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.
My understanding in the UK is that if someone sends you unsolicited goods and then tries to bill you, it's yours to keep.
But this doesn't apply to things sent to you by mistake, which certainly seems to be the case here. You are expected to return the good to the sender at their expense. Although you are expected to facilitate returning it, I doubt any court would look favourably on a company taking you to court for failing to jump through their hoops.
Obviously I'd have preferred to keep it if they'd let me, but if they hadn't freaked me out with talk of legal action and been happy to say something to the effect of get it back to us within (e.g.) 30 days, I could've organised to post it at a weekend I wasn't working.
I couldn't include everything in the whole exchange in the article, but they did suggest collecting it from a place of work - but I don't have one, just my client's site, which isn't an option for that, which was explained.
In any case the courier has now collected the Switch, so at least I should be able to put it behind me.
Have you kept a record of the courier delivery? Like a collection receipt?
If not, write them a letter, send by recorded delivery, and state that the item was collected and that this is the end of the matter.
They're almost certainly incompetent rather than malicious, so if there's another screw up you can refer them to the letter and then ignore any further correspondence.
Yeah, it's all about good faith though. I've this happen to me with Corsair - their really expensive keyboard had a problem so they shipped out a replacement for me, and then 3 days later....another one arrived. I let them know and A) they were extremely apologetic for the inconvenience B) they arranged a courier to pick up the second keyboard when it suited me. Totally different approach to what Nintendo is doing.
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:
But that means that they cannot force you to stay home waiting for a courier. He could've asked them for a return label to send it back. Refusing to stay at home for a day because of that is valid as it should constitute a personal expense (no lawyer).
Yep. He could have said "I'm only available to hand over the parcel to a courier on Saturdays 9am-5pm or during week days between the hours of 6pm and 9pm" and they have to figure out how to collect it in those hours - it's their problem essentially. And if they did take him to court they wouldn't have a leg to stand on, since he has shown willingness to return the item.
Bear in mind that customer service in the UK is often terrible especially compared to the US (I've been fortunate enough to live in both places) and I've found that some inexperienced or bad customer service people threaten legal action without even being serious about it as a sort of a threat. I was threatened legal action by a car rental company for something related to a flat tire that was nothing to do with me and I had even dealt with the situation at the physical rental place just fine. Nevertheless some representative contacted me several weeks later to threaten me, I told them to stop it and then they never contact me again, several years later I've never heard from them. It's bad customer service. If you call their bluff and say ok, sue me, they'll be surprised. This case (as was mine) sounds so clear cut that why should you feel intimidated. They would lose.
