Money Owed.. Or Is It?

[waterlocke22]

(sorry if in wrong section)
I recently purchased a pram and car seat from babies r us using a service they call 'layaway' where you pay off bit by bit over a period of time and then receive the goods at the end. After various payments made by both my mother and I, I went in to pay the remainder and pick up the goods. I thought i had to pay off £75 which was left but when i got there the cashier only charged me £25 to which i replied 'oh is that all that's left to pay' and he replied yes. I assumed my mum had paid more than we agreed she would when she paid some off previous to me so i just went ahead and paid the £25 and took my pram and car seat home that day. When i got back i phoned my mum to thank her but she said she hadn't paid more than we agreed and therefore i should have been charged £75 not £25 however i now have the goods at home so thought nothing more of it to be honest just that I'd had a lucky day! Now four weeks on I've received a letter through the post from toys r us stating that 'although it was through no fault of your own you still owe us £50' and are demanding i pay it. Are they allowed to do that? Yes i should of owed that but it was their mistake and i now already have the pram and car seat so what can they do?

[woofgang]

Yes they can do it. Not sure what the mechanism is for a business but I bet there will be a legal route for them to follow.

[Tilly2]

You know the money is owed.

[LinziMissy]

Just pay it......I think it will save you all the hassle in the long run. Your lucky day ran out! After all, you knew you owed them £75 in total.

[Canary42]

They are perfectly within their rights to ask for the outstanding sum. Whether they would be prepared to pursue it through the Courts should you choose to ignore it is debatable. Why don't you acknowledge their mistake and make an offer of say £25 - that way you might get away with it without any hassle ?

[mccfluff]

write back to them and say that you queried it at the time and was told that was all you had left to pay and that as it is their error you expect them to write the loss off.

For £50 i think they probably would, its certainly worth a try

[factor-fiction]

As others have said, all that they are asking for is the balance outstanding on the amount that you agreed to pay at the outset. So yes you do owe the money. From a legal point you might be able to claim estoppel (see last night's thread on that !) but i don't think the case will be strong.
You could offer to pay it in instalments over maybe 3 months and they may accept that, or you could ask for a discount for the inconvenience (tell them you have now spent the money and will need to take out a loan)

[grasscarp]

I would do a letter as per mcfluff's advice. If they come back saying no would offer half as per canary's advice. If that fails I would pay up. That way you drag it out a bit and may get away paying nothing more or half if you are lucky.

[waterlocke22]

Good idea mccfluff i will try that one! I have a feeling the only reason they have written is because this didn't only happen to me and they lost a lot more money that day.. surely a massive company like that wouldn't be too affected by one £50 non payment but who knows..

[woofgang]

It may be a store policy thing like always prosecuting shoplifters (NO I am not saying that you are a shoplifter.)

[boxtops]

I guess they can't let it go, letting one person get away with it would lead others to try. It's certainly worth pointing out to them that you queried the amount before you paid - the assistant wouldn't have let you take the item away if their system didn't show you as all paid up.

[mccfluff]

if someone owed us money but i didn't think we had a chance in hell of getting it back, i would still write and ask for it, then when you have to justify a w/o you can show you tried

(we have had instances of this when an employee has left but been overpaid for a few days)

[jomifl]

If you pay them the money they are claiming you will only be paying what you expected to pay. If you had seen someone drop a £50 note would you not tell them and give it back to them? this is no different except that they know you picked up the £50 note and want you to give it back to them.

[tamborine]

Obviously staff error, pay up or risk Court & costs.

Dont forget business losses = staff redundancy

[joko]

they are only asking - they know a lot of people would just pay no questions.

i would offer them half as mentioned = or offer to pay something like £3 a week - as you are skint after xmas.