What line would you cross to make -- or save -- a buck?
Posted
Sep 15 2008, 02:32 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
David at MoneyNing asked his reader this question: "Would you do something immoral to increase your wealth if you won't get caught?" (It boosts our faith in humanity that in a poll at his site, a healthy 67% chose "No!")
But how often do people cross a line? Case in point: "Miss Thrifty" wasn't injured in a four-car pileup that dinged her fabulous Thriftymobile. (She wasn't at fault.) But everyone she knew, including her mother, told her to file a whiplash claim. "Everyone does it," they said.
She refused.
But, as our friend Harvey loves to say, no good deed goes unpunished. The occupants of an SUV -- who were also unharmed and whose vehicle wasn't even scratched -- didn't have the same morals. "The impeccably groomed daughter from the fancy SUV, whose mother had driven off with nary a pause, had -- you guessed it -- filed a personal-injury claim. For whiplash," Miss Thrifty wrote.
Miss T ended up filling out mounds of forms and her premiums were raised just because a claim had been filed. She was eventually cleared (and ended up changing companies to get a better rate after shopping around). The same apparently happened to the third driver, who also wasn't at fault.
David's example in his post, called "When saving money goes against your morals," was a friend of his who calls customer service at an unidentified company whenever she has a complaint because she knows they'll give her a 15% discount.
Does this cross the line? Reader "Shadox" said yes. The woman is raising the company's costs with frivolous complaints, and those costs will be spread among other customers. The person in charge of providing the service to her may also get in trouble for no good reason, Shadox said.
Reader Danielle said calling to get the discount is OK. She wrote, "I always find out, while complaining, that there is a better deal on Internet connection, or even a free iPod. Trust me, no one will give you a 15% discount if it isn't allowed."
Reader "Compare CD Rates" disagreed, writing, "If the 'bad' service wouldn't have otherwise warranted a call, then it probably would have been better to not call."
