moved .so if i were you id make sure i keep that little stash in the bank just incase.
I knew of a lady who had a designer in and new windows for the whole of her house , drive block paved all sorts then said she dident have any money , taken to court theres nothing that can be done . Im sure ur bill got lost in the post :P lol well  according to the news postal service is terrible i bet they will do a review of there books soon after all they have to keep up with the tax work .just be ready incase they ask for it :) 

for those who said its a big company . what would happen if we all thought the same way???
If someone steels a bottle of whiskey who do you think pays for it ? the insurance company? no there prem's will go up its not worth claiming . course its going to be passed down to you people who shop there .
These companys dident arrive where they are like a click of a finger .. hard work and dedication got them where they are today and good on them if they were prepared to work that hard .
if people want to use credit cards its up to them . the cards arent forced upon people and the checkout staff certainly dont make them swip the cards . i dont agree with the % on them but everyone knows there high .
Im totaly with you jackie on this morals are worth far more then a couple of hundred . sounds like Joules is sensible and would pay her bills if asked anyway :)

Some time ago I ordered clothes from the internet site of a well known highstreet store and paid by credit card,the clothes came, some I kept and some I returned to change for another size. The second lot arrived and I kept them and went online to the store site to check if I had been credited with the returned goods. There was no record in my account of any of the goods,I went to my credit card site to check and none of them were on there either. I did not do anything because one item was a birthday gift which might have to be returned some weeks later. It took 2.5 months for the goods to appear in my store account and three for the credit card ..so be prepared they may not have forgotten you!

You're getting into a whole big, sticky can of worms when you get in to the debtor situation.  Yes, it's an individual's choice to take out loans, credit cards etc but the fact is that when unforseen circumstances arise those aforesaid credit card/loan companies have very little sympathy to the individual.  I used to work for a bank, I know how it works.  They don't care if you can afford repayments, they don't care if giving you this credit card will cause you financial difficulties in the future - they just want the sale.  We were encouraged to offer credit to people who honestly had no idea what they were getting themselves in to - the elderly or infirm, to give but two examples!

My father has worked hard all his life as an occupational therapist.  Then my uncle died and he developed clinical depression and was signed off his work for 3 years before eventually being offered early retirement.  He had insurance on all his cards, but they refused to pay up because clinical depression (or any mental illness) isn't a "recognised" illness.  The bank, which rubbed its hands with glee when he was earning top money, suddenly didn't want to know.

So, tohme, as much as I generally agree with what you say, I cannot agree that our sympathies are misplaced when it comes to people in serious debt.  I know what it can do to people.