So we bought a Prius last week and were cut a check for our trade right then. Fast forward to today....another check comes in the mail. Now I will be calling to tell them tomorrow, but I am curious what if I had fewer scruples and deposited it? I mean do companies have a recourse for this action or is it more of a bank error in your favor collect 200 dollars?
Yes they have legal means and justification to recover the money.....just like you do if you make a similar error on your end.
two partners are in business together. one day, a customer purchases an item for $100. he gives the partner working that day a one hundred dollar bill and leaves. as the partner is putting the bill into the register drawer, he notices it's actually 2 one hundred dollar bills stuck together. now he has a moral dilemma. "should i tell my partner?"
this reminds me of banks mistakenly deposits 5 million dollars into your account. you then withdrew the 5 million and spent it. now bank want their money back and press charges against you. in the end, you goto jail for their mistake.
Paid twice for trade... only cash one, the one they owe you. It's a good thing you have scruples... otherwise, you would be out a lot more than the few coins they sent you in error Bra.
According to the cultural myth as I understand it, I question whether he'd drive a car at all. He'd be more environmentally conscious than that, wouldn't he? I'd give them their money back.
The way I heard this one, it was a lawyer and his partner. He'd have given all his money to the poor, so he wouldn't have had a car to trade in. There is a presumption that when the five million bucks arrives in your account, you should have known it was a mistake and the money wasn't really yours. But you could always transfer the money and yourself to a country that does not extradite. Carlos Salinas was President of Mexico. He is generally believed to have stolen five billion dollars (yes, with a B ) from his country upon leaving office. He moved to Ireland, which does not have an extradition treaty with Mexico. When asked why he chose to live in Ireland, he answered that he liked the climate.
Robin Hood was a fictional character. We have a real person who steals from the rich to give to the poor, he lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Actually, you have two thieves in Washington, you have Congress stealing from the poor to give to the rich, and the White House that has to deal with the poor.
President Obama as Robin Hood. I like it! More power to him. The rich (in which category I include myself, albeit at the lower end of that category) benefit so much from capitalism and government protections, that they (we) can afford to pay progressive graduated taxes, and have a moral responsibility to do so. I have no complaints against the poor people who benefit from my tax dollars because I would not want to trade places with them. Go Robin Hood!
^ Well, you and I have different views of where morality comes from. I believe it's because we are social animals that we have an obligation to care for the poor. You, as a Christian, I presume subscribe to the teachings of Jesus, who said you should give all your money to the poor. If you did that, you wouldn't owe any taxes. If you don't, the government is punishing you for not following your own religion. In either case, a moral responsibility to pay your taxes. Oh, yes: Jesus said to give Caesar's money to Caesar.
So, you ONLY got $200 for your trade?? Maybe they issued you an additional check because they felt sorry for taking advantage of you.
I'm a whimp and believe compromise is always the solution. When I was younger I always thought we should have a democratic 'compassionate' congress with a republican 'machoman' president. After all, you'll never hear a democrat say things like 'Tear down this wall' or 'you're either with us or against us'. However Bush Jr, Obama, Pelosi & Reed have given my political views a 180 degree turn these past few years. I now believe we should have a republican 'fiscally responsible' congress with a democratic 'diplomatic' president so we don't get into so many damn wars. If Obama gets his wish and doubles capital gains taxes from 15 to 30% this nation is finished and he will seal his own fate. I do believe in a progressive tax rate. I believe in a large national sales tax, 0% income tax on your first $2 million, 80% income tax on your next $2 million, and 99% income tax on anything above that. There is nothing wrong with having a lower, middle and upper class, some people deserve success as they are just brilliant (and/or lucky), and some people deserve to be poor as they are stupid and/or lazy. My tax system would still maintain upper, lower and middle class, it would just eliminate the ultra rich and the ultra poor, both of whom we could easily do without.
At the risk of getting political, the Republicans have not been fiscally conservative since Ronald reagan invented the idea of killing the social safety net by spending the nation so far into debt that there would be no money left for social programs. And note that the capital gains tax is a lower rate for income that you did NOTHING to earn.
Yeah, right. Darned good thing we have rules against political mudslinging outside FHOP-P, now isn't it? As far as the double-tap for the trade in......I'm thinking that it should never come up as a question at all. They probably used a check...both times, or credited the purchase price on the day of sale. This means that there is a paper trail, which is usually how car retailers roll. This means that the recipient of the duplicate payment is legally bound to surrender the check. Morality is what happens when nobody is looking. How would it have gone down if the duplicated payments had been made in cash? Only the OP knows for sure, and I'm always inclined to believe that people usually do the right thing more often than not in these situations, but that's between the OP and his or her conscience. I know what I would do. I know what my family would do. That's really the only thing I really have any rudder input on. YMMV