'Your mistake, my gain'... or petty larceny?

[doc_strange]

MINOCQUA, Wis. - Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon. [...]

Full story here.  Read it, please, then post your opinion.

Would you rush there and gas up... or try to call the manager?  What are the ethics here?  Discuss.

Comments

[girlvinyl.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call the manager. How do you even get the phone number of a gas station manager? That makes no sense. Did no one go inside to pay for their gas at this price? Was a second employee paying no attention at all? Goodness. It's not stealing and it isn't dishonest. These things happen and it's the price of doing business.

Of course, I'm the kind of person that sees XSS vulns and just goes on about my web browsing day. Just because you notice a problem doesn't mean it's your responsibility to fix it every single time.

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

The article says the station was set up for night business - closed office, card payments only.

What if the pump malfunctioned and wasn't charging anyone? Would you head right there when you heard and pump yourself a tank? How does that differ ethically if at all from $.33/gal?

Would you empty their Coke machine if it was broken and just gave out sodas?

I'm interested in why folks might think it's not larceny when the big sign says one price, and word of mouth that the pumps are set up wrong is the draw.

[girlvinyl.livejournal.com]

So there is a completely unattended gas station? With no employees whatsoever? Is that even legal? Sounds like a huge safety hazard.

My perspective on this might differ somewhat because I am not a car owner and rarely ever drive. But, no I wouldn't head right out there to get gas.

I would probably do more for malfunctioning coke machine than free gas. Malfunctioning vending machines are awesome and very, very rare. Well, rare when they're in your favor.

It's because they are doing the same thing they always do and have no affect on whether or not they're charged the sign price or the .33 cents. They put their credit card in, they pump the gas, they fill their tank, they pay their credit card bill. It's a malfunction and they're not really thinking about it any other way, that's my assessment, anyway.

I also think the volatile nature of gas prices means people accept whatever that price is, no matter how big or small, basically.

To me, this isn't morally wrong, but maybe legally it is.

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

Ah, you should read the story in the link (edited, above now to emphasize that it makes it clear...). Drivers called around to spread the news, and they were 2 deep at the pumps. Total hit to the station was over $1500.

(As to the safety, yeah, that is actually the norm in much of the US, where small towns don't keep someone around to stare at nothing all night, but automated pumps allow CC transactions.)

Anyhow, so people called around and lots headed there to take advantage. Not an after-pumping look at the total, "um, that's kind of cheap.. humh, no one around, ok, screw it, I am out of here." Rather, knowing the price to be wrong, they headed over to take advantage.

So, ethics of the actual situation reported in the story? How about that it's a small town and these are the owner's neighbors?

I love "situational ethics" questions. 8-)

[ivy]

Yeah, that's not okay. I might have done it unknowingly, and then looked at my total and gone "whoa, what?", but if I knew it was a programming mistake, I'd feel bad taking advantage of it. It seems doubly awful in a small town situation, where you're going to have to brazenly face the person you knowingly screwed over.

I give back the money when cashiers accidentally under-charge me at checkout stations too.

While I know that most people are more self-interested than honest, particularly when it comes to business and finance, if I were the gas station owner, it'd still come as an unwelcome shock that my neighbors were all willing to do this to me. And I'd want to know who, so that I would know not to trust them further than I could throw them in the future.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

It's stealing,actually. You are taking something which is not yours with out paying the price asked for it.

[feonixrift.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Key things: a) the main sign had the right price, b) this is one state over from areas that've had shortages.

I'd've taken the gas ("honest mistake", I likely wouldn't have noticed it was off 'til it was done pumping), not told anyone about the "great deal", called the manager if there was an obvious number, then offered to make up the difference the next day. Building honor is more important to me than a few dollars, and it'd be a chance to make up the difference in some other way than money if I was running short.

[feonixrift.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Oh, and if I'd shown up when it was getting crowded, I might well have driven off, *then* called the police. Unmanned plus crowd = probable fraud, definite chance of idiotic trouble.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

I thought about this last night when I saw the story. No, I wouldn't have participated — I'm another of those folks who gives back extra change. And, as one of your commenters said:

if I were the gas station owner, it'd still come as an unwelcome shock that my neighbors were all willing to do this to me. And I'd want to know who, so that I would know not to trust them further than I could throw them in the future.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

I woudn't rush there and gas up - there's no way a $3 a gallon discount is intentional, and it's not like it's a loss leader or any of the other reasons why something might be discounted. Given that the station owner is losing $30 or so per tank of gas, if I were the first to notice, or were to hear about it, I'd call the manager (especially given that in a small town, odds are good I know him).
This is a good situational ethics question - at what price point does a person become willing to take the discount. For me, I'm certainly willing to accept a free soda, given that it will take more than the soda is worth for me to try to track down who to give the money to (and also given that the owner of the machine has certainly gotten money without dispensing a soda before).

Since everyone who bought gas paid with a credit card, the owner of the gas station certainly knows who the 42 people who got the reduced price gas are. In his shoes, I'd go to each of them and say "You got $X worth of gas that you didn't pay for. You can either pay me that much, or you can see your name up on the list I post at the station."

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Depends on who the owner of the station is. If it was run by the Feds, hell yes I'd fill up. And come back with 55 gallon drums and fill those, too. They steal enough from me that I'm perfectly willing to capitalize on their mistakes.

If it was owned by a real human, if I noticed the difference, well, it would depend on how bad I needed gas. I wouldn't run out just to save the owner money on a mistake they made. But if I lived in town, I'd probably go back to point out to them that they needed to change their pump programming. I figure that's only fair, as I've made gas stations give me money when the pump didn't match the sign. (In their favor.)