Yard messed up (in my favor)

Okay so I was taking a load into my local scrap yard. I take all my shred to that one cause it's five minutes from my house. I had about 300 pounds so I was surprised when he handed me 14 bucks. (Shred is at 2 cents a pound here) I get home and looked at my receipt to see that he paid me for 700 pounds. Do I say something next time I show up or do I follow my dad's favorite saying"don't look a gift horse in the mouth"

unless youre totally starving and need that money to buy food for you & your family, u should.

if u are a Christian, then what does your religion teach you?
if ur an atheist, then still, how would you like it if u made that mistake?

wouldnt u appreciate it if the guy returned the extra money?

Fourteen buck? Let him know and return it. You deal with the guy all the time, fourteen buck will cost you fourteen bucks in sleep loss very quickly. Return what isn't yours and sleep better for the rest of your life.

Go back tomorrow there is a good chance they will tell you to keep it!

I would tell him about the mistake and return what was owed.

But a better question is who hauls in just 300lbs of stuff?

Originally Posted by Focker

I would tell him about the mistake and return what was owed.

But a better question is who hauls in just 300lbs of stuff?

Lots of people! You telling me you would not haul in 300 lbs. of #2 copper?

Flip a coin. Right or wrong. Like the little men on either shoulder one saying keep it the other saying to give it back. In my opinion if the place has been good to you the next trip there give them the receipt and tell them about the overpayment. They might not even want to mess with the paperwork to correct it. Or you could just hand them back the difference from the proceeds you earn and call it even. I think they would appreciate that. Every dime has to be accounted for in a business. The difference overpaid might have come out of an employee's paycheck. The yard I sell to they are so used to getting scammed by illegals and tweekers I think if they overpaid me and I returned it they would all have heart attacks. In fact a few times it did appear they overpaid me but when I asked the guy said I was a good customer and that particular day he could pay me a bit more. The scrap yards understand our plight. They know what it takes to get a thousand pounds of shred to their scale and then they cannot pay anything decent for it. Give it back.

Originally Posted by Xander

Okay so I was taking a load into my local scrap yard. I take all my shred to that one cause it's five minutes from my house. I had about 300 pounds so I was surprised when he handed me 14 bucks. (Shred is at 2 cents a pound here) I get home and looked at my receipt to see that he paid me for 700 pounds. Do I say something next time I show up or do I follow my dad's favorite saying"don't look a gift horse in the mouth"

At two cents a pound 300 pounds is quite a light load. I wait until I have about 1500 or more pounds on my trailer before hitting the scrap yard. I do that just about every other day. More now that the snowbirds are coming back.

Originally Posted by Xander

Okay so I was taking a load into my local scrap yard. I take all my shred to that one cause it's five minutes from my house. I had about 300 pounds so I was surprised when he handed me 14 bucks. (Shred is at 2 cents a pound here) I get home and looked at my receipt to see that he paid me for 700 pounds. Do I say something next time I show up or do I follow my dad's favorite saying"don't look a gift horse in the mouth"

Maybe I am reading it wrong but it sounds like you assumed you had 300 lbs, but really had 700? Were you watching the scale? If they scaled you at 300 and paid on 700, well duh, return it.

If that’s actually what happened, then I don’t see why it’s even a question. In the future please don’t take your dad’s advice/saying/whatever.

I went back today as he opened to give the money back and it turns out that he scale was off by 400 pounds for his last four loads yesterday. He didn't know until I showed up and he decided to check them. He let me keep the extra money saying that I saved him more then that by bringing it to his attention. Thank all of you for the advice. And as for why I only had 300 pounds of shred. I do mostly ewaste so my shred tends to be a by product.

I've sent both the steel yard and my non-ferrous guy checks when they paid me for the wrong thing. Because I deal with such little loads as a hobbyist out of a car, the over payment in both cases was in the $7-15 range. But as its been said, honesty is best. I mailed them both checks with a copy of my receipt. In both cases, they wouldn't cash my checks for the over payment. I think the non-ferrous guy was pretty stunned in getting a check from me, don't think it happens very often. Its happened a couple of times since with the non-ferrous place where they've over paid me a bit as well when they've shorted me some #2 copper that I weighed on my mail scale (like last time). We've probably been about even over the past couple of years, although heading off mis-payments while they're happening would probably be best for me to avoid both situations.