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I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

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Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#51
post #5

Looks like you got yourself a free Switch. Enjoy it, and if your other Switch is in good condition, offer it to your son or a friend. If Nintendo threatens further legal action, take your lawyer out to dinner and spend the evening laughing over it.

I perhaps should have done, instead I took the threat seriously and took the day off work to await the courier (who collected the Switch). So I'm down another day's income, and honestly starting to feel like a bit of a mug given the responses here.

I would have notified them, too, and have done similar in the past. Amazon botched initial delivery of a $500 item, then sent a new one, but both eventually arrived. I called back and they thanked me and emailed me a shipping label and instructions that gave me weeks to get it done.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#52
post #5

Looks like you got yourself a free Switch. Enjoy it, and if your other Switch is in good condition, offer it to your son or a friend. If Nintendo threatens further legal action, take your lawyer out to dinner and spend the evening laughing over it.

I perhaps should have done, instead I took the threat seriously and took the day off work to await the courier (who collected the Switch). So I'm down another day's income, and honestly starting to feel like a bit of a mug given the responses here.

In worst case, you are not doing it for nintendo but for yourself.

Anyway i would have told them that i will send the switch back but it is not possible to stay at home.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#53
post #3

I'm no lawyer, but at least in the US I was under the impression that once something has been mailed to you, it's yours. A company cannot send you something then require payment or for you to return it.

Looks like you're right. >Q. Am I obligated to return or pay for merchandise I never ordered? >A. No. If you receive merchandise that you didn’t order, you have a legal right to keep it as a free gift. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchan...

Guess you missed the important part:

"Federal laws prohibit mailing unordered merchandise to consumers and then demanding payment."

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like you're right. >Q. Am I obligated to return or pay for merchandise I never ordered? >A. No. If you receive merchandise that you didn’t order, you have a legal right to keep it as a free gift. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchan...

I don't think the FTC cover the UK.

It took ten seconds to Google the UK equivalent, and it seems to be the same rule. Unsolicited goods, which are defined the same as the FTC' s definition, seem to be treated the same:

https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/money/spending/consumer-righ...

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#55
post #28

This is dumb on the part of everyone involved. No, you are not taking the moral high ground by calling Nintendo customer service and initiating a back-and-forth on what to do with the mistakenly-delivered extra product. In fact, you are probably costing Nintendo more money than the second Switch is worth by doing so. There is no reason, ever, unless the cost of the item is extremely high, to initiate a conversation w…

You’re completely wrong here. See my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661878

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#56

I have never, ever dealt with any above mid-sized company that handles customer service and delivery well. There seems to be a set of standardised industry practices that are completely and utterly customer hostile. The moment regular company employees stop dealing with customer issues, delivery, etc., and hands it over to "specialists", it's basically a crap shoot whether you can get any issue resolved at all, becau…

Waiting at home specifically for stuff to be delivered or picked up is insane. Let me pick it up and send it at the post office. Or at some other convenient nearby location (supermarkets are getting popular for this, although I recently had to pick something up at a paint store(?)).

Standard Dutch mail often leaves undeliverable packages with neighbours, which is great when you live in a good neighbourhood with good neighbours who are home a lot, and perhaps not so great when you don't.

But skipping work for this is stupid and unreasonable.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#57

I have never, ever dealt with any above mid-sized company that handles customer service and delivery well. There seems to be a set of standardised industry practices that are completely and utterly customer hostile. The moment regular company employees stop dealing with customer issues, delivery, etc., and hands it over to "specialists", it's basically a crap shoot whether you can get any issue resolved at all, becau…

I have never, ever dealt with any above mid-sized company that handles customer service and delivery well. I have. Amazon. Over 15 years now and flawless every time.

That's because they fuck over their sellers.

I tried to sell a modem which I had previously purchased through Amazon. The modem came both as a bundle and by itself. I listed it correctly as purchasing the modem only, listed it "like new" (when really it was basically new, not removed from the box). It was actually the lowest price you could get it used.

Someone bought it, shipped it to them faster than necessary. About a week later I got a notice from him saying that he wanted a refund because he had thought that he was getting the bundle (not just the modem as it was listed). Why they thought they were getting the bundle like new for that price is beyond me, but whatever. I rejected the refund because it was their mistake and it would have been too much work to be worth it. Sensible, yeah?

They initiated a claim against my account and Amazon withdrew the money (it was actually great timing - overdraft). The claim said the the item condition was wrong (it was not). You are able to contest any claim like that so I took the time to explain what had happened and why the issue wasn't even about the item's condition. I don't know if they just didn't bother reading it or if all responses are handled with robots because I get a very superficial answer that didn't even acknowledge what had happened. I repeated the process in order to try to talk to another person, wrote up another account of what happened (including the new non response), and got the same kind of non-response (you must list items under the correct condition, blah, blah, blah) from a different rep. Basically, they just didn't bother answering me. I'd already wasted way more time than necessary on what I thought was gonna be a little extra cash, so now some dude in Minnesota got my modem for free, and I got an overdraft for my trouble. That's a cool trick.

Got no clue what's going on over there but I'll never sell anything there again if I can avoid it. Worst customer experience ever.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#58
post #28

This is dumb on the part of everyone involved. No, you are not taking the moral high ground by calling Nintendo customer service and initiating a back-and-forth on what to do with the mistakenly-delivered extra product. In fact, you are probably costing Nintendo more money than the second Switch is worth by doing so. There is no reason, ever, unless the cost of the item is extremely high, to initiate a conversation w…

> This is dumb on the part of everyone involved. It may be a cultural difference. For some people it's dumb, for others it's a fundamental question of ethics.

I'm in the "if they want it back, they will contact you and ask" mindset --- it's entirely their mistake, to correct at their expense, and you shouldn't have to do anything about it.

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#59
post #5

Looks like you got yourself a free Switch. Enjoy it, and if your other Switch is in good condition, offer it to your son or a friend. If Nintendo threatens further legal action, take your lawyer out to dinner and spend the evening laughing over it.

I perhaps should have done, instead I took the threat seriously and took the day off work to await the courier (who collected the Switch). So I'm down another day's income, and honestly starting to feel like a bit of a mug given the responses here.

Don’t be silly, you are honest and ethical and that counts for a lot more!

Re: I bought a Switch from Nintendo and they threatened me with legal action

#60
post #28

This is dumb on the part of everyone involved. No, you are not taking the moral high ground by calling Nintendo customer service and initiating a back-and-forth on what to do with the mistakenly-delivered extra product. In fact, you are probably costing Nintendo more money than the second Switch is worth by doing so. There is no reason, ever, unless the cost of the item is extremely high, to initiate a conversation w…

So you need to keep the package around for months until eventually they notice it missing and track it down, just to make sure if you will need to send it back or not? Doesn't sound very practical to me... and if you don't let them know they could even take a legal action against you, as it can be characterized as you attempt to conceal the fact and keep their property.
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