‘I pointed that [glitch] out to management years ago’: Online shopper figures out how to scam store out of $2,000, forewarner employee simply ‘respects the hustle'

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Dec 8, 2024 1:00 PM EST

Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law? It's basically the thought that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. If you're running a business, this is a pretty good rule of thumb. It helps prevent any future mishaps. However, sometimes company's try to have a bit of a soul and let some things slide. That's pretty nice… Until there's that one person who ruins it all. Because if something can go wrong, it will… For instance, this company released a fun little giftcard glitch through their online store. When they realized the glitch that got people even better discounts, they decided to leave it as a bonus to any mathematical genius who can figure it out. It would happen every now and then, and it was no problem for them—it almost felt like a favor they were doing for the customers. However, one customer figured out how they could take it even further. An employee noticed this before it happened and tried to alert management, but they seemed not to care. So when this one customer ended up swindling the company out of almost $2,000 the employee just gave them an "I told you so" look and carried on. If you're not going to listen to your employees, then Murphy's Law is gonna call in their buddy karma to get to work… Read then entire situation below! 

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  • 01
    "A customer found an infinite money glitch and scammed us out of about $2,000..."
    via Unsplash+ (and Clay Banks)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    A customer found an infinite money glitch and scammed us out of about $2000 Our gift cards are digital and are only purchased online. Sometimes we'll have website-wide sales of like 10% off or something, which includes the gift cards, since they're purchased online.
    via soberonlife
  • 03
    That means you can get a $100 gift card for $90. Then you can use that gift card to buy a $110 item which is $99 on sale, meaning you've essentially spent $90 for a $110 dollar item. I pointed that out to management years ago and they were aware of it, but they kept it up as a little bonus for people that figured it out.
    via soberonlife
  • 04
    Unfortunately though, someone figured something else out. Perhaps you have as well. Someone figured out that you can buy a gift card with a gift card. He bought a $1000 gift card for $900. Then he used that $1000 gift card to buy a $1000 gift card and a $100 gift card. Then he did it again. And again. And again.
    via soberonlife
  • 05
    He spent $900 on the initial gift card, and he ended up with about $3000 in gift cards. Gotta respect the hustle.
    via soberonlife
  • 06
    Muted_Passenger6612 This is one reason you can't buy gift cards with gift cards hete soberonlife OP The manager thought you couldn't, but he was wrong. When this happened, I told him, and he said "you must be mistaken, the website doesn't let you do that", but I went into the payment methods for each order and saw that he was indeed using gift cards to pay for gift cards.
    via Muted_Passenger6612
  • 07
    3stanbk Which company is this? Asking for a friend soberonlife OP Sorry bud, they learned their lesson and took the cards off the sale. They were happy for people to use a gift card bought on sale to buy an actual item on sale, but they weren't happy with this. They said "one guy just had to ruin it for everyone else".
    via 3stanbk
  • 08
    Bored_Worldhopper I had a customer who realized she could essentially cash out manufacturers coupons by using them to buy the item, then return it for cash. So she would buy like $50 of an item but with a $10 manufacturer coupon, pay $40, return it with the receipt, get $50 back She was doing multiple transactions every day and making like $100-200. I told my manager and he said it was the manufacturer's problem. I pointed out the sheer volume of manufacturer coupons this lady had for higher amo
    via Bored_Worldhopper
  • 09
    |_ Like_Tacos Back when I worked for a famous pharmacy/ retail store. I caught a couple that would steal a product from one store. Exchange it for a similar yet higher priced item and pay the difference at another. Than because they spent a dollar or so on the difference of product. Take it to any on the "corner of happy and healthy" and use that receipt to get a full cash refund. No idea how often they did it but I happened to catch on when they tried it on me.
    via I__Like_Tacos
  • 10
    WackoMcGoose Similar kind of thing happened at my company last month, someone booped up programming discounts for a certain line of storage boxes on a "buy more save more" system, causing discounts to stack rather than replace the lower tiers... The Milwaukee subreddit went rabid and started placing as many orders as they could. My store went all-hands on fulfillment, then an hour later when it was discovered what happened, store- wide walkie page "@everyone STOP PICKING RIGHT NOW WE KED UP"...
    via WackoMcGoose
  • 11
    Jumbrion That happened to us except they bought the first products online and because we don't have a code on the online order that's 1 time use only they were coming in to refund the products when we were lone working while another walked around the store stealing the products to return to another store. We think they hit about 30 stores across the uk.
    via Jumbrion
  • 12
    were refunded, but at least half the affected stores were out at least $10k of product (when a curbside customer taps I'm Here in the app, it's legally equivalent to a receipt printing, too late for us to cancel). First comment on the after-action post: "Someone's getting ~fiiiired~..."
    via WackoMcGoose

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employee scammed retail retail worker work online shopping shopper what goes around comes around entitled people karma pay back entitled management justice served workplace funny scam Reddit karma gift cards
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