If the OP bought 10 gift cards with a high average of £50, he probably only saved about £150 over 2 years. Putting it into context a bit, if you earn £8 an hour and slack off for 1 hour a month over 2 years, you've effectively stolen more money than the OP cost his company
Poll: suspension from work
- Thread starter newgamer91
- Start date
My work has a discount scheme which gives discounts with loads of retailers. My company is not connected with any of the retailers.
So I used to buy gift cards from one of the retailers and spend them on petrol.
A 7% discount on fuel was not to be sniffed at. Was doing that for about a year before they changed the terms of the giftcards.
Illegal? No. Morally wrong? Dunno. Do I care? Nope.
Relevance to the OPs situation? None at all
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I doubt it. But I suspect that there will worded somewhere that discounts are only to be applied once and it isn't really clear exactly what the OP is being investigated for, it sound like it's more to do with using his discount for others (in other words buying a gift card as a gift for his Dad and then using said card and applying his discount to it).
Remember it doesn't have to be specifically stated in his contract either, policy can be in any number of mediums, such as handbooks, guides to conduct, weekly/monthly postings and so on, even common practice.
Also gross misconduct doesn't have to have an exhaustive list of examples in the contract either...so if in the opinion of those investigating the OP had reasonable knowledge that he was gaining more than the mandated discount through this "loophole" it can be construed quite correctly as gross misconduct and being tantamount to defrauding (theft) the company.
They may accept it was an aberration or mistake, but that might depend on the manager, staff position of the company and so on.
I think the issue the company is probably looking at in the main is applying his discount on purchases on behalf of someone else.
Who applied his discount.
Surely thats the companies fault for applying the discount twice.
I doubt that he assumed it was OK, I think that he assumed that he would get away with it. Why would a company give employees 20% off if they were quite happy for everyone to get ~40% simply by buying a gift card then using that to buy goods.
He knew it was wrong, took a chance and now he may get punished for it.
Applying your discount on behalf of purchases for someone else is a common restriction. If he has done this, and it looks like it by his op, then he is subject to a gross misconduct investigation.
It's not the companies fault he did it.
My work has a discount scheme which gives discounts with loads of retailers. My company is not connected with any of the retailers.
So I used to buy gift cards from one of the retailers and spend them on petrol.
A 7% discount on fuel was not to be sniffed at. Was doing that for about a year before they changed the terms of the giftcards.
Illegal? No. Morally wrong? Dunno. Do I care? Nope.
Relevance to the OPs situation? None at all
bit differnt to buying from the store you are using them in lol.
our company does discounted vouchers i never get round to looking into itthough
If that was the case then they wouldn't allow gift cards to be bought with the 20% discount. The double dipping on the discount will be main issue.
I'm loving this defence force, please keep them coming.
Agree totally. Buying gift cards with a discount and then using same discount at purchase is asking for trouble.
Why...You can buy a gift card for someone as a gift...No Foul as you are buying it for yourself to give as a gift (perhaps birthday or whatever).
You can use someone else's gift card they received from elsewhere or bought themselves to buy them goods and then apply your discount...Foul as you are applying your discount on their behalf and not yours.
Or you can buy a gift card for as a gift for someone as in the first example but then also apply your discount on behalf of that someone when then come to redeem it...Foul again, not for buying the gift card, but for subsequently using it and applying a discount for goods on someone else's behalf.
Buying a gift card and then using it yourself to double dip the discount may or may not also be an issue depending on the polices of the company and/or how they perceive the practice..it may be contrary to their conduct rules, even it is not specifically stated in those rules.
reminds me of a friend who worked at game, he bought games with his discount but then returned them for a full price refund
if he bought enough gift cards he would eventually end up with practically free gift card.
gift card inception?
or £156 * (1 - (20/100))^2 = £99.84
edit: if he were to buy a gift card @ -20%, then use that to buy another gift card, then use THAT gift card to buy a product, he could have got 49% off!
if he bought enough gift cards he would eventually end up with practically free gift card.
gift card inception?
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It's more applying the discount twice. He can buy a gift for a friend using his discount, he can buy a gift card for a friend using his discount, he can't buy a gift card using the discount then apply a discount again when using it for a purchase... the fact the gift card notionally was given to someone then handed back isn't as relevant as the double discount.
You said that it was the fact he was using his discount on behalf of someone else that was the issue. I am saying that they couldn't care less about that. They will know a huge number of people do that and its not a big issue. Double dipping on discount will be their entire issue here.
I disagree, it is a common practice that terms of use in discounts apply to the employee only and it can be construed as gross misconduct if you use your discount privileges for others...what is not so clear in the op is whether he can use his discount for buying the gift card and then using the gift card and applying a discount to the goods bought from it. Therefore logically we can only assume, given the things we do know, that it is more likely he contravened company policy with regard to misuse of his discount privileges by the most common method.
It doesn't stop you buying giftcards as you suggested.
And you know this how?
Given what we know, and the most common provisos in discount privilege conduct, he has admitted he broke that rule...he used his discount for good purchased on behalf of his Dad. This can be construed as Gross Misconduct.
Everything else is conjecture.