Thursday, November 04, 2004
Who's to blame for online freebies?
A chuckle on the way to work this morning: the Times (new compact edition) reports that Sainsburys have been giving away free (or at least very cheap) shopping by releasing e-vouchers that people could apply many times, even across multiple shopping sessions. An online swap-shop for these vouchers quickly sprang up online, and people were soon receiving lots of goods from Sainsbury's without paying for them. One chap reports that he received over £5000 worth of goods. Sainsburys spotted the error (in his case at least) but he argued that there was nothing in their terms & conditions to say the vouchers could not be used in this way.
So the question is, were these happy shoppers doing anything wrong by taking advantage of this loophole? In the eyes of the law, taking something you know is not rightfully yours (like an extra £50 that the bank accidentally puts in your bank account) is equivalent to theft. Is exploiting a loophole like this the same as theft? This isn't the first time shoppers have been happy to take advantage - both Argos and Amazon have made mistakes with online pricing, and had to deal with people snapping up products at ridiculous prices. This situation is only likely to get worse, as people become more savvy with the ways of online shopping. Even if you don't spot a loophole yourself there will always be a website telling you about it.
A chuckle on the way to work this morning: the Times (new compact edition) reports that Sainsburys have been giving away free (or at least very cheap) shopping by releasing e-vouchers that people could apply many times, even across multiple shopping sessions. An online swap-shop for these vouchers quickly sprang up online, and people were soon receiving lots of goods from Sainsbury's without paying for them. One chap reports that he received over £5000 worth of goods. Sainsburys spotted the error (in his case at least) but he argued that there was nothing in their terms & conditions to say the vouchers could not be used in this way.
So the question is, were these happy shoppers doing anything wrong by taking advantage of this loophole? In the eyes of the law, taking something you know is not rightfully yours (like an extra £50 that the bank accidentally puts in your bank account) is equivalent to theft. Is exploiting a loophole like this the same as theft? This isn't the first time shoppers have been happy to take advantage - both Argos and Amazon have made mistakes with online pricing, and had to deal with people snapping up products at ridiculous prices. This situation is only likely to get worse, as people become more savvy with the ways of online shopping. Even if you don't spot a loophole yourself there will always be a website telling you about it.
Comments:
i work for sty and i dont particularly like it, but no one had £5000 of free goods!!! That guy's basically a liar.
Lots of people got lots of nice free stuff though ;]
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Lots of people got lots of nice free stuff though ;]
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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