Multiple ethics situations

[JEDI]

Waitress:
She's probably making less than minimum wage, and that $10 will probably be taken from her to make up the shortfall. And Even if you leave the $10 on top of normal tip, she still will get in trouble (ie: her boss might think less of her).
Thus I would tell her and give back the $10.

Furniture store:
I'm not going to spend the time and effort to correct mistakes by a big corporation. If the corp realizes the mistake, they're not going to dock the pay from the person who made the mistake. they'll just reverse the charges on the refund on your credit card.

Hot Deals:
Hot deals are good. More power to you for getting them to Price Match (PM) a competitor's store, then use a coupon, then rebates.

Bottom line for me:
If it'll hurt a person (ie: waitress), I wouldn't do it. If it's against a big corporation, go for it.

What's your ethics doctrine?

 

[thecrecarc]

question 1. give back the $10
question 2. keep the extra money
question 3. hot deals, its THIER fault for having a price mistake, and THEY gave out cupons, NOT me. screw em, and buy the item

 

[Ulfhednar]

1.) Tip the waitress the $10, she might be hot. Yes, I did just make an ethical answer unethical.

2.) Say nothing, of course.

3.) Screw them.

I guess I'm unethical as can be, and I'm quite disappointed none of those polls had a "verbally/physically abuse x person involved" as an option.

 

[dighn]

PMs and coupons are fine but IMO knowingly taking advantage of pricing mistakes is kind of low

 

[BoomerD]

1) depends. Is it a "common cash register"? If so, I'll pocket the $10, since there's likely no way they would know who screwed up. Profit for me

2) Most likely, they'll catch it sooner or later, so either make the call, (save someone's butt) or bank the refund, knowing it's gonna come out sooner or later. If it doesn't. Profit.

3) Hot Deals, coupons, etc. are freebies that the company makes up for in some other area, so take full advantage of them while they're available...IF it's something you would have bought anyway...You don't save as much, if you ONLY buy it because it's on sale...I can't get my wife to understand that concept however...
"I HAD to buy it...it was on sale!"
"See how much I'm saving us"
(me) Yep, you're gonna save us right into the poor house"...(exaggeration of course, just to make a point)

 

[Ulfhednar]

Originally posted by: dighn
knowingly taking advantage of pricing mistakes is kind of low

Lies.

 

[JEDI]

bump for weekday crowd

 

[Ika]

Not ethical at all when it comes to companies/corporations, but when it comes to individual people, I feel bad.

I gave a guy at the post office back $10 because he thought I paid $160 instead of $150. I couldn't help it.

 

[Britboy]

1. Looks like I went with the majority so far. I don't like the idea of the waitress giving me the extra $10 because I believe she would have to repay the restaurant, and she probably doesn't make all that much $ anyway.

2. Furniture store - Not right but I wouldnt say anything, they mark that stuff up so much anyway, bastards!

3. Bring on the hot deals.....

 

[Demon-Xanth]

#1: I'd inform her of the mistake. It's happened in the past, and I've done that. (ie: given $16 change when paying with a $10)
#2: I'd inform them of the mistake.
#3: It's part of the deal. Stores run these programs to bring people in, occasionally, they'll take a loss from them to gain a customer. Though normally you cannot use coupons ontop of PMs, with rebates it's a "f' em all" deal IMO.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

1: fix the mistake
2: too much effort just to give back to a corp.
3: I wouldn't personally go through the trouble of it all, but I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[eits]

Originally posted by: thecrecarc
question 1. give back the $10
question 2. keep the extra money
question 3. hot deals, its THIER fault for having a price mistake, and THEY gave out cupons, NOT me. screw em, and buy the item

 

[clamum]

1. Let the waitress know she made a mistake and give back the $10

2. Keep the extra

3. If you want to take the time to get all those codes and whatnot, go for it

 

[Mursilis]

Originally posted by: JEDI
Bottom line for me:
If it'll hurt a person (ie: waitress), I wouldn't do it. If it's against a big corporation, go for it.

So, would you swipe a DVD from Wal-Mart? They're huge, they'll never miss it! Why not?

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: Mursilis

Originally posted by: JEDI
Bottom line for me:
If it'll hurt a person (ie: waitress), I wouldn't do it. If it's against a big corporation, go for it.

So, would you swipe a DVD from Wal-Mart? They're huge, they'll never miss it! Why not?

because that's ILLEGAL, not unethical.

 

[Mursilis]

Originally posted by: Aflac

Originally posted by: Mursilis

Originally posted by: JEDI
Bottom line for me:
If it'll hurt a person (ie: waitress), I wouldn't do it. If it's against a big corporation, go for it.

So, would you swipe a DVD from Wal-Mart? They're huge, they'll never miss it! Why not?

because that's ILLEGAL, not unethical.

It's not unethical too? Interesting.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: Mursilis

Originally posted by: JEDI
Bottom line for me:
If it'll hurt a person (ie: waitress), I wouldn't do it. If it's against a big corporation, go for it.

So, would you swipe a DVD from Wal-Mart? They're huge, they'll never miss it! Why not?

lol.. that's illegal.. it's called shop lifting..

Nothing illegal about keeping quiet if a corp gave you $ by mistake.

DUH!

 

[eits]

Originally posted by: Mursilis

Originally posted by: JEDI
Bottom line for me:
If it'll hurt a person (ie: waitress), I wouldn't do it. If it's against a big corporation, go for it.

So, would you swipe a DVD from Wal-Mart? They're huge, they'll never miss it! Why not?

my answer = no... not because of the ethics or anything. it'd be because i'd never go to a walmart in the first place.

 

[DaWhim]

I bought a winter jacket from JC Penny online once. at a later time, they reversed the charge and refunded me money.

free winter jacket for me

 

[DAGTA]

#3... I didn't vote. I don't see anything wrong with Price Matching and using coupons, but taking advantage of a very obvious price mistake is unethical. I've done it in the past but I felt really crappy about doing it so I don't think I'll be doing that in the future.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
1: fix the mistake
2: too much effort just to give back to a corp.
3: I wouldn't personally go through the trouble of it all, but I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[mugs]

#1 I'd tell her and give her back the $10. But I'd never be in that situation because I always pay and leave my tip with a credit card. Cashback ftw. :thumbsup:

Furniture store - you misinterpreted what happened there. They didn't refund the shipping twice, they refunded the entire order, which was far more than the shipping cost. Based on the OP I think it was about a $4000 order. Regardless, I wouldn't keep it. That's not like a $5 bill you found on the ground, that's a hell of a lot of money. And just like I have trouble keeping track of every dollar bill I own, something like that can fall through the cracks at a big company. Doesn't mean they aren't entitled to the money, they absolutely are, and I am NOT. I have a conscience, so I would not be able to take someone else's money like that.

Hot deals - if companies aren't smart enough by now to say in the T&C on their rebates "not valid in combination with pricematch" like Best Buy started doing in 2003 and I assume they still do, then I can't really feel sorry for them. But what I won't do and what I do think is unethical is bitching and moaning and trying to get them to honor a policy that they don't have. i.e. going into Best Buy and causing a scene to get them to price match to an Internet price or a non-local competitor or a competitor that is out of stock. If you work within their policies, fine. Price mistakes - order it, fine, but don't get pissed if they don't honor it! Stores do not exist to give you free or close to free stuff.

One hot dealing tactic that I WON'T ever use and I wish stores prohibited is the return/rebuy. Deals are meant to be for purchases made between the specified dates, I think returning/rebuying is "cheating" and unfair to the customers who don't get access to ads early. I also won't ever buy a hot deal and resell it. I buy stuff that I need, and if I don't need it I leave it for someone else to buy - because usually the great deals are loss leaders with limited quantities. That's not to say it's wrong per se, I'd just rather leave it for someone who needs it than make a buck off them.



It's really sad that some of you people differentiate between keeping money that an individual gave you by mistake and keeping money that a corporation gave you by mistake. Yeah, corporations are big and evil. :roll: Wait, don't many of us work for corporations? :Q