What to do with the extra iPhone 8 Verizon sent by mistake

attydave

Member
SoSH Member
Asking for a friend:

My buddy buys an iPhone 8 for his wife. Opens the box and finds 2 iPhones in there. One has the order summary wrapped around it and the numbers on the box label match the numbers on the order summary. The other phone is just - there.

What's his next move? Stockpile the extra for future use? Try to sell it? Or, return it Verizon with a nice note pointing out the error of their ways?
 

soxhop411

news aggravator
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2009
46,274
Asking for a friend:

My buddy buys an iPhone 8 for his wife. Opens the box and finds 2 iPhones in there. One has the order summary wrapped around it and the numbers on the box label match the numbers on the order summary. The other phone is just - there.

What's his next move? Stockpile the extra for future use? Try to sell it? Or, return it Verizon with a nice note pointing out the error of their ways?

Return it. Verizon can lock it when they find out. Since I assume they have a catalog of all the iPhone serial #s in their warehouse.
 

oumbi

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2006
4,167
What would Verizon do if the overcharged you?
Good idea. He should tell them about the phone, but keep putting their people on hold for 2 to 3 hours and cutting them off. Then after a day or two, he can just send them the phone with no explanation.
 

uncannymanny

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 12, 2007
9,078
They would keep the money until and unless he contacted them and pointed out the error.
Almost. They’d keep it even if they knew about the error unless he contacted them.

Not sure if they’d even bother locking the phone. They build loss like this into their budgeting.
 

djbayko

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
25,894
Los Angeles, CA
Return it. Verizon can lock it when they find out. Since I assume they have a catalog of all the iPhone serial #s in their warehouse.
They lock phones when there is a theft or loss report. This was accidentally sent out of their warehouse, so there is no report for them to respond to. They might do a reconciliation at some point down the road, but I doubt very much that person is going to bother to lock anything, as the possible reasons for it being missing are numerous and not necessarily nefarious. He has a free phone.
 

sunoff

Member
SoSH Member
Idk... I've dealt with serialized electronics before... You won't get in trouble or anything (by any stretch of imagination) but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually gets questioned. It's on someone's inventory list somewhere. It had to be. They don't just disappear. Well until they do. Then someone gets their ass chewed...and chews another ass...oh shit, wrong story....
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
SoSH Member
Mar 24, 2008
7,202
Keep it

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchandise

What do you do when you receive merchandise that you didn’t order? According to the Federal Trade Commission, you don’t have to pay for it. Federal laws prohibit mailing unordered merchandise to consumers and then demanding payment.

Here are some questions and answers about dealing with unordered merchandise.

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.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

Homeland Security
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2005
19,615
Portsmouth, NH
Then use or sell it as an iPod Touch. They can prevent you from hooking up to a network, but they can’t completely brick it, or at least I don’t think they can. I could stand corrected, but if they do, threaten to or file a complaint based off the FTC ruling and they aren’t going to spend the time to fight it.