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Comment by clmay | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure how things work up there, but in the US you can refuse any unopened package by taking it back to the nearest carrier facility and telling them you refuse it.

This applies whether the package was dropped off or handed directly to you, signed for, taken into possession, or not. If the original seal is intact, the carrier must accept the refusal.

It's unfortunate that she opened any of them, because now the above doesn't apply and she probably technically took on some legal risk/liability by doing so.

Usually just because a package has been misdelivered, but you still know it's not for you, you still haven't gained the right to open it.

Still, hopefully someone will help her find a way out of her predicament.

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> Usually just because a package has been misdelivered, but you still know it's not for you, you still haven't gained the right to open it.

Not true. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-do-if-youre-billed-th...

By law, companies can’t send unordered merchandise to you, then demand payment. That means you never have to pay for things you get but didn’t order. You also don’t need to return unordered merchandise. You’re legally entitled to keep it as a free gift.

If it's addressed to you, then yes. But if the mail carrier mistakenly delivers you a package addressed to someone else, you don't automatically get to keep it.

It's worth noting that the article is about a Canadian woman. Given that both the US and Canada have legal systems originating in Britain, there's a great deal of commonality in the legal code, but what the FTC says about US law does not necessarily apply to Canada.

All that said, the spirit of the law the FTC is citing is something reasonable enough I do imagine Canada has something similar. Just don't quote me on that.

Heh Heh Heh

Trying that site now:

    Sorry, consumer.ftc.gov is down for maintenance. It will be back up shortly.

Seems kind of fitting.

In the US, non-misdelivered items are considered a gift; there are no actionable courses for recovery — other than being polite — to get the item back. Misdelivered items must be surrendered, on request, or you can fall awry if a laundry list of theft/mispossesion crimes.

The issue here is customs. Who is going to pay those fees - the women who got the product doesn't even want it. I suspect this is a never happened before situation and so the women legally owes. Though she can probably spend a ton of money on a lawyer and get out of it. She also has a case against whoever put her name/address in as where to return - but that is probably a foreigner so it is easy to win the case but impossible to collect. She may also have a case against Amazon, but this will be difficult as it requires arguing Amazon isn't a third party which they will claim they are.

Of course the case is in Canada, so I don't know how their laws work.

Yeah, I don’t know about Canada; but, a cursory reading of the US code seems to say that mail delivered by a carrier has already had all HTS (tarrifs) applied to it, or else it couldn’t be in the country (modulo criminal enterprise). I mean, IANAL, not legal advice, etc. But… if delivered on purpose to the address, it’s a gift, and there’s no possibility of a custom on it.

You think it's reasonable that she take.....all the continuous packages to a "carrier facility"? Should she make that her daily task?

The RCMP said she could open them...

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