Most of the time a shipping error is a pain in the ass for you. Maybe you get the wrong thing, maybe you don't get anything. Sometimes though, it can be a huge boon, like when Best Buy accidentally sends you five iPads instead of one and then says "You know what? Keep 'em."


That's what happened to Alexa and her boyfriend's mother, both staggeringly honest people. Upon recieving the box of five iPads instead of the one intended for Alexa's boyfriend, Alexa wrote to The Consumerist for advice. She'd tried to contact Best Buy to no avail, even though Best Buy hadn't seemed to notice the mistake or ask her about it, and even though she knew full well that upon being delivered, the iPads were legally hers.

When The Consumerist reached out to Best Buy—without providing any revealing details—they got this response:

Good afternoon, Alexa – Laura, from the Consumerist, contacted us here at Best Buy on your behalf. First and foremost, I wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your honesty. That is so rare in this day and age and I sincerely thank you! We, here at Best Buy, acknowledge that we obviously made a mistake, but in the spirit of the holidays, we encourage you to keep the additional iPads and give them to people in need – friends, family, a local school or charity.

I have not shared this resolution with Laura, as you are the customer, but it is up to you if want to let her know the outcome of your discussion. Thank you so very much for coming forward and I hope your boyfriend enjoys his new iPad. Merry Christmas!


Or in short: "Oh gosh darn it. Merry Christmas I guess!"

What's more is that this (the mistake anyway) isn't even a one time occurance; someone else got a buy-one-get-five deal as well. It kind of makes you want to order an iPad from Best Buy, but you can bet they'll be keeping a closer eye now, and the less holiday cheer-packed reality of this is that someone very well may have gotten a nice pre-Chrismas firing. But man, talk about a sweet deal. [The Consumerist via CNET]