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What would you do if you were accidentally overpaid?

"I didn't keep track of my direct deposits, so I never knew there was a problem until I received the letter," she said.

Who are these people? Who let them open a bank account?
 
I'd treat it as false advertising. You don't get a discount on something in the store, then the store says, "sorry, that wasn't on sale after all. Give us more money." If you overpay someone, don't expect to get it back.

Then again, not paying it back might put you on the chopping block come the next batch of layoffs. I'd probably give it back and demand some sort of raise or bonus in the future, on paper.
 
Also, let's say you get overpaid, and you put these money into an investment vehicle with a penalty for early withdrawal (or capital gains, or whatever). Who's going to be responsible for the withdrawal penalty? Return what they overpaid you less the withdrawal fee?
 
Wow that sucks. As a courtesy if I were MS I would advise them but let them keep it. A mistake is a mistake.

Legally I wonder if the employees have the right to keep it. Obviously MS has more powerful legal power so the employees would never win, but assuming it was equal, I wonder. Kinda like getting to the cash with an item advertise at a certain price, they have to give it at that price.


When I was student at the company I work for now, they actually overpaid me double. I was getting full time wages instead of student wages. I was honest about it and told them though. If I had not, I'd probably not be working for them right now, so honesty pays off.

But in this case, it's more serious, it's not like the employees would know there's a mistake.
 
I got overpaid once (first paycheque wasn't pro-rated for the portion of the period), I brought it up to my boss, and he said it would probably be a lot of trouble for finance to fix it 😉
 
I won't know what I'd do until it happened to me.

But to the ones who are returning the money, they have the highest amount of respect from me.

In other news, this is probably a good time for someone to advocate to MS to use Quicken . 😉
 
Originally posted by: paulney
"I didn't keep track of my direct deposits, so I never knew there was a problem until I received the letter," she said.

Who are these people? Who let them open a bank account?
Click to expand...

Who are these people? These are the people who are lying about being clueless that there was an overpayment. I don't doubt that some people don't scrutinize every direct deposit, but if it was a severance payment they surely would verify it was as much as they were told it would be.

Early in my career I was given a 5% raise that ended up in my check as a 8% raise. I pointed it out to the payroll department and they confirmed it was a mistake. I believe it helped my career greatly since the payroll chief told my boss what I did and it wasn't long after that I got a promotion.

Frankly, there doesn't seem to be all that many honest people out there. It's a good way to stand out from the crowd.
 
Legally I wonder if they are required to pay it back. I would be a bit upset at their nerve to overpay me (which is entirely insignificant in comparison to their 20B bank roll) a tiny amount and then ask for it back after firing me...
 
Originally posted by: kranky
Originally posted by: paulney
"I didn't keep track of my direct deposits, so I never knew there was a problem until I received the letter," she said.

Who are these people? Who let them open a bank account?
Click to expand...

Who are these people? These are the people who are lying about being clueless that there was an overpayment. I don't doubt that some people don't scrutinize every direct deposit, but if it was a severance payment they surely would verify it was as much as they were told it would be.

Early in my career I was given a 5% raise that ended up in my check as a 8% raise. I pointed it out to the payroll department and they confirmed it was a mistake. I believe it helped my career greatly since the payroll chief told my boss what I did and it wasn't long after that I got a promotion.

Frankly, there doesn't seem to be all that many honest people out there. It's a good way to stand out from the crowd.
Click to expand...

From my experience there are a hell of a lot of people who don't check their pay cheques carefully at all. But yeah like you said on a severance packages it's harder to believe.
 
Originally posted by: Locut0s
Originally posted by: kranky
Originally posted by: paulney
"I didn't keep track of my direct deposits, so I never knew there was a problem until I received the letter," she said.

Who are these people? Who let them open a bank account?
Click to expand...

Who are these people? These are the people who are lying about being clueless that there was an overpayment. I don't doubt that some people don't scrutinize every direct deposit, but if it was a severance payment they surely would verify it was as much as they were told it would be.

Early in my career I was given a 5% raise that ended up in my check as a 8% raise. I pointed it out to the payroll department and they confirmed it was a mistake. I believe it helped my career greatly since the payroll chief told my boss what I did and it wasn't long after that I got a promotion.

Frankly, there doesn't seem to be all that many honest people out there. It's a good way to stand out from the crowd.
Click to expand...

From my experience there are a hell of a lot of people who don't check their pay cheques carefully at all. But yeah like you said on a severance packages it's harder to believe.
Click to expand...


I rarely check mine. I'll check my bank to see how much I got, especially if I have extra money due to overtime or something, but if there was a mistake I'd probably not notice right away.

When I was student and they overpaid me it took me like 2 months before I noticed. I was comparing it with my past job and it just made no sense that I was making like 4 times more. 😛
 
I'd give it back. However, because this is a severance package issue, I'd demand a full accounting showing the amount claimed to have been an overpayment and a "paid in full" letter after giving it back. Basically, I wouldn't try to keep what didn't belong to me but I'd also want to make sure that when the issue was settled that it stayed settled.
 
Originally posted by: ironwing
I'd give it back. However, because this is a severance package issue, I'd demand a full accounting showing the amount claimed to have been an overpayment and a "paid in full" letter after giving it back. Basically, I wouldn't try to keep what didn't belong to me but I'd also want to make sure that when the issue was settled that it stayed settled.
Click to expand...
this

also, honesty is usually the best policy
 
I was technically "overpaid" when leaving my last job. They were supposed to deduct from my last two paychecks a percentage of my relocation allotment since I was leaving before I had been there a year. They fucked up and never deducted it. They contacted me a few times, and I told them I would pay them as soon as I was ready to pay them - essentially for my unemployment claim to go through before doing so (long story I posted about a while ago, I gave notice, they fired me on the spot). I received a letter last month from the HR director with some self addressed envelopes directing me to pay them, and if I didn't she was going to repay it directly out of her paycheck.

I thought that was quite nice of her offering to pay it back for me. I tore up the letter and threw it out, it wasn't certified or had any sort of delivery confirmation, so I never received it.
 
I'd probably call the payroll office and ask them what they're smoking... that is, if I happened to realize that it were an incorrect amount. I'd probably catch a mistake, but wouldn't guarantee it. After working with payroll as much as I do, I've learned that *most* people don't check their pay stubs for accuracy, and just trust that it's correct.
 
What a bunch of fine ethical people we have here. :roll:

LEGALLY, you are obligated to repay any overpayment.

Is the amount enough for MS to justify trying to collect it?

Court costs (even small claims court) can easily eat up a small overpayment, and folks like Guido and Vito charge an arm and a leg...

I wouldn't be surprised if they sent these to a collection agency however...Let their dishonesty hurt their credit if they refuse to pay.


I've been overpaid a few times in my working career.

The first time, I didn't say anything, then, about a month later, the company shorted my check. I raised hell.
The boss asked me why I didn't say anything about the overpayment.
I told him that one mistake I could overlook, but not two.

The fucker had the gall to fire me on the spot! 😀

Usually, when payroll makes a MINOR mistake, it costs them more to fix the mistake than the mistake...in those cases, just informing them you've shown good ethical character.

MAJOR overpayments will cause them to take the overpayment out of subsequent paychecks...whether you authorize them to or not.
 
I wonder if this is like how mail handles things that have been accidentally shipped and you get to keep it as a gift legally.
 
Unless I missed it, I find it odd that they did not mention the amount of the overpayment.

BTW, if they ask for it, you better give it back, unless, of course, you like losing lawsuits.

MotionMan
 
didn't read, but if they stated that amount and gave that amount initially, the people have a right to be upset. If it was a typo-kind-of error on a check/payslip, then the people are idiots for thinking they're entitled to it.
 
I was overpaid by the Army once. They took back twice the amount and charged interest. I got like a $50 mid month paycheck 🙁 I did get my money back but took over 6 months.
 
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