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darthbane2k

macrumors 68000
Oct 22, 2009
1,763
1,866
I’m older, and this is what my moral compass has developed into:
  • If something impacts a person, I go out of my way to make things right
  • If something impacts a corporation, I do what benefits me
Corporations exist SOLELY for profits. They don’t care about me one iota… so I don’t care about them.
This. 💯
 

DougFNJ

macrumors 65816
Jan 22, 2008
1,485
1,212
NJ
It wasn’t a gift, you didn’t pay for it, it wasn’t yours, and it sounds like you know what you have to do. The extras you got were likely meant for someone else.

For those anti corporate posters justifying theft to stick it to the man…..this is one of the reasons corporations raise prices….loss reduction.
 

Nguyen Duc Hieu

macrumors 68040
Jul 5, 2020
3,016
1,006
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Should I be talking to the supervisor?

Let's clarify this:

The thing was delivered to you without your awareness.
You are not obliged to return it. It's Apple, the error maker, to retrieve it from you, with proper paperwork at your house.
So if you think you are kind and generous enough to deliver it back to an Apple Store, I would suggest you do it properly and bring all the boxes, wrapping and deliver bill. This will help Apple track their issues and improve in the future.
And to be sure that what you do will benefit all relevant parties, at the cost of your time and effort, you should require proper paperwork for your return. i.e. at least a receipt should be issued to record their acceptance of the return.

The below is an example where I live. Not relevant to Apple, just common paperwork, even if you are kind and generous. It's to protect yourself.

I received a chunk of money transferred to my bank account.
I then later received a phone call, the caller identify himself as the sender of the money and asked me to transfer back the money.
In this case, if I took it for granted and use the money, I would face criminal charge.
But if I was too eager to do good and wire back the money without any verification and proper paperwork, that transfer would be still counted on my own responsibility as well. Some others even were scam when the money was deemed as a debt, with enormous interest rate.

So in my case, I left the money untouched, just informed the bank about the money and waited for their instruction. I requested the whole legal paperwork (exclamation, explanation etc.) from the sender, with the bank verification before allowing the bank to correct the transaction. I did not make the transfer slip as if I wired the money back at my own will.

In this modern world, being good and doing good are simply not enough. You need to do it properly as well.

If you are indifferent and lazy like I am, then I would suggest you just call the police and report about a wrong delivery, with purpose unknown. Make it an official police report and leave the package untouched. That's all the law require a law-biding citizen to do.
 

Poldermodel

macrumors newbie
Sep 28, 2021
17
25
Let's clarify this:

The thing was delivered to you without your awareness.
You are not obliged to return it. It's Apple, the error maker, to retrieve it from you, with proper paperwork at your house.
So if you think you are kind and generous enough to deliver it back to an Apple Store, I would suggest you do it properly and bring all the boxes, wrapping and deliver bill. This will help Apple track their issues and improve in the future.
And to be sure that what you do will benefit all relevant parties, at the cost of your time and effort, you should require proper paperwork for your return. i.e. at least a receipt should be issued to record their acceptance of the return.

The below is an example where I live. Not relevant to Apple, just common paperwork, even if you are kind and generous. It's to protect yourself.

I received a chunk of money transferred to my bank account.
I then later received a phone call, the caller identify himself as the sender of the money and asked me to transfer back the money.
In this case, if I took it for granted and use the money, I would face criminal charge.
But if I was too eager to do good and wire back the money without any verification and proper paperwork, that transfer would be still counted on my own responsibility as well. Some others even were scam when the money was deemed as a debt, with enormous interest rate.

So in my case, I left the money untouched, just informed the bank about the money and waited for their instruction. I requested the whole legal paperwork (exclamation, explanation etc.) from the sender, with the bank verification before allowing the bank to correct the transaction. I did not make the transfer slip as if I wired the money back at my own will.

In this modern world, being good and doing good are simply not enough. You need to do it properly as well.

If you are indifferent and lazy like I am, then I would suggest you just call the police and report about a wrong delivery, with purpose unknown. Make it an official police report and leave the package untouched. That's all the law require a law-biding citizen to do.

That there are rules to protect you from liabilities when receiving a package (or money) without your consent doesn’t mean you do not have a moral obligation to return something you did not pay for or that is not yours.
 
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Nguyen Duc Hieu

macrumors 68040
Jul 5, 2020
3,016
1,006
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
That there are rules to protect you from liabilities when receiving a package (or money) without your consent doesn’t mean you do not have a moral obligation to return something you did not pay for or that is not yours.

No I don't have suck kind of moral obligation. My utmost priority is to protect myself and my family. I don't go the whole nine-yard to help a bloody company correct their errors if that error is not relevant to me.

Something delivered to my door without me knowing about it or paying for it. I simply just refuse to take it inside my home.
Somebody or some bloody company delivers something to my gate without my consent or paying for it, while I am not at home, I would just leave it outside of my gate and call the police.
 

Poldermodel

macrumors newbie
Sep 28, 2021
17
25
No I don't have suck kind of moral obligation.
Something delivered to my door without me knowing about it or paying for it. I simply just refuse to take it inside my home.
Somebody or some bloody company delivers something to my gate without my consent or paying for it, while I am not at home, I would just leave it outside of my gate and call the police.
Well then that is telling to what kind of person you are and with enough people like you society will be in a ****** place. Sorry to be frank.
 

Nguyen Duc Hieu

macrumors 68040
Jul 5, 2020
3,016
1,006
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Me? I'd return it.

To who?

I picked up a wallet on the street. Will I return it?
Sure I will, but not to any specific individual.
I deliver it to the nearest police station, and ask them to write a receipt about it.

If I dropped my wallet, and some kind person returned it to my door, I would appreciate it very much.
But I would appreciate it more if that person had sent it to the nearest police station, saving his time and trouble.
 

zhtfreak

macrumors member
Oct 23, 2021
36
39
I'm with everyone saying return it. Something similar happened to me twice.

Once I ordered a book on CD and they sent me an extra copy. Took it back to the store and they thanked me for being honest.

I was at a convention in 2005 and a company was handing out software demo discs at their booth. I didn't really want one since I used a competing product but they wanted to give me one anyway. When I got home I decided to install the software and play with it but the demo didn't stop working after it was supposed to. I uninstalled it since I'd tried it and found out I didn't like it. I posted to their email list asking about the timed demo, thinking that maybe they had promo trial periods ore something.

Turns out they had given me someone's upgrade disc by mistake, which meant I had a $600 piece of software that I didn't want or need. When I pointed that out on the list, people jumped all over me and said I shouldn't have opened my mouth because now the company would charge me for it. Since I knew there were reps active there, one of them got in touch and asked me to send them the product key which I did. They confirmed their mistake and told me how to send the install disc back to them which I did. No freebies from them thanking me, which I didn't expect either.
 

Nguyen Duc Hieu

macrumors 68040
Jul 5, 2020
3,016
1,006
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Well then that is telling to what kind of person you are and with enough people like you society will be in a ****** place. Sorry to be frank.

Ask yourself a question: If you received a pound of cocaine delivered to your door by mistake, would you search and return it to the owner, or would you call the police?

Willing to be a good person is good.
Learning not to be a naive person is harder. Much harder.
But it helps protect yourself.

I never tag myself as a good person. I'm more of the evil one.
I believe in fair and square game, while emphasizing on my own safety.
 
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sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,989
34,241
Seattle WA
To who?

I picked up a wallet on the street. Will I return it?
Sure I will, but not to any specific individual.
I deliver it to the nearest police station, and ask them to write a receipt about it.

If I dropped my wallet, and some kind person returned it to my door, I would appreciate it very much.
But I would appreciate it more if that person had sent it to the nearest police station, saving his time and trouble.

Apple store, that's who.
 

Nguyen Duc Hieu

macrumors 68040
Jul 5, 2020
3,016
1,006
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ethics trumps here. You are right, it will be a big headache.

So in other words, you think you got a gift. Think again.

No, I think I got a trouble at my door.
And I don't handle the trouble myself.
I let the police do that.
So I'd pick-up my phone and call them.
They are expected to come to my door, listen to the story and take the item away from me, leaving me with a receipt.
Anyone shows up and claim it afterward, I'll just direct them to the police station.
 

The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Dec 15, 2010
30,974
20,168
UK
Keep it

if all that’s on record is your order then there’s’ no proof you have an extra order
 

zkap

macrumors 6502
Jul 6, 2019
264
343
Some interesting posts here and the main takeaway I have is that it's a sad state of affairs when the simple question of returning an item you didn't order is such a complex matter that you have to take several factors into account and think about what potential problems this may bring for you down the road.

From a moral standpoint, I see no issue here. It may be hypocrisy, but we can all be hypocrites given the situation and I would not lose any sleep over the fact a huge corporation lost a bit of its tech. People are one thing, corporations are another.

From a legal standpoint, it is extremely unlikely that keeping the device is legal. I don't necessarily mean this in a criminal context, but more in the context of civil liability. It depends on local laws of course, but in most legal systems this is considered an acquisition without foundation. You didn't pay for it, you didn't trade anything for it, you weren't owed the device so there's no reason for you to have it. Apple having or not having serial number tracking makes no difference, as you were delivered something you have no grounds for having. If they say it's a gift, then there's your grounds for owning the device and that's great, but if it isn't marked as a gift and you didn't give Apple anything for it, then it isn't a gift and you can't keep it. I disagree with those that say you can just keep it because it was delivered to you, because in these situations usually you have to consider what a reasonable averagely-aware person would notice/think. Given that you made an order and got two devices instead of one, without losing that extra money from your account, you cannot reasonably say that you don't know where this came from and that you are unaware of it being delivered by mistake. If you are aware that it's a mistake, then you know it doesn't belong to you so you can't keep it.

About where / how to return it, it doesn't matter which Apple store specifically, because you can consider Apple to be one entity and they have to sort this out internally, you don't and shouldn't care from which warehouse the device was shipped. What you definitely should do is make sure you have written trace of your return - some sort of receipt that you handed the device over, and it also wouldn't hurt to first e-mail Apple and explain everything in the e-mail, so that you have everything in writing before giving the device back, and then you get a receipt as proof that you returned it. It's definitely smart to have this stuff in writing, but I can't imagine it being any other way, as I don't see Apple accepting a return without giving you something on paper, same as when you buy a device.
 

Ctrlos

macrumors 65816
Sep 19, 2022
1,377
2,900
I see two options:

Devil on your shoulder: Sit on it for a few months. If Apple contact you for it, you have it sealed and ready to return. If they don't then maybe wrap it up for your son for Christmas. Its kind of like when the police let you keep lost money after a few weeks if nobody claims it.

Angel on your shoulder: If Apple cannot accept it as a return then auction it off on Ebay and then give all the proceeds to your local homeless charity. You might also find your local college has a 'digital poverty' program where they give donated laptops and tablets to students from poorer backgrounds.
 

alexcue

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2015
815
1,122
Los Angeles, CA
hey, you got mine!!! LOL
I ordered mine from Apple on launch day, Got the magic keyboard and the Apple pencil delivered in one package but mysteriously the iPad Pro was "stuck" in a trailer some where. I think UPS took it.
The magic of getting it release day is gone now. I had it shipped to my office because i wanted to make sure it got here and didn't have to take the day off.
In the end, it wasn't meant to be.

You need to do what you think is right...
 

iMas70

macrumors 65816
Sep 4, 2012
1,444
207
MA
I tend to have "luck" like this. One time I purchased a set of 6 patio chairs. The cashier rang them up as quantity 1 (one chair). I left with a smile. There have been many other times when I've received extra products from stores or deliveries. I keep them. But... if the guy in front of me drops his wallet, I give it to him. I'd keep those items then cancel my order.
 
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