I definitely think there’s nothing illegal about taking the gas, but it’s also definitely unethical. Personally, I’d have not noticed until near the end of pumping, then I would have paid and informed the owner. Then left. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not willing to waste my time while the problem is corrected and then re-pay. While what I’m doing may be slightly unethical, I think it’s just as unethical for the owner to expect me to wait while they correct their mistake.
As a human being, though, I’m pretty much on the hook to let them know there’s a problem. Bringing people back to take further advantage of the problem is disgusting.
I plan on filling up for $2.899 after work today. Every Thursday, the gas stations on the way down the hill have a bit of a price war for “customer appreciation day”. The going rate in town is $3.199. There was a station not too long ago that had gas for $1.009. The lines were so long, there were pictures of it in the newspaper that day.
There have been radio station promotions here in Portland in the past, where the station would announce to their “loyal listeners” that a certain gas station would be selling gas for some ridiculously low price that day until the tanks ran out. The only way to find out which station was to listen at a certain time, because there would be no promotional signs at the station.
I recall during a common law criminal law class I took a long time ago (IANAL) that if you went into a store, bought a candy bar with a $5 bill, and received $10 in change, you would not have committed theft if you didn’t realize the mistake until you got home. However, if you saw the clerk made an error, and rushed out of the store to capitalize on the error, then you had unlawfully taken money that wasn’t yours.
Based on this law class many years ago, I have no doubt that those who realized the error and sought to capitalize on it are criminals. Losing a thousand dollars plus in a day is a big deal to a small business, and someone ought to be punished for their greed.
I would have told them that it was wrong, but only after filling my own tank. I’m only a “decent” samaritan. I’ll take the advantage that I was given, but I’m not going to gangbang the owner by alerting every person that I can think of.
I just spoke to two lawyer friends about this. One only does civil work. The other is an Air Force JAG (Lt. Col) who has done a fair amount of criminal work, defense and prosecution, in his career. They both agreed that while it’s a gray area, it is theft so long as the intent was there. If the customers knew that the pump was set wrong and took advantage of it, they were stealing.
Both of my friends also agreed that no DA in his right mind would waste his or her time prosecuting someone for this. Proving intent wouldn’t be easy.
Even if you filled up 5 tanks of gas on purpose, you’re only taking advantage of an opportunity the owner has allowed through negligence. You have no ethical obligation to tell the owner. In fact, that’s what I would do myself. If I accidentally put up a sign inviting anyone and everyone to come into my house and take all my stuff, they also have a right to do so.
If I had a maid and allowed him to set the price of items in my house, then yes. Otherwise, it would be the responsibility of the maid, just as it would be if someone who was not allowed to program the gas pumps did it.
I see nothing wrong with what the customers did. I probably would have said something, but I don’t think they’re necessarily ethically required to do so. The gas attendant had to be a frickin’ moron or trying to screw over the company, IMHO.
You change gas prices, don’t verify the pump reflects the proper change, and are then swamped by customers and don’t immediately grasp something is wrong? The only way this is even remotely plausible is if every single customer paid at the pump and the gas attendant is severely intellectually stunted.
It seems to me at least one person in that crowd would pay with cash or a check. I have never seen any register that doesn’t in some way show what it is you’re ringing up. The register would have shown the price when he went to ring it up. There is absolutely no way he could miss it. Even if he didn’t notice the price per gallons, he’d notice the horrific difference between how many gallons were pumped and how much money he was being handed. Even if someone didn’t pay inside, don’t all gas stations have some way of monitoring the pumps from inside? I know the Gasboy systems used around here do. One glance at the screen and he’d see what the activity was and at what price.
It’s entirely possible he really was just that stupid, I guess. In which case, the owner is at fault for not hiring somebody who could handle first grade level math.
You honestly think that it’s ethical to take advantage of someone’s honest mistake? I’m an atheist but I still believe that one should treat others the way they would like to be treated. Since you said that you wouldn’t mind if you were in the opposite situation, and I will take that at face value, you aren’t a hypocrite but you’re not ethical either.
I don’t know, it seems like the people taking advantage of it were not terribly unethical. From a retail perspective, I once gave a woman a $90 credit on a pair of $20 sunglasses she was returning. I knew that wasn’t right, but that’s how it rang up. She knew it wasn’t right, but, again, that’s how it rang up. I did it twice, and couldn’t do anything else without a manager’s override, and my manager didn’t answer, nor did the other manager on the floor. So I told her it looked like her lucky day and printed out a duplicate for when my manager finally got back to me–it was two days before Christmas and there were several people in line. When my manager finally got down there, about two hours later, she sort of shrugged and said these things happen.
Obviously, we knew who the customer was and what her account number was, but nobody was going to call her up and get the the $$ back. Nor were they going to get it from me (whew!). Just a business loss.
Now if the customer had gone out and made a general announcement that you could get $90 for returning $20 sunglasses at a certain counter, that probably would have stretched the ethical limits. But this also means that you could get a pair of $20 sunglasses for $90, too (and $20 is about all any of them are worth, whatever price is charged).
Look at it this way, the WI gas station just got $2000 worth of publicity. More people will buy gas there tomorrow, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, it’ll happen again. But it won’t.
If someone had gone up to the gas station clerk and said, “hey the pumps are screwed up” and the clerk said, “I can’t fix them. It’s your lucky day,” there would have been no issue.
By inquiring you create the knowledge that leads to intent if you follow through with the purchase. If I don’t ask and I assume that the person selling means to sell for the listed price and I purchase it, there is no crime. Further, I’m not even sure there’s anything ethically wrong with it, frankly, I’d be a little suspicious in that case that there was something wrong with the gas and they were just trying to get rid of it.