Most of us are guilty of exploiting bugs in design and development to salvage something for free. Whether it is a broken vending machine or extending time on online tests, we have done it all. I am sure you will have some choice stories to tell as well. Here are some from the Reddit community how people used loopholes in their unfair advantage:
1. User smokebreak told his intriguing story. He started working at a local call center that measured performances based on goods or services solicited per contact with the clients. While he was working there, ho noticed an anomaly in the system that if he blew on his microphone just as the call was about to ring, the call wasn’t counted against him. So, he did nothing the whole day except blow over the microphone. He eventually quit when he got bored of all this drama.
2. RoiVampire showed how he heisted three vehicles full of cereal from the local Kroger due to a glitch in the system. He found out that four boxes of cereal was a dollar each, and he bought four boxes. However, if he did the checkout himself, he was given a four dollar coupon. He used this loophole to buy himself 300 boxes of cereal using just 12 $. He gave most of it to the local food bank and kept about 20 boxes for himself. Once the manager got wind of this, he had to opt for another Kroger.
3. Smooth_McDouglette was another call center guy who discovered that for some reason, his section wasn’t connected to the quality monitoring system. As a result, he could do whatever he liked as long as the customer got what he needed. He started dispatching the incoming calls to his fellow operators via a good-old conference call, and they had to do his fair share of work as well. He didn’t stop at this. He would routinely say profanity in between the conference calls just to get them surprised as well. He even got a commendation for his job because his time on call was great. Everybody won!
4. FOTBWN bought as he puts it a “shitty” Sega Genesis game. It turned out to be a waste of money, so he got back and asked them for a refund. He was bluntly told that no refunds were done for “opened” games, the only replacement was offered for damaged ones. He instead claimed a new one for his “damaged” game and returned the new one an hour later and had a complete refund. He hadn’t had enough, so he bought another “shitty” Genesis game again.
5. saucecat2 had tests in his elementary school based on assigned readings. The students were given points on how good they fared in the test, and these points could be used in the bookstore to buy books or magazines. He gave a test on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and found out that he did very well and just as a prank attempted to do it again. To his delight, he found out that he could take the same test an unlimited number of times and racked up so many galleons he was richer than Harry Potter himself at the end of it.
6. hummingbird4289‘s college didn’t print dates on the student ID cards. He kept using the card after graduation for many years and got a discount in local stores.
7. 405freeway tried to play nice guy when he found out this major problem in POS at Blockbuster. He found out that discounted products could be returned for original prices once discount was over and get store credit in return. He tried telling the owners about this malfunction, but they being pompous managers said that they didn’t take input from public because their system was perfect. This drove him nuts, and he eventually got 1200 $ in credit in lieu of 250 $ spent.
8. bboy1977 back the 1980’s Chuck E Cheeses didn’t shred the tickets they gave away for shopping at the gift store and would trash them instead. This user and his friend were biking around the place one day when they found out garbage bags full of tickets that were being discarded. First, they couldn’t believe it but eventually they collected it and got a lot of stuff from the Chuck E Cheese’s store. They even got a grown up to team up with them and filled an entire van with tickets. He believes it was his antics that forced the company to shred the tickets eventually once they realized what was going on!
9. Kifenstein found out that a gumball machine could be tricked into giving a free gum. He turned its dial very slowly and as a result, gumballs kept appearing. It wasn’t until he had salvaged 20 gums that he realized he didn’t even want all this cheap bubblegum anyway!
So, people do a lot of crazy and somewhat unethical stuff just to enjoy free stuff. Do share your own stories in the comments!
