[Or] Question About Rights to Items After Online Price Glitch Post-Delivery

[Inebriatedcactus]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Oregon

I'm an employee at a large retail company and found out a loophole in our website that pretty much allowed me to buy whatever I wanted for $20 by using my discount on gift cards and then using those discounted cards to buy more cards. Naturally, I made good use of this (think around $2000 worth of items), and, naturally, I got a call from HR two weeks later demanding that I return the items or I would face prosecution for theft. He explicitly used the word "glitch" in describing that the website wasn't supposed to let people pay for gift cards with gift cards, and that he contacted IT to fix the loophole.

These items were shipped and delivered to me, and my question is: do I have a legal right to keep the items because I used a legitimate function of the website that happened to be a price glitch and the items have already been delivered/does the company have grounds to prosecute me for theft because of exploiting a glitch online and they didn't cancel the orders before they were shipped?

And one quick follow up question: how much of a difference would it make if the employee discount policy stated that employees could not use their own discounted gift cards as a payment method? Since the website allowed me to do so, would that still fall under a "glitch" or would the company still have grounds to take legal action against me even if they couldn't for not returning the items?

[budwad]

You knew (from your other post) that there was something not right in allowing you to do what your did. Now ask yourself if it is worth being prosecuted for theft by keeping the items despite the use of the word glitch where there was a clear mistake in the site programing.

Keep the items and get prosecuted or return them and tell your employer that you did it to expose the glitch. You did them a favor.

[PayrolGuy]

Your question has been answered in-depth on another forum. The answers will be the same here.

[adjusterjack]

would the company still have grounds to take legal action against me even if they couldn't for not returning the items?

Sure. Anybody can "take action" against anybody who they think wronged them.

To summarize with additional consequences:

Termination for misconduct.
No Unemployment Compensation.
Bad references.

And

Your employer can sue you, costing you thousands to defend even if you have a defense.

Your employer can report your crime to the police, potentially resulting in arrest and prosecution, costing you tens of thousands to defend even if you are not guilty of the charge.

Again, I ask you, is it worth it?

You seem to think you have loopholes which will get you off scot free. You don't. Your employer holds all the card. You're not the good guy here so stop being so stupid.