Money Moral Dilemma: Should I start using the employee discount card from my old job again?

Bilster1

dunedin89 said:

It's not illegal. There is no law against using an employee discount card when no longer an employee. When was the last time a story like this was discussed on This Morning or Loose Women? It hasn't because nobody cares about an ex employee using a discount card. Literally no one on this earth cares. So the other posters need to calm down and stop getting their knickers in a twist.

It could only be considered a breach of contract if it explicitly mentions in your employment contract that you must hand it back after leaving the company. But you've made attempts to rectify it with your previous employer and you've told HR. Therefore it's up to them to deactivate it.

So go ahead and use it. Life's too short to listen to the 'Mary Poppins' of this world on here. As the previous poster says. Fill yer boots. Your partner sounds like a keeper looking out for the finances. 

Well, there are at least two posters on here I wouldn't want to employ in my company! Honesty is everything to an employer regardless of how big they are.
The staff discount card is what it says, for staff. So if you no longer work for the company you're not entitled to use it you're committing fraud.  I don't work for the supermarket either but if I 'borrowed' the staff discount card according to your logic it's not against the law? 'No one cares' and 'it's up to them to deactivate it'? Biggest load of self entitled guff I've heard in a long time but at least you're owning your dishonesty!

Emerion

I don’t think you can all just assume that because the OP knows that it’s active, he or she has used it. Maybe they have used it, maybe they haven’t.  You don’t know how the system works. Maybe they can check the barcode online, maybe they can still logon to a company account page, because that hasn’t been deactivated either. It’s scary what a high proportion of the population cheerfully make huge assumptions based on scant information (or no information at all sometimes), and then immediately rush to judgement. Makes you hope you’d never be facing a jury of our “upstanding” citizens as an innocent person, doesn’t it?

squirrel59

Did you post your dilemma hoping someone would tell you it's ok to be dishonest?
Cut up the card and pray there won't be an audit that will reveal what you've been up to these past three years.

ginger_chocolate

I wouldn't judge someone too harshly for doing it - it's not as if the supermarkets are shining beacons of morality, and they aren't going to go bust just because you paid £5 less for your weekly shop. I don't think it's the horrendous moral red flag some people are making it out to be. If the company were paying that much attention to who was using them they'd have cancelled it in the first place so I'd say the worst trouble you're likely to get in is a spot of embarrassment. That said, I probably wouldn't feel that comfortable doing it personally. Go with your gut.

fifty-something

What the holier-than-thous posting here are failing to understand is that these cards are intended to encourage shopping with the business.  Not just the card-holder, but also him/her shopping for friends and relations.  Net benefit to the business if you and they would otherwise have gone elsewhere.

Just because HR said that they would deactivate the card does not mean that this is the company policy - what do you suppose the marketing/sales guys might prefer?  You and chums shopping with them!

In my experience HR will go out of their way to be as unkind and as unhelpful as possible, all in the name of "company policy".  I've never been convinced that HR have much clue about anything real.

HR mission statement: "We're not happy until you're not happy".

As another poster said, "Fill your boots!".

They'll take you to court?  Hardly - what would that say about them to their public?  Worst-case, they'll pull the plug on your card.  But I'll take a small bet that they couldn't if they tried!

Dakta

^ guff. 

Has anyone been told to keep their discount card after leaving? This is a complete no brainer of a question, everyone on the planet knows the spirit and meaning of an empoyee discount.

'Holier than thou' doesn't matter weigh up to much when what it's describing is correct, just and common sense. Let's face it, by this threads standards, anyone straddling on the honest side of honest is hoiler than thou. Going to be a few of us I think - Impressive stats. 

HOv3

A few years back I was in my local Every Little Helps store. Checkout asst handed me the receipt and said "Your lucky, you've got the discount, how did you get that? I've worked here x years and can't get it on my card". Puzzled, I asked her what she was on about. She pointed out that I had a staff discount. I've never worked for Tesco, except part-time about 30 years ago one Christmas! After a bit of reflection, I went to the Customer Service, told them and asked them to get in touch with someone to get it cancelled. The thought of taking something under false pretences makes me feel bad. After a bit of calling around the lady got through to the correct dept and it was cancelled. I'm a bit poorer, but I don't get a bad feeling, like I'm filching something when I shop.

Marvel1

dunedin89 said:

It's not illegal. There is no law against using an employee discount card when no longer an employee. When was the last time a story like this was discussed on This Morning or Loose Women? It hasn't because nobody cares about an ex employee using a discount card. Literally no one on this earth cares. So the other posters need to calm down and stop getting their knickers in a twist.

It could only be considered a breach of contract if it explicitly mentions in your employment contract that you must hand it back after leaving the company. But you've made attempts to rectify it with your previous employer and you've told HR. Therefore it's up to them to deactivate it.

So go ahead and use it. Life's too short to listen to the 'Mary Poppins' of this world on here. As the previous poster says. Fill yer boots. Your partner sounds like a keeper looking out for the finances. 

Shame didn't take your own advice when asking about the broker, it's not illegal etc.

f5morg

HOv3 said:

A few years back I was in my local Every Little Helps store. Checkout asst handed me the receipt and said "Your lucky, you've got the discount, how did you get that? I've worked here x years and can't get it on my card". Puzzled, I asked her what she was on about. She pointed out that I had a staff discount. I've never worked for Tesco, except part-time about 30 years ago one Christmas! After a bit of reflection, I went to the Customer Service, told them and asked them to get in touch with someone to get it cancelled. The thought of taking something under false pretences makes me feel bad. After a bit of calling around the lady got through to the correct dept and it was cancelled. I'm a bit poorer, but I don't get a bad feeling, like I'm filching something when I shop.

So does it automatically go on a standard loyalty card then? I assumed it was a separate discount card or something. If that's the case then it makes the poster's case more understandable if it is attached the ordinary nectar/clubcard, as you wouldnt want to avoid losing points you've earned and presumably you can't de-ativate the discount on the self-scan till screen. 

If the account is still active then maybe their staff account is still active which could help with contacting about cancelling it or seeing if other features about their old employment are still active.

I think nowadays you don't get that discount until after 3 months or probation period, so probably got it immediately before

rusonjitsu

I don’t work in a supermarket, but I know how heavily audited they are.
Hearsay but a BF of a work colleague worked in one of the big ones. Two of the staff were a couple. 

One of them used the others discount card, and was fired for it.

Unless I had it in writing, that I could continue using it, I wouldn’t if I were you,