Mistake on refund cheque - would you tell?

polly2000 said:
Regarding overpayments , I learned this quote a long time ago in business "If it's their mistake say nothing if it's yours chase it up"
From experience, overpayments and mistakes on invoices will not be reported by my creditors or debtors. They will be on like a light if they are overcharged but NOT the other way round.
It is really up to the accounts deptpartment or whoever deals with this to keep on top of things. It is thier mistake.
It is however a huge sum of money but I would wait a while and see how things pan out.
As regards interest, I would imagine if they did find out they would be only too glad to get the miney back without adding this on.
P
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Give it back... Polly sorry to hear such a tit for tat comment, is that really the way you run your business?

I have had companies on occasion ring back to let me know they have been over paid by our accounts department. Its no quite always the way you have put it.
 
In principle, give it back.

In practice, charge them for messing you around and the cost of your time in chasing the product in the first place. Did you have to buy the product elsewhere at a higher price?

I would be so annoyed at their inefficiency that I would do out a bill of costs and send it to them asking them to pay it. Have lengthy discussion on this and then deduct what you think is a fair amount from the €9,000 and repay it.

They sound inefficient and so probably won't figure out how to lodge the cheque.

Or send them a refund for €9 by mistake.

Brendan
 
Polly

I don't know what business you are in. I deal with my suppliers and my customers on a fair basis. They have overcharged me by accident and have brought it to my attention before I noticed it. I have done the same. Believe me, it's far better telling your customer that you have overcharged them that having them tell you.

Brendan
 
Polly I really can't believe your work ethic. I work in accounts and whether I have underpaid or overpaid somebody I always declare the error and fix it up......accounts wouldn't balance at the end of the year if you didn't deal with these things correctly....
 
Brendan said:
In principle, give it back.

In practice, charge them for messing you around and the cost of your time in chasing the product in the first place. Did you have to buy the product elsewhere at a higher price?

I would be so annoyed at their inefficiency that I would do out a bill of costs and send it to them asking them to pay it. Have lengthy discussion on this and then deduct what you think is a fair amount from the €9,000 and repay it.

They sound inefficient and so probably won't figure out how to lodge the cheque.
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Brendan said:
I deal with my suppliers and my customers on a fair basis. They have overcharged me by accident and have brought it to my attention before I noticed it. I have done the same. Believe me, it's far better telling your customer that you have overcharged them that having them tell you.
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Surely some contradiction between these two posts? Treat them fairly but stick them with unilateral "charges" for having made a presumably honest mistake? :confused:
 
Brendan said:
In principle, give it back.

In practice, charge them for messing you around and the cost of your time in chasing the product in the first place. Did you have to buy the product elsewhere at a higher price?

I would be so annoyed at their inefficiency that I would do out a bill of costs and send it to them asking them to pay it. Have lengthy discussion on this and then deduct what you think is a fair amount from the €9,000 and repay it.

They sound inefficient and so probably won't figure out how to lodge the cheque.

Or send them a refund for €9 by mistake.

Brendan
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Brillant, I like it :D
 
ClubMan said:
Surely some contradiction between these two posts? Treat them fairly but stick them with unilateral "charges" for having made a presumably honest mistake? :confused:
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We all make mistakes and the most of them are honest ones, but on some occasions we also accept that there are some repercusions to those mistake i.e. costs

Brendan isnt suggesting shafting them he is suggests recovering costs.
 
Brendan said:
In practice, charge them for messing you around and the cost of your time in chasing the product in the first place. Did you have to buy the product elsewhere at a higher price?

I would be so annoyed at their inefficiency that I would do out a bill of costs and send it to them asking them to pay it. Have lengthy discussion on this and then deduct what you think is a fair amount from the €9,000 and repay it.

They sound inefficient and so probably won't figure out how to lodge the cheque.

Or send them a refund for €9 by mistake.
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Brendan, is this advice for real? If so, I am surprised that you would risk damaging your reputation by playing silly buggers in this way.
 
The Revenue once sent me a refund cheque for 40k as opposed to 4k. I thought about it for 5 minutes then rang them. I prefer to sleep at night!!!
 
The €9 comment was tongue in cheek.

If someone makes an honest mistake and rectifies it, that is the end of the matter.

In this case, the company seems to have messed the OP around by not delivering when they said they would and he spent a lot of time (=money) chasing them.

I would make a deduction for this. He has to decide what the appropriate deduction is.

Brendan
 
As an accountant I can assure you that when their audit is done it will be found, it's a refund error and once they go back to the original sales order, stock Item and check the refund, he will recieve a nice letter from the accountants, if he ignores that he will be contacted by solicitors and then a summons. He should just give it back.
I would terrified to keep such a large amount of money under false pretences as he will be caught at their year end accounts and audit!
 
I would not be as confident as you are that the auditors will pick it up. It's not their job. They only have to make sure that the accounts show a true and fair view. They don't need to check every item.

They will check a sample of refunds and a refund of €10,000 probably will appear on their sample. But if the company has a lot of refunds, and in particular, a lot of large refunds, it might not be picked up.

That does not mean that the OP should not refund it after expenses.

brendan
 
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