When arrogance meets the wrong customer, sometimes the best revenge is saying nothing at all.

So, what would you do if a sales manager sent you the wrong $500,000 order, ignored your attempts to fix it, and then threatened to sue you for not paying fast enough?

Would you continue trying to fix the problem?

Or would you comply with their wishes and let them deal with their own mistake?

In the following story, one IT worker finds himself in this exact predicament and ends up with a state-of-the-art server room in his basement.

Here’s how it all happened.

This is not a mistake

Last year, I was ordering an upgrade for the server room at work; it was a large, expensive upgrade that cost over half a million dollars.

If you have ever had to call a manufacturer to order equipment at this amount, you may know that once you get a good reputation with a manufacturer, they tend to cut red tape for you to maintain a good working relationship with your company.

I, in the past, have bought equipment for my personal use at home and it takes forever to get a rep on the phone and they often screw you on the deal.

So, while I was making the order with the manufacturer, I inquired about getting personal equipment, to see if it would be possible to make a separate order for myself with my own money.

He was relieved when his equipment finally showed up.

The rep had no issues with it and was happy to make the second order.

He placed both orders and even gave me a company discount for my order.

Now, I made it perfectly clear that the second order was a personal order and had no connection to the corporate account or order.

He confirmed this, and the order was locked.

A few months passed, and the equipment arrived at the loading dock at work, and everything was in order.

However, my order never arrived at my house.

I attempted to contact the manufacturer, but got put on hold for hours.

I gave up for now and figured I would try again in a few days.

The next morning, the equipment showed up.

It was an exact match for the equipment that was sent to my work.

Now, keep in mind the order I placed for my house was a blade server that was just over $6k USD.

At this point, he was very confused.

This was not what I ordered.

I went into panic mode as I can’t afford this equipment and when they bill me I will be screwed.

I checked my bank account and found no charges yet.

By this time, I’m really panicked, as now I think they billed it to my company, effectively double-charging them.

I expect I will get fired.

When I returned to work after my weekend, I emailed billing and got a copy of the invoice.

Well, they didn’t bill my company for the equipment sent to my house.

Now I’m really confused.

So, at this point, I drop it.

It is a pain to get them on the phone, and I can’t call the corporate line when it’s a personal order.

Fast forward one month, and he finally received an invoice.

A month later, I got an invoice in the mail with a late charge for failure to pay.

Ok, now I can get this fixed. I see they want $6k +$250 for late charges.

That’s odd.

I called the retention number and got a rep.

I gave her the account number, and she told me she needed to transfer me to a manager due to the amount.

Ok, cool.

The manager picks up the phone, and I try to explain that the bill is wrong and the equipment they sent wasn’t what I ordered.

He immediately cut me off with, “You need to pay the invoice, you’re in violation of the contract, and we will sue you if you don’t pay it immediately!”

No matter how much he tried, the manager wouldn’t listen.

I tried again to explain the equipment issue, but he cut me off again and demanded that I pay.

So, I told him I would take care of it right then and there.

I said sorry for being an inconvenience, and I will call my bank right away.

I then confirmed the bill amount and the part order number from the labels on my equipment.

He confirmed it and said, “See, there was NO mistake!”

He now owns the same server as his work.

As I was about to hang up, I know I heard him say in a smug tone to someone else, “That’s how you deal with poor *********.”

I called my bank and got them to unblock the transaction, because it was stopped for a fraud alert.

The amount was paid.

I am now the owner of a half-million-dollar server room in my basement.

A few months later, I had to order some more connectors for the fiber lines and spoke to their rep again.

I inquired about buying personal devices again, since the last time went so well.

Apparently, they can’t do that anymore.

Something about a manager’s fraud investigation.

Can’t imagine what that’s about.

Wow! Some people would say he’s really lucky!

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit have to say about this mistake.

This person encountered something similar with golf clubs.

Here’s someone who just wants some clarification.

Talk about some good luck.

Probably not, but maybe.

He really came out ahead on that one.

It’s crazy that the manager wouldn’t listen to him, because they should’ve known an expensive server was missing by this point.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.