‘What’s the most expensive thing you’ve accidentally received for free in the UK?’ – 22 people who got remarkably lucky

We all day dream about getting an unexpected windfall like a large amount of cash or brand new car, don’t we? But our magic stroke of luck never arrives.

Or does it? It turns out that some people have been very fortunate in completely unexpected ways. They’ve been chatting about it on the AskUK subreddit after user Worth_Style_7127 posed this question…

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve accidentally received for free in the UK, and did you tell anyone?

I’ve always wondered how often this actually happens. Maybe an online order arrived with an extra item, a shop forgot to charge you, a hotel didn’t bill you for something, or a company accidentally refunded you while letting you keep the product.

What was the most valuable thing you’ve accidentally received for free? Did you contact them to correct the mistake, or did you assume it was their error and leave it at that?

And people who’d been given a big karmic kiss by the universe jumped in with their stories, like these…

1.

‘2015. Xbox one. Bought via PayPal via Xbox’s own website on Friday. Xbox called me Saturday to say there had been an issue and they’d refund the money. The money came back that night.

Email from shipping company on Sunday night to say delivery on Monday. Xbox turned up on the Monday morning.

Happy me!’
–LiveLaughLob0t0my

2.

‘Bought a new TV on Amazon, £899. Amazon sent two. I left it a few weeks and they never asked for it back, sold it on Facebook for a cool £650 pure profit.’
–Wet__Sand

3.

‘Uber Eats is constantly refunding me. I never said anything, they never take the money again. I place my order and 2 days later they refund it back into my account.

I don’t take my chances and abuse it, though. I only place genuine orders, so while not super expensive I think they have refunded me about 600-700 quid up to my most recent order.

It doesn’t come from the businesses as I double checked with my local fish and chips shop from which I order frequently. It comes from Uber.’
–ImThatBitchNoodles

4.

‘I used a bunch of gambling accounts to do ‘matched betting’ when it was a thing. That’s using free bets and multiple accounts so that you can’t lose. I wanted a new TV so did the matched betting thing to make the money to afford it.

About a year later, one of the accounts emailed me to say I still had money in there. Weird because it was a low stakes bet and I’d never used the account again. Logged in to find £3,400 balance. Nothing in the betting history. It just appeared. I withdrew it, closed the account and cancelled the card. Never heard anything about it.’
–PatchcordAdams

5.

‘My parents would say me. IVF, thought they’d be lucky to get one kid after their baby from the first round died after being born premature. Got twins.

Mum says I was the free one because I was twin 2. Dad says we were both half price.’
–Moll1357

6.

‘Got a double refund on a week in a hotel. Essentially they paid me to stop there.’
–cdh79

7.

‘I ordered a load of expensive towels from a posh department store that went missing during delivery so they reordered them for me. Several weeks later the originals turned up too, so I have enough towels to last probably the rest of my life.’
–TrappedUnderCats

8.

‘In the late 1980s, I ordered a really good hifi with some snazzy headphones. It was on the never never. Before I started paying, some ‘helpful’ muppet crashed a stolen car into the electronics shop where I’d got it from, wiping out the whole admin system. I never paid a penny because I wasn’t on the system….obviously I waited for a reminder to cough up but didn’t receive one.’
–BusyMancBee

9.

‘I was sent the wrong TV twice. Finally received the right one but could not get the other TV picked up for the return. Multiple phone calls and emails multiple times staying home waiting for the pickup that never arrived. Gave up. Waited for months then sold them.’
–FoodFireBraai

10.

‘Husband ordered me a little Grogu plushie for Christmas online and got a £300 lightsaber instead… I was delighted.’
–WingdRat

11.

‘I bought printer ink from the ‘zon. They sent me an expensive printer instead. I went on the live chat and they sent a label to return it and arranged for it to be collected. Lo and behold a couple of days later I get a refund of almost £300 in my bank. After some back and forth on live chat where they insisted I bought the printer, despite my account showing that I bought ink for a completely different printer, I gave up.’
–girlsumps