This thread is a response to "I got a free iPhone 4"

[samcraig]

I honestly feel very little empathy towards Apple because I had no intention of stealing anything, nor did I walk in there trying to scam anyone, nor could I have had any influence on the matter anyway. Once I gave them my 400 dollars in cash, the matter was out of my hands.

Don't use words like HONESTLY when you have no concept of what it means.

It's clear you have no empathy. Or ethics for that matter.

You didn't try and scam someone - but now you are deliberately scamming them.

Once you saw that the gift card had a balance, the matter was BACK in your hands.


And as I have said (twice now) - it's one thing to do what you did - which I don't agree with and keep it private and to yourself.

But no - you came on here and bragged about it AND started a new thread instead of posting in another.

Well you got your attention. Congratulations.

 

[XciteMe]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

 

[Knowimagination]

This is the only receipt I ever received (another blunder on their part...don't even know if I could return the phone with this)

If that is your only receipt then unfortunately you paid for a gift card and stole an iphone. Also as you said if that is your only receipt then there is no way for you to return it, if I were you I would go make it right asap.

 

[tigress666]

^ Not if it's a Right To Work state. They can fire you for no reason at all. And theft is grounds for immediate termination in ANY state, which Apple could certainly think the employee did.

In the end yeah it's stealing if he didn't go back, point out their mistake and pay for phone...but whatev, most people aren't very honest anymore.

I know Washington is a right to work state. And I know my employer will not fire me unless I get written up three times to protect their butts. That is their own policy. Keep in mind you still can attempt to sue in a right to work state and there are still cases that will win. For example I am pretty sure if you try to prove they discriminated against you and that is why you got fired you could still successfully sue them. Or sexual harassment, stuff like that. Right to work doesn't mean they can fire you for certain reasons (it certainly means they can find "other" reasons to fire you much easier though, or even not even explain why they fired you. But if you can prove they fired you cause you wouldn't let them sexually harass you, for example, they still would lose the court case. And there are people who would make that up to get back at the company who fired them and that is why they insist on stuff like writing people up three times to have written proof).

Even if the cases won't win they still cost the company a lot of money which they like to avoid. Yes, there are certain things that will get you instantly fired (like if they have proof you stole from the company) because those are easy to prove that they were rightfully fired if the employee tries to sue. But for lesser things they tend to want to have you written up a few times so they have written proof you were a bad employee (and they aren't just using one mistake to fire you for illegal reasons they can't outright fire you for).

Honestly, for stuff like (Well at least smaller mistakes, not sure about a mistake that big though) that I'd bet they would write the employee up rather than outright firing him. It's not like the employee tried to steal from the company, he just made a mistake (as I said though, at the amount of mistake he made, I could see them going for the instant fired but that really depends on employer).

And just cause more/most people are doing it these days doesn't make it right. It just makes it a crappy society.

 

[bunnicula]

I wonder what lead the op to check the balance on a gift card that should have had a zero balance. That seems odd. Why not just toss it? I always leave empty gift cards with the cashier. *raises eyebrow*

 

[JohnnyQuest]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

They're going to listen to you? Because someone posted on MacRumors? And he has a receipt. Come on...

The moral police are so ridiculous. If this was to happen to you, I'm 99.9% positive that you wouldn't just turn yourself in without thinking twice about keeping it. Do you really have nothing better to do than turn someone in for a mistake that Apple made?

 

[Mac-Bimmer]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

wow, so you are really that loyal to Apple aren't you?
wow, that was a real douche move right there buddy

 

[Knowimagination]

They're going to listen to you? Because someone posted on MacRumors? And he has a receipt. Come on...

The moral police are so ridiculous. If this was to happen to you, I'm 99.9% positive that you wouldn't just turn yourself in without thinking twice about keeping it. Do you really have nothing better to do than turn someone in for a mistake that Apple made?

Not condoning calling or anything, but the only thing he has a receipt for is purchasing a gift card.

 

[JohnnyQuest]

wow, so you are really that loyal to Apple aren't you?
wow, that was a real douche move right there buddy

He's loyal, but NOT a fanboy! This is so low.

Not condoning calling or anything, but the only thing he has a receipt for is purchasing a gift card.

True, I misread that. But still, what evidence does a random MacRumors member have? XciteMe needs to get off their high horse.

 

[BlondeBuddhist]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

I believe in Karma..but I also believe in snitching.

Please don't throw me under the next bus you see.

I was honestly contemplating what I would do if this "happened" to me. I can say that the idea of getting a free anything valued in the hundreds of dollars is attractive. I am not going to grandstand and say "why yes, I of course would have turned this info to their attention". I can say that situations like this are hard to predict. As a newfound (a few months) buddhist, I would say that the afflictive turmoil of wondering if it's the right thing or not would likely lead me to call the store and talk to a manger about what I discovered.

You just might get to keep it in leu of your honesty, and the time that has passed. I won't call you a degenerate for your choice, because I truly believe we all need to make our own, however remember you must live with this and remember it each time you pick up your iphone.
Good Luck to you.

Blonde Buddhist

 

[BlondeBuddhist]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

Who do I call to report you?

 

[lorenwade]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

If you're so apt on making people call, why don't you do it?

 

[ClutchThese]

lots of haters on here....

I say nicely done!

Think about it folks...the sales associates don't just give you the iPhones to hold and make a transaction on for fun. You stand in line...you get a dedicated person to help you...they ask you what you want...they go get what you want...they then set you up with all the contract crap...they port your number...then you pay.

If the employee messed up on the last step...foo on him!

you all need to get over your self-rightous thinking ways. There are much worse things going on in the world and youre worried about a guy who happened to get an iphone over an Apple store employees failure? wow

 

[wvphysics]

as much as you sound like an honest person, it's hardly like stealing off a pauper is it?
apple is a multi billion dollar organization, I would take it too.

The lesser of two evils is still evil. Receiving something you obviously and clearly understand you were not supposed to receive may not be stealing by strict definition bit is dishonest and unethical by any reasonable rationale.

 

[Vegastouch]

I wonder how many in this tread who say he is stealing are wanting/demanding their free bumper and bought a black iPhone when they really want a white one and will return their used black one and exchange it for a white one because they didnt have the patience to wait?

 

[wvphysics]

They're going to listen to you? Because someone posted on MacRumors? And he has a receipt. Come on...

The moral police are so ridiculous. If this was to happen to you, I'm 99.9% positive that you wouldn't just turn yourself in without thinking twice about keeping it. Do you really have nothing better to do than turn someone in for a mistake that Apple made?

My bank once mistakenly but $1600 bucks into my account, I issued a transaction research and they promptly found a mistake. Don't assume your ethics are on par with everyone else's.

 

[izzisdashiz]

What a great thread. Legally, nothing done wrong. Ethically, yes.

 

[kr00k322]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

Random thought..how did you report him? Tell him their MacRumors name or something? I find that call to be pretty interesting. Worst case scenario the person who ends up doing the transaction is the one that takes the blame for the transaction. Based on your post here and the thread you created about this post asking everyone to report him..you still won't see the outcome you want.

I wonder how many in this tread who say he is stealing are wanting/demanding their free bumper and bought a black iPhone when they really want a white one and will return their used black one and exchange it for a white one because they didnt have the patience to wait?

It was pushed back until the end of the year I doubt they'd be able to.

 

[Smarterchild]

If apple sells you a product and makes the mistake of this sort then it's apples fault.

 

[murdercitydevil]

I wonder what lead the op to check the balance on a gift card that should have had a zero balance. That seems odd. Why not just toss it? I always leave empty gift cards with the cashier. *raises eyebrow*

The explanation is pretty simple. I thought it was odd myself when the employee handed me the gift card, but only for a second. The situation in that store on THAT day, as you may imagine, was a frenzy. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that at that point I had been awake for over 24 hours and feeling like utter **** after sitting/standing for about 12 hours. All I cared about was getting my phone, going home, and sleeping. After said sleep, I remembered that gift card in my pocket. Now rested, it dawned on me that I should check the balance before throwing it away, just because everything was so hectic that day that I wanted to be sure it was empty. Good thing I checked.

Thanks everyone else for the comments. The morality police really are ridiculous.

 

[wvphysics]

You should be careful spending the money on the card. Legally, Apple has the right take back the money. Since you didn't paid with cash it might be more difficult for them to do so, but can still happen, like say having AT&T bill the charge. This sort of thing happens all the time and at unexpected times. If you take the simple example of a bank putting money in the wrong account, they could potentially fix it a year later without even informing the account holder of the withdrawal. Whether or not apple will try to fix the mistakes that occurred will depend on how uptight their beam counters are. The IRS will send people to your door for a $0.01 bill.

 

[iEnvy]

This was at the Los Cerritos Apple Store.

Everybody CALL that Apple Store and report him.

(562) 356-1555

PLEASE do it. It's the right thing to do.

Snitch. If it happened to you, it would be a different story.

 

[nataliamck]

Hahaha. Brilliant story.

You can all keep your ethics and use them, for what? To get into "heaven"?

Meanwhile, this dude is off to his local Apple store buying a **** load of free stuff.

$367 from a multi-million dollar company? Steve Jobs would laugh in his face if he tried to return it. Enjoy your free stuff.

 

[Knowimagination]

The explanation is pretty simple. I thought it was odd myself when the employee handed me the gift card, but only for a second. The situation in that store on THAT day, as you may imagine, was a frenzy. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that at that point I had been awake for over 24 hours and feeling like utter **** after sitting/standing for about 12 hours. All I cared about was getting my phone, going home, and sleeping. After said sleep, I remembered that gift card in my pocket. Now rested, it dawned on me that I should check the balance before throwing it away, just because everything was so hectic that day that I wanted to be sure it was empty. Good thing I checked.

Thanks everyone else for the comments. The morality police really are ridiculous.

Wait so you admit that you don't have a receipt for the phone, but the morality police are the ridiculous ones?

Dude just go make it right with the apple store and be done with it. How would you feel if you were the new employee that made the mistake and is now being reprimanded for it because the guy didn't make thing right himself.

 

[Gen]

Nice, you got a free iPhone.