My Ethical Standards Took a Day Off.

[BoomerD]

Normally, my ethics are very good, in fact, I generally say that my morals may be questionable...but my ethics rarely are.

Well...I guess this is why I say "rarely.:

Last fall, my neighbor was having an estate sale after his dad died.

I went over and bought a few power tools that I've been wanting, and noticed a Monster Home Theater power strip/surge protector.

I asked how much he wanted for it, and he told me that I could have it for free...it had stopped working.

I figured that at least, I could tinker with it and try to get it working.

A couple of weeks ago, I got it from the garage with the intention of taking it apart to see what was wrong. Sure enough, even though the lights came on...no power to the outlets.

I decided I had better try to find some kind of schematic and/or troubleshooting information before I opened it...so Google to the rescue.

I ended up at the Monster support site, and although I never found any schematic, I DID find out that it had a 5 year warranty...so I called.

(here's where the ethics falls down)
I talked to the rep at Monster for a few minutes, inquiring about a schematic and troubleshooting help. He asked where I got it..."Oh, I bought it at Best Buy about 4 years ago. () Can't find the receipt though." :twisted:
(my neighbor DID buy it at Best Buy about 4 years ago...that part is true)

"Hey, no problem," the Monster rep says, "Just ship it to us and we'll do a courtesy exchange."

I sent it by FedEx a week ago, and sure enough, a brand new HTS1000MKIII "Home Theatre Reference PowerCenter arrived today.


Like most of us here, I know Monster products tend to be highly overpriced, although USUALLY well made, and there's no way I'd have ever paid the $199 that is the MSRP/retail price for this thing...but in this case, the price was VERY right.

Now I have to find a band-aid for my wounded ethics...:biggrin:

 

[Capt Caveman]

Nice!

 

[Terabyte]

You're a terrible person. How could you?

lol jk.

:thumbsup:

 

[pray4mojo]

Give it back to your neighbor. You know you want to.

 

[Mike Gayner]

I don't see an ethical issue here.

 

[Newbian]

Now to test it out on your sex doll?

 

[maziwanka]

i'd probably have returned it to the neighbor. oh well

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm Lawful Good but I'm not sure you owe the neighbor anything -- the neighbor could have checked for a warranty if he cared, obviously he didn't want the hassle.

It's also really only a $39 surge suppressor despite the gold-pressed latinum shell.

 

[Colt45]

I'll take a $5 powerbar instead.

 

[icyroy05]

I'm Lawful Good but I'm not sure you owe the neighbor anything -- the neighbor could have checked for a warranty if he cared, obviously he didn't want the hassle.

It's also really only a $39 surge suppressor despite the gold-pressed latinum shell.

Nice use of "Lawful Good" and "gold-pressed latinum". Your nerd street cred just went up.

 

[Leros]

I probably would have done the same thing. My ethical justification would be that my neighbor could have done the same thing, but chose not to do so. Its no harm to him because he was willing to give it away and its no harm to Monster because they would have given the free new product to your neighbor had he called. I might have felt a little bad, but free stuff.... c'mon man.

 

[Ronstang]

No problems here. I was at a friend's house one night and his wife was messing with the computer and complaining about all the problems she had just fixed by replacing a bad HD. I saw the old one in the trash. I asked if she had even called Maxtor about the HD. She said that she didn't care and just wanted the issue fixed as quick as possible. I asked if I could have the HD and she gave it to me out of the trash. I took it home and sure enough it still was under warranty. I had a new HD in under a week.

 

[seemingly random]

I don't see any problem concerning the co. However, there would be a tiny bit of a dilemma concerning the neighbor. Probably wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

 

[fleabag]

this is what you call an ethical dilemma? really? what is an ethical dilemma is whether or not a poster should troll the garage forum or the off-topic forum, or whether or not one should stop pedo bear from doing something "for the lulz" and getting a good demotivational poster or not. But this? This is just luck...

 

[Leros]

this is what you call an ethical dilemma? really? what is an ethical dilemma is whether or not a poster should troll the garage forum or the off-topic forum, or whether or not one should stop pedo bear from doing something "for the lulz" and getting a good demotivational poster or not. But this? This is just luck...

so you admit that you're a troll....

 

[fleabag]

so you admit that you're a troll....

Are you aware of the rule where if enough people say something, it somehow becomes true?

 

[Leros]

Are you aware of the rule where if enough people say something, it somehow becomes true?

So you're weak-minded then?

 

[fleabag]

So you're weak-minded then?

Just preaching to the choir.

 

[RoloMather]

this is what you call an ethical dilemma? really? what is an ethical dilemma is whether or not a poster should troll the garage forum or the off-topic forum, or whether or not one should stop pedo bear from doing something "for the lulz" and getting a good demotivational poster or not. But this? This is just luck...

You sure don't have a dilemma since you cannot troll the garage forum anymore.



The choice is already made for you.

 

[Number1]

Their product was defective. Who care who is using it, they should fix it.

 

[Codewiz]

The ethical issues is that the warranty ONLY applies to the original purchaser. Would I do the same? Sure. But I don't see why people seem to be missing that.

As far as the neighbor, the moment he gave it to you, there are no ethical issues surrounding this from that perspective.

 

[geno]

Their product was defective. Who care who is using it, they should fix it.

Especially when their products are needlessly expensive.

 

[edro]

I'm turning you in.

 

[PottedMeat]

It's crazy what they can get away with selling for $120.

'gold plated power prongs'
'patented color coded labels'
'illuminated power switch'

the most expensive parts are probably the extruded aluminum case and LED voltage meter.

 

[darkxshade]

so what unethical thing did you do? Lie to the CSR? Everyone lies.