What’s the right thing to do when you get something you haven’t ordered from Amazon.com?
A few weeks before Christmas, a reader we’re calling Jane received an email alert that a package she had ordered from Amazon had arrived. A photo accompanying the package showed her goods resting safely on her front stoop. Jane was relieved that a small gift she had ordered for her husband had arrived in time for her to wrap it, place it under their tree, and have it waiting for him on Christmas morning.
The gift was a small scratch-off card that allowed users to scratch off specific places they had visited. Jane had ordered one 5-by-7 card and had paid $15.99 for it. But when Jane opened the package, she found that Amazon had shipped her 30 shrink-wrapped cards instead of one. Jane re-checked her original order and bill to make sure she hadn’t ordered more than one card. She hadn’t, and she had no intention of keeping items she hadn’t ordered or paid for.
Jane noticed on the Amazon page that the item was made by a small business that partnered with Amazon. The website encouraged prospective buyers to support these small businesses. Jane was concerned that the owners of the small business that made the cards would lose potential sales on 29 cards that were errantly sent to Jane.
Her past experience with Amazon led her to believe that finding an actual human being to deal with rather than a series of auto-responses to calls or emails could prove challenging. Rather than contact Amazon, Jane looked up the customer service email from the card company’s website. She wrote the company a note explaining what happened. While she had figured that a response from them would be swift, she didn’t anticipate just how swift. Within hours she heard from the company, thanking her for her honesty and her offer to return the items if they told her how. The company told her to keep five of the cards and to provide them with her Venmo account information so they could send her $8 for any return shipping costs.
Jane was touched by the offer. She returned 25 of the cards, gave one to her husband, three to a friend who traveled with her family to similar places, and kept one for herself. She paid for her own postage. Once the company received the cards, they thanked her again for her honesty.
When you receive something you didn’t order or are undercharged for something you’ve purchased, the right thing is to try to correct that wrong. There’s no need to have that correction end up costing you more than the item itself, but Jane figured the $8 was more than offset by the company’s offer to keep four cards, even though she hadn’t intended to spend money on them.
Some readers may argue that Jane should have contacted Amazon directly rather than taking action that might better ensure the small business wouldn’t be out of pocket for the errant shipment. Others might point out that that small business was in a better position to do whatever might be necessary to make good with its partner Amazon. Jane’s actions, however, suggest there are still people who will to try to do the right thing when no one is looking.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.
(c) 2025 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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