Poll: suspension from work

Should the OP be banned?

  • Yes

    Votes: 185 80.4%

  • No

    Votes: 45 19.6%
  • Total voters
    230
Sounds fairly dodgy. I would struggle to believe that your memory is so bad that you can't remember what you did just over a week ago.

It should have been common sense that you shouldn't have been stacking discounts by buying gift cards and then using gift cards as a payment method to get another discount. A gift card is implied in the name that it should be given to someone else to use and therefore you shouldn't be using them to gain another discount.

Your handbook/contract etc. probably doesn't cover this specific use but I'd imagine it would say that the staff discount is 20% - therefore you should only be able to get 20% off the ticket price. You'd already got your 20% by buying the gift card.

If I were in your shoes I'd offer to either pay back the difference between what you saved and apologise profusely or I'd hand in my resignation. If you do stay I'd probably write off my chances of getting promotions etc. any time soon.
 
You would think the company would have checks in place so that if an employee uses a gift card as payment, they have to sign something to get the standard staff discount.

To prevent a "double discount," which the company could understandibly be unhappy about, they could do something revolutionary like have different coloured/coded gift cards for staff to purchase.

Is there anything in your contract, or other training you have had since (which has required a signature to acknowledge), regarding gift cards and their personal use?

Really needed a copy of the recorded phonecall to HQ to see what questions were asked and what answers were given.
 
When I worked at B&Q you could use your discount for items for yourself. Buying items for other people would be frowned upon but people still did it. How could you prove that the BBQ, hosepipe, paint etc wasn't for yourself?

Buying gift cards is just making it plainly obvious it's not for yourself.
 
peterattheboro said:
When I worked at B&Q you could use your discount for items for yourself. Buying items for other people would be frowned upon but people still did it. How could you prove that the BBQ, hosepipe, paint etc wasn't for yourself?

Buying gift cards is just making it plainly obvious it's not for yourself.
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This is standard practice and which he will fall foul of in all likelihood. He either knew what he was doing by buying gift cards for himself and double applying discounts to goods for himself which would be cause for misconduct, or he was buying them for others and then using his discount on their behalf..again cause for misconduct.

I suspect that he would be better served by resigning and finding alternative employment.
 
MooMoo444 said:
Staff discount is for your own personal use, not to give your entire friends and family circle.
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That depends on the company. This does seem like an abuse of the system but it seems like an incredibly flawed system, they could easily clarify it in their staff policy. Having said that, it doesn't really look very good when you're screwing the company you work for on a technicality
 
scorchisio said:
I've read over your post and the comment about having a memory less than a week long confirms your a bit shifty. Also there's a lot of dodgy stuff in there. I would fire you without batting an eyelid.
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Can I just point out you posts come across with real internet couch expert bravado! There's ways of making a point, but the way you do it really isn't very constructive IMHO.

Frankly, seems you've watched too much Jeremy Kyle!
 
Regardless of what the OP may have done or not, surely the first thing is how this was handled.

Was he told this was a disciplinary meeting?
Was he shown the evidence against him?
Was given reasonable time to get representation and'or some to look out for him in the meeting?

Where were any of his employees rights...
 
Lol, sadly "Well your system allowed it" doesn't wash in the real world.

How can the OP think it's OK to buy a giftcard with 20% staff discount then go and buy something with those gift cards and get 20% discount AGAIN?

The system isn't going to know that the giftcard was bought with a 20% discount, I think the OP has been found out and is fabricating stories of 'poor memory' etc to get off, why would you buy a gift card for your dad, and then go and spend it for him?

As others have said, you're not in trouble for buying giftcards with your staff discount, what I think is the problem is what I said above, you've then used those cards to buy stuff and claim another 20% staff discount, effectively reducing things by 40%.
 
It sounds like the process they used against you was flawed from the start.
If they were calling you to a gross misconduct hearing are they not obliged to give you adequate notice to seek representation?
What does their disciplinary process state?

Have they offered you the right of representation at the next hearing?

(the discount use sound very dodgy though regardless)
 
Ugh, this is messy isn't it?

Have to say I agree with almost every point in this thread both FOR dismissing you and AGAINST.

What annoys me most though is that the company isn't turning around and saying:

We've noticed what you've been doing and this highlights a loophole in our system that we don't want to allow. While it's impossible to determine if it was an oversight on your part about what you were doing, or if there was real intent, we'd like you to stop.

In a situation like this it would be appropriate to issue a formal warning because again, while you contacted the correct people we don't feel the question you asked outlined the entire process which you were undertaking.

However, due to the oversight on our part for allowing this to happen in the first place, we'd like to take this opportunity to correct the flaw in the system and leave it at that.
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But it's unlikely you'll find that kind of level headed approach to anything outside a Gandhi Appreciation Society :(
 
I agree with the others saying you might be screwed here. Sounds like you have essentially been abusing a loophole to get a bigger discount than you should
 
A relative of mine got in trouble with her supermarket employer for using her staff discount card on friends' and her mother's shopping. They spotted two transactions for weekly shops going through at the same time and called her in for disciplinary.

She got what amounted to a "final warning".

I would think that, assuming the phone call to check it was ok actually happened, buying gift cards to give as, well, gifts would be fine - what else are you going to do with gift cards other than give them away?

However, buying gift card to spend yourself, with a second discount applied, is obviously not ok.

I suppose it's worth asking - did you actually buy anything which you didn't pay for with a double-dip discount? They will be able to see your transactions, and if every time you used your discount it was to buy gift cards or for a transaction which used your gift cards, then it's obvious you knew what you were doing, rather than just being incidental.
 
IS it in the contract that you cannot do this?

If it is not in the employee rule book and the systems allow it i would keep to the line of not knowing it was against the rules. You asked and got told it was ok.... it is not in any rule book so why pick on me etc?

They should just inform you that it is not allowed and not to do it again. If you had been buying hundreds of pounds a month then maybe go further but sounds like you were not deliberately trying to profit by it.

Crazy companies and overactive badly run HR do this sort of thing all the time. Retroactively change rules to try and cause gross misconduct cases.

Seek legal advice if they wont drop it.
 
right i can see getting a discount on the gift card, then using the card yourself to get a second discount is NOT what you asked.

You asked if you could bu ya gift card with your discount not if you could then use that card to gain a second discount.


You're ****ed.
 
ahh I misread the OP, I thought it was just the OP buying discounted gift cards and giving them to F&F

I didn't realize he was buying items on them himself and getting another 20% discount. That's pretty dangerous, since there's no way you can play the 'I didnt realize' card and the 'I thought it was OK' also doesn't work since it's pretty obvious a double discount is wrong.
 
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