What I don't get is when a mistake is made (by consumer or company) that hurts the consumer, the consumer is so quick to point it out and it's fixed, no questions or fight. When a mistake is made that puts the consumer at an advantage, the consumer says nothing. How is this ok? How is it not seen as stealing?

When the next package finally arrived, something like a full two weeks after I placed the original order, I opened it up and found...another (different) one of product B.

I polled a dozen people I know, including some I highly respect for their integrity, and they uniformly said that I should just keep and enjoy product B, so I did.

Later I realized that if the device breaks down I probably won't be able to get warranty service, since I don't have a receipt for product B. So karma could yet bite me in the ass on this one.

It's the same with my friends. The way we look at it is we've been friends for 15 years, and hope to be friends for many more years. Over time it all balances out, and even if it doesn't, who cares? We had a lot of fun doing it at the time.

@MrEvil: I remember those, and I'm only 23. We had them at a lot of businesses in the town where I grew up. People put their name and account number on the check and signed it, and that was that. I haven't seen one in years, though. They fell out of favor because a bunch of people in town changed from being the salt of the earth to being the scum of the earth.

I specifically told him it hadn't hit my bank account and something was wrong. He disappeared for 20 minutes and came back with the cash.

I tried to call later but he didn't return my call. I gave up and figured my membership fees have been prebated for the next 26 years.

@TheWillow: That's how me and my friends are. We're constantly telling each other "I'll get it this time." (mostly Taco Bell) And we're all figure we owe each other enough to pay our rents for the next 3 months.

I once received a paycheck for a holiday I didn't work. It was a significant sum of money, but I gave it back because I fully believe that good deeds will reward you in the future, in many ways. If anything, to avoid the shame and guilt that will inevitably hover over an honest person's head.

Was the guy from Nigeria, and was the check for more than the services rendered? Just Kidding.

It is truly a good story. I try to be this way as well, but mostly as it seems that when I profit from the mistake of a business (or individual), I get bit in the @$$ by karma.

Surprisingly, almost everyone comes back later to pay us. There are more honest people out there than you'd think.

...just kidding.

Nice story.

@TheWillow: Same here, my friends and I all work on a Pay it Forward kinda deal. Helped my friend move last weekend into a new apartment. Guy spent all his dough on renting the moving truck so I sprang for some 4 way dollies and an Appliance dolly. I don't sweat it because he's helped me out in the past and friendship is worth more to me than $33.

@jumpo64: Back in my granddad's day you didn't have a checkbook. There were counter checks everywhere. When you wrote a check for something you just scratched out the name of the bank and scribbled in your own if the check wasn't from your bank. My dad found a box full of old bank statements, ledgers, and canceled checks my grandfather had written, many of which had the name of the bank X'd out and his bank's name written in its place.

Thanks for the story!

It was fantastic, and the person I gave it to loved it. I sent a much larger check than was requested.

I didn't think that was strange. I paid what I thought she earned. Is that uncommon?

@uchari: That's so true. I have Somali friends (we have a lot of them here in my city) who refuse to go Walmarts where there are predominantly other Somalis. In his words "they're rude, smelly and dishonest." Too funny.

@Yankees368: Same here, I doubt that I would have paid for it after the fact. Essentially, he did TRY to pay for it but the company had technical issues beyond his control. I think this client deserves full lifetime free upgrades and support.

Us NA's have had the image of the ROW peopled by raving lunatics in hijabs burning effigies of Ronald McDonald in the street thanks to the news media (but frankly, why would the news show anybody in another country unless something bad is happening?). My experiences with contractors working in Singapore, Pakistan and India serve as reminders that there are more good people in this world than bad.

Kudos.

Of course I mailed them a check the minute I got home. That kind of trust just can't be abused. I hope they're still that trusting! Or perhaps they now take CC's and verify them first...

I like to pay people who do work for me as soon as possible and with a tip. I don't do this because I'm a particularly nice guy; I do it because I people to like working for me and when I need them to be responsive, they are. They'll go out of their way to help me first, and they do it because I pay them without them having to pester me and I over pay a little to show my appreciation of a good job. Not being nice, it's being practical.

@jumpo64: Just another reason I support strong immigration reforms!

I blame the customer, fully and wholy

@seamer:

I agree. I work with a lady from Iran and I will never, ever again loan her money. She "forgets" and needs to be constantly reminded or else if the period of time is too long (because of her delays) she then claims she already paid. Once we went out to eat and she pulled up in her Rolls Royce (her husband is filthy rich) and proceeded to stiff the waiter on a tip (after arguing that all she ate was a salad and drank water...I know she drank SOUP and ate a Salad and drank tea). I went back in and gave the waiter her share of the missing meal and the tip.

I will never again loan HER money. I have other Iranian friends who aren't such cheapskates!

@S-the-K:

Yes, because all those Islamic countries are exactly the same.

Sending a check to pay for it was probably his way of assuaging his conscience (as well as being halal) of not being a thief.

Sounds like he's a customer you want to keep. I would try to do something nice for him in return. If you have a newer version of the software, give it to him for free or give him 20% off. things like that might make him a customer for life or at least build up the reputation of the company so others will buy the software too

Had a similar thing happen to me when I ordered HDMI cables from a vendor. They used the Yahoo Checkout. I paid and I noticed they credited and debited the transaction within seconds of each other. The cables arrived a few days later and I recieved a call explaining the problem and asking if I would mind if they actually charged me for the cables. I agreed (they held up their end of the deal) and we both were happy. I got a good deal on cables and they got paid.

I do customer service work for a large publishing house and have direct daily contact with many many customers in the middle east. It's been my experience that they are some of the most humble, most honest, and friendliest, people of anywhere on the planet. That the protagonist of this story is Pakistani makes complete sense to me and totally aligns with everything I've come to know about the people and their culture.

(couldn't we used to edit these?)

If the customer was indeed from Pakistan, he may have been a Muslim. One of my friends who is a Muslim once told me that many forms of debt are not halal, meaning that they are forbidden by islamic law. I know that he told me that while he always paid his credit cards off completely because incurring a debt to pay a debt was definitely against Islamic law.

it kind of made up for the times that people came up to lost and found and asked if they could root through the bin of lost cameras because 'they didn't remember exactly what brand theirs was' [no, you DON'T get to look at lost and found and just pick out things you want]

for the record - if the cash wasn't claimed it went to charity, along with the coins from the fountains. to claim lost cash at disney you have to describe where you might have lost it, how it was folded and what denominations

@weakdome: The program was "Argosoft Mail", and as far as I could tell the owner and the programmer/designer were all the same person. I don't know if it still exists or if it's still supported, but I remember "Artie" would always answer any and all techsupport emails personally, within 12 hours. I don't get that kind of response time from software I've paid 10x the money for!

But reading this post, It's good to remember that we have to be as that person... we need to change this world... or at least our neighborhood.

About a week after receiving the memory the buyer sent another $20 because he thought I was a very honest seller, was impressed that there was 24 chips (I put 24 by mistake, I guess I'm not good at counting) and just wanted to say thanks for the great transaction.

There are good people here in the US. People who sell and honest product and people who pay an honest amount for the product and even a bonus if the service is really good.

This story was really nice.

What a shame there are a few scumbags who ruin it for the rest of the good people here in the USA.

@weakdome: Which was it?

Hopefully the guy didn't get the money from a 110% of value, zero-down stated-income home loan on a 4500 sf house.

I used a mail server software that I once felt was incredibly underpriced, and every year I used it I would send the owner/programmer an additional $25 donation around Christmas time. It's a good feeling.