<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by wormwood:
Well, if Pete is headed out I'll drop by with a little sanctimony. Golpoints has to be the best case yet of the invasion of the greedbags into FT. On a much smaller scale check out the threads on the Automall where it gave 62000 Hilton points instead of 500. There are folks over there claiming it's their divine right to these points.
In the case of Goldpoints, those who ordered before changes were made are of course entitled your points even if you were unfair to the companies involved if you ordered millions of points worth. But the general attitude is of small, impatient minds who are self deluded into thinking they are 'important customers' You're gougers that true capitalists have to cover with real customers who end up paying for you, just like shoplifters (not in the legal sense, the moral sense)
[This message has been edited by wormwood (edited 02-19-2002).]</font>
I absolutely disagree with you. What we did was take the exact action GoldPoints and Valuemags wanted us to. The reason for running a promotion such as this is solely to increase sales. There was no CEO saying, let's do the internet a favor and give triple points for our purchases. This was a business decision, plain and simple. If GP were worried about someone purchasing the levels that were purchased, it would've been a trivial matter to put an asterisk out there with a clause that read "Note that a maximum of 200,000 goldpoints per customer can be earned."
Now, if someone had made numerous accounts to get around that limitation, I'd say THAT was wrong. But that wasn't the case. They made the rules and we operated by those rules. As far as people ordering after the promotion was pulled, Valuemags did state that the promotion would run until December 31st. Would you consider it "unfair" that they pulled it? Arguments that would equate the behavior of those that purchased lots of magazines to someone who buys up all the items at a sale have no bearing in reality. GoldPoints are not a finite, tangible, resource. My purchase does not mean anyone else would be out their points.
Finally, if GoldPoints were truly in trouble, nothing would've prevented them from cancelling the orders and saying it was all an unauthorized mistake. There might have been lawsuits, and yes it would've been "unfair", but they still could've done it.
Now, Wormwood, you participated in the Valuemags promotion but nevertheless you object to those who participated to a greater degree? By your logic, if I were to steal something relatlively valueless, it's ok, but if I were to steal something more valuable, I'm wrong to do so. I must stridently disagree with you. If this were a mistake I'd have been happy to hand my points back and cancel my order, but it wasn't. IMHO what's unethical is unethical, the scale does not matter.
[Edited to be more civil]
[This message has been edited by kanebear (edited 02-20-2002).]