MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Should Alan give the laptop back?

lifesuckssometimes

KidMoe wrote: »

I can use a site like this because there is a difference between honest money saving and dishonest money saving. Haggling on price and hunting out cheap deals is honest. Taking advantage of another person's blatent mistake is dishonest.

pleaseeeeeeeeee:D

you are right though:rotfl:

Gekite

bjliz wrote: »

Should Alan give the laptop back?

Yes, of course he should - would anyone really think otherwise? Alan presumably saw the price tag and knew what he should be paying. Even if he hadn't he would have known that 3.99 was an absurd price. The cashier made an innocent error and I am sure if it had been the other way round then Alan would have lost no time in pointing it out.

lol,that made me laugh, I like the way you contrasted the devious supervillian Alan against the innocent cashier! Was the cashier asleep to be so innocent of just completely ignorant of what things in the store are normally priced at. Was there any spark of life, erm uh, laptop £3.99, erm bit cheap... erm ah doh~!

Maybe if the cashier was paid a living wage...

But that's another dilemma isn't it?

KidMoe

Gekite wrote: »

Such a master piece of self-delusion.

I'd quite equally apply that statement to your twisted justification of Alan's theft.

GT60

stogiebear wrote: »

My first instinct when anyone walks up to me in a shop wearing a tie is that I'm just about to be lied to. It's second nature to most of us who aren't sleepwalking through life.

So when I get the story about "trainee cashier..." blah blah blah I find it hard to feel the pain. If it was a Curry's then I'd not only take it, I'd spit in their faces on the way out! This crappy chain of imbeciles has the worst service reputation I know.

I'm pretty sure the shop who had just tried to sell me an 'extended warranty' on this very same laptop don't have the same gullible sense of obligation and morality that some of the posters here seem to have.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but these sales people are not your mates trying to do you a favor and find you a great deal. They are ruthless lying sneaks who would kill their families to make employee of the month.[/qu
Its not just Currys it is Comet also they are just as bad!!

Garyapple

Attlee wrote: »

Perhaps surprisingly, this is theft. The fact that the cashier made a mistake is no defence. (If prosecuted and convicted, this would affect Alan's sentence though, as it makes it an opportunistic, rather than a planned, crime.)

What makes it theft is, amongst other things, that Alan was aware of the error.

Most undergraduate criminal law exam papers have a question along these lines.

All good moneysavers will know that shop managers aren't reliable authorities on the law. In theory, Alan risks (i) a criminal record, (ii) a court order to return the laptop to the shop, or to compensate the shop for its loss, and (iii) any other sentence the court decides to impose. So it's not entirely true that the laptop is legally his.

Of course, asking what's moral isn't the same as asking what's legal. It sounds as though Alan might be able to get away with it.

Personally, I'd do the decent thing. I like to think of myself as having more integrity than most businesses, and to beat them at their game legally.

I think you are wrong about this transaction being theft. When you purchase any item in a shop you are making a contract and if the store offerred the item for 3.99 on the till then this is a legally binding contract and not theft, regardless of the original price tag.

lifesuckssometimes

KidMoe wrote: »

I'd quite equally apply that statement to your twisted justification of Alan's theft.

sorry when did he steal the laptop i missed that one

KidMoe

He might as well have done, the end result is the same.

Gekite

vsdallow wrote: »

Alan knew the price of the laptop was £399 and should have mentioned this at the till instead of keeping quiet. :mad: I have a shop myself and would be really gutted if somebody did this kind of trick to me & my business. Alan should give the laptop back, or pay the proper price. Sorry if I sound nerdy, but there you go!

Actually, Alan didn't know the price of the laptop until he actually purchased it.

Kind of a trick? How about making sure you don't sell something below what you want for it ! There was no trick involved, Alan purchased the laptop at the price requested at the checkout, why shouldn't Alan expect the checkout price to be the correct one.

Maybe Alan should go through life asking everyone if they want more from him? Just to make sure he ain't getting anything too cheap or getting too easy a life. Morality, lol, brainwashed little capitalist shoppers more like. Does master want more of mee... please master take more...

the_barretts

If it were me I know that if I left the store then the laptop would certainly crash, combust or explode the first time I used it because...

What goes around comes around, and things like this would certainly come back and bite me on the bum BIGTIME!!!!!

MikeyBoosh

You wonder why prices of food and fuel go up and up and up and nobody does anything about it, after reading the comments on this site I've realised that the people want to keep the status quo! the British need to be more like the french, and stop being controlled by corporations and wake up or we'll just end up like the american dream, you have to be asleep to believe it!!