Question
Apropos of nothing, let's say a person bought many purchases in a large chain store. The sales person rang up her many purchases and the total was lower than expected. On the way out she checks her receipt to find that one item was never rung in. She grins happily and is on her way to wrap said purchases, never once actually contemplating returning to the store to rectify the mistake.
Is that stealing?
The more I think about it, the more I believe it is.
Hmmmm
Josie
Is that stealing?
The more I think about it, the more I believe it is.
Hmmmm
Josie
Comments
@billy, exactly. This was Bob's Stores and I did spend about $200 there...
@waffles - look who's talking. Ahem, $5!
The issue is ethical. Arguing that is best left as a midterm question in Philosophy 101.
how about pizza joe? does mom make it square with a nice parmesian? (instead of round with mozzerella)then cooks up some sausage and rolls it up in the za?......
f.m.l. now im hungry for some "italian"!
Oh my GOD now I'm hungry for some pasta.
The hell with the sauce, how about some good old Texas Style Brisket and with the fixings mmmmmmgd.
It obviously makes not one speck of difference whether the store is a national chain or a struggling family-owned business.
Suppose it's the latter, and it's the owner who is ringing up your purchases that day, for whatever reason. He inadvertently charges you twice for some item. As you're walking away, his eye catches the duplication on his copy of the receipt. But rather than stopping you so that he can correct the error, he thinks, "Score! Free money!" and lets you go.
Is he stealing from you?
As long as your answer to that is "no," then go ahead and consider the answer to your question "no," too. However....
@grump, I didn't leave the store with an item I KNEW I didn't pay for. as I said, the total seemed less than I was anticipating. I bought a lot of presents and didn't realize one item wasn't rung in until I was checking the receipt afterwards. Now if I was charged twice for an item, would I think the sales person was STEALING from me? No. I would think he was making a mistake and I'd correct it, but no, I wouldn't think he was stealing. In my situation though, I should've brought it back and paid for it. Obviously this has been on my mind....enough so that I signed the gift tag "Josie and The Sales Lady".
@my boy toy - you've hit the nail on the head. I'd march Sugar Bear back in there to pay for the item.
I repeat, ON THE WAY OUT. To me, that implies that you were still in the store, or maybe between the door and your car. That is why I constructed my hypothetical the way I did.
If you actually meant, "After I got home," why did you say, "On the way out"?
Also, I realize that one would normally assume that a duplicate charge was an inadvertent error. That's why I gave the guy a chance to correct it, and he intentionally chooses not to. Given that, do you think he is stealing from you?
To make it better parallel the situation you now describe, suppose that he's trying to reconcile the books at the end of the day, and can't. He then examines the receipts for an amount that would explain the discrepancy and finds the duplicate charge on your bill. He remembers the transaction and knows that you didn't buy two of those items. He realizes that the scanner hiccuped and somehow scanned the thing twice.
He has your customer info and can easily contact you if he chooses to. If he does not, then is he stealing from you?
And yes if he discovered an error, like I did in the car, and didn't rectify it, I'd consider that stealing, which just confirms my gut feeling. Good analogy.
red sux got a closer! arent you extatic mizz josie
are you playing b.c.p. i cant figure out how to "find a player" to save my life though
Myself: I'm lazy and rarely ever look at my receipts - So I probably never would have noticed and went along my merry life without a care in the world.
This is really a tale of two grrouches.
In my younger days if someone screwed up to my advantage then I didn't give a shit and wouldn't say anything.
However, as I get older AND work in retail (for the past decade+) and have designs on opening up my own retail store at some point in my life I would do something to rectify the situation.
Go back into the store and pay for it - Call support and find out how much the item was worth and ask if they want me to pay for it over the phone or send a check, etc.
This is me hoping that eventually Karma will kick in and when I (or one of my hired help) messes up someone will be repay in kind.
I've got more to say on this so I best just make my own post instead of putting a bigger wall of text here for all these others that don't care lol.
yes i'm onn bcp -playing a 45 peep game and sucking. 13 peeps left and I aam in 13th place.
I never pay attention to how others see my bloggie thingie and thus I was under the misinformed impression that when I subscribed/followed/stalked a blog that it auto updated that as it auto updates the list that I look at.
However, I have rectumfied the situation and now you are one of the few, the proud, the elite.
And all 8 of my subscribers can see your blog link when they look at my words.
You are welcome!!!
grrouchie, what is this "just a little"? it's not in my vocabulary.