College student ethical dilemma

[frugalcollegestudent]

as my name might suggest i am a frugal, yet poor, college student. Recently I discoved a flaw in our campus bookstore that has allowed me to make a profit out of returning books:

I am a resident assistant (RA) at my university which means I get free room and board. Not too bad. On top of that, we get a 10% discount at the campus bookstore, also not too bad if you can purchase a used book PLUS an additional 10% discount (although the sales tax is 9% here in Chicago). The bookstore hires college students to work there who have really no idea what they are doing, but like me they need supplemental support aside from Dad and Mom bank. Last year I purchased a book that cost roughly 90 dollars after the 10% discount from a 100.00 book. After receiving the syllabus I realized I could get the book that I needed at the library for free. So I went to return my book that I had purchased at 10% discount and instead of refunding me the price with the discount, they refunded me the actual retail price.

e.g. bought 100.00 book at 10% discount = 90.00 including tax (roughly)
returned the book and was refunded the 100.00 retail price PLUS the
would be 9% sales tax = 109.00 (roughly)

I made 19.00 profit (roughly) on buying and returning a book.

So essentially, the students who work there are simply scanning the book and returning the original value while not looking at the receipt to see that in fact I had gotten it at 10% discount.

I went back this year and tried the same experiment. I got the same result on a 40.00 book and made 5.00 today.


--My Ethical Dilemma--

I could buy 500.00 worh of books tomorrow and return them next week and make roughly 50 dollars in doing so. Should I? Shouldn't I?

What happens if I get caught? I play dumb, I had no idea what was going on.

Morally? The bookstore inflates their prices to con students out of money, I am simply evening things out.

Philosophically? What if every one in the world did this? Well, not everyone WOULD do this, and it is not logical to think so (according to my phil prof) so that argument holds no merrit.

Is this any different then opening and closing accounts for cash bonuses? Or using a BT to earn interest in a high-yield savings account during a 0% apr promotion? Where do you draw the line/distinguish the difference? Would you do it if you were in my position?

[disneysteve]

Is this any different then opening and closing accounts for cash bonuses? Or using a BT to earn interest in a high-yield savings account during a 0% apr promotion? Where do you draw the line/distinguish the difference? Would you do it if you were in my position?

It is totally different than opening an account for a bonus or depositing a balance transfer to earn interest. Those things are both examples of following all of the rules and using them to your advantage.

What you describe with the book store is fraud. You aren't following the rules at all. You are exploiting poorly trained workers who are incorrectly processing a transaction. They should be requiring you to show your receipt, which would show the amount paid, and then refunding you the proper amount.

Put yourself on the other side of this. You own the bookstore. Do you think you'd have a problem with people stealing 10% of every purchase by doing this?

It is wrong, plain and simple. You shouldn't even have to question it.

[Scanner]

Ethically and philosophically - it's a violation.

In fact, the more you are aware of it, the more it becomes racketeering or a scheme.

Practically - there's always a decent chance that an accountant will do an audit of the books and discover it.

So. . .I wouldn't risk it.

[LuckyRobin]

I agree with herm4, you wouldn't be asking if you didn't already know it was wrong.

Ethically you should have brought it up when they made the error and not kept quiet.

[Daniel_Shop]

Too little money to sell your soul, don't you think?

If you want to profit from it, talk to the owner and tell him what is going on. You could get a job (if you like) or just positive Karma.

That is real profit.

PS: congratulations for the discovery

[frugalcollegestudent]

I agree with herm4, you wouldn't be asking if you didn't already know it was wrong.

Ethically you should have brought it up when they made the error and not kept quiet.

I have decided not to do it, merely for the reason of getting caught. Those 7 dollars I received mistakingly are good enough.

However, I question everyone's motives. Sure on a forum, where its easy for others to critique, you will present yourself as a hero for justice and everyhing that is moral.

What if you had received change back from a store and mixed in with a few twentys is a fifty dollar bill. Would you, after learning about it in the car on the way home, turn around and return it or think hmm my lucky day. Or if you went to McDonalds and paid for a few meals but realized after looking at the receipt that they forgot to charge you for two of them, would you go inside and address the error?

Is there really a difference between the morals behind those situations and mine or is it simply a matter of splitting hairs?

And on a side note to the few who said it, I broke no "rules." I did not con them out of money, I simply did not make them aware of their mistakes, just as I am going to assume that most of you would do. That is not to say that I believe most of you would continue to exploit the flaw, but I have a gut feeling that after paying 500.00 for two textbooks you would not suddenly address this small descrepincy on the receipt.

[kimiko]

If a cashier mistakenly handed me extra change in excess of $1, I would walk back in the store and hand it back. If less, I probably wouldn't make the effort and would just put it in a donation box or something. I don't think cashier would have much problem if their numbers are off by a few cents. Mostly it just the principles that I live by, plus I don't feel good profiting at someone else's expenses.

[gackle]

However, I question everyone's motives. Sure on a forum, where its easy for others to critique, you will present yourself as a hero for justice and everyhing that is moral.

That's a pretty presumptuous statement.

A fifty dollar bill found in my change is not my money. It's somebody's and I suspect if you were on the other side of the transaction you'd be upset if somebody didn't return it to you. At the end of the day their accounting books are not going to balance and they will find out. Your scenarios offer a lot of gray area - how much extra change/food did I receive, how far away from the business am I? Like kimiko, if it was much over a dollar I would attempt to return it, maybe not right away if I'm not close, but at least a call to the establishment would be in order to let them know of the mistake and my intentions of giving it back when I can.

A difference in your scenarios and your situation is that your scenarios are one-time occurances. Your initial post contemplates taking advantage of mistakes repeatedly.

A tip for you to help on the cost of textbooks - I am in college as well through an online school. I have yet to buy a textbook through their online bookstore because the prices are so outrageous. If you can't find it in the library (very good, by the way!), search for the ISBN on Google or Yahoo. There are international editions that are printed in India for a fraction of the price. The pages are not as high quality either, but the content is usually the same as American editions. Also search on amazon.com for used books. I recently bought a hardback book, not international edition, in used/like new condition (it might as well have been new, couldn't find a thing wrong with it) for $7 including s&h. The bookstore wanted $120 for it.

[LuckyRobin]

I certainly would give them their money back and have done on numerous occassions. Back in the days when I worked a cash register I would have been suspended if my till was off by $50. And any time the till was off by $5 or more we were written up. Three write ups in a month and you could be fired. If you knew what you did could cost someone their job would you still do it?

When I have been given more food then I ordered I will make them aware of it and they'll just say keep it because once it has gone across the counter they can't serve it to someone else, they would have to throw it away. When they undercharge me for my order and I later bring it to their attention they say it was their mistake and its fine.

If you are going to question anyone's motives it should be your own. Judge yourself. Honesty and integrity will get you further in life than trying to cheat the system. Actions always have consequences and secrets always come out. It is better to do the right thing and be truthful to begin with than to live with the guilt of doing the wrong thing. When you've lived a few more years out in the real world you'll understand that better. I'm not trying to be patronizing, but unless you are very different from the regular college student you don't have a whole lot of life experience yet, especially not a lot of non-sheltered life experience.

I am glad you have made the right decision to not cheat the store, but I wish it was because it was the right thing to do and not fear of getting caught that made you come to that decision.

[disneysteve]

A difference in your scenarios and your situation is that your scenarios are one-time occurances. Your initial post contemplates taking advantage of mistakes repeatedly.

Exactly. I'm sure at one time or another, we've all gotten some extra change or had a cashier forget to ring up an item. But what you propose in your initial post is exploiting a mistake in the system to intentionally cheat the store out of cash.

Not reporting incorrect change is ethically questionable. Intentionally cheating the store is theft.

[Scanner]

DisneySteve is right.

If someone mischanges me, yes, I agree that I am not always so ethical as to turn the car around and drive back and give them the extra $5 or $10. If we came across holier-than-thou, well. . .that's probably your own conscience.

I suppose if someone found out I knew and I didn't return it, I'd be guilty of theft.

However, what you are proposing is "conspiracy."

You are "conspiring" to relieve the college bookstore of it's money.

This in addition to theft.

If you need an analogy, in the insurance world, what you are differentiating is the difference between

1. Insurance Fraud: the intent is to relieve the ins. co. of monies.

and

2. Insurance Abuse/Misuse: meaning. . .a doctor overbills a co., but is unaware of the complexities.

Both are actually wrong (you can get in trouble for both). . .the insurance fraud charge is just more serious because there is criminal intent.

The same with your scenario.

[loanstar]

I don't think its ethical, the book store is loosing money, and you're risking those student's jobs; should they be found to be making this mistake, they might get fired.