I realize we’re in April already and I’m just now getting around to listing my prediction for what 2019 is. I started back in January and drafted ‘2019 is the year of the buyer’s club,’ but that door is slowly closing. That’s when I couldn’t think of anything else until the other day. Remember, 2018 was the year of diversified MS, which was mostly accurate with people still doing GC’s, some ppl still doing MO’s and BP’s at Walmart, and buyers clubs gaining steam. That’s pretty much the same thing you see these days – GCs are even tougher with limits in place by Staples and BJ’s. Then you have Walmart requiring typing in your info for a $1K MO (ain’t nobody got time for that.) Sure enough, I called that Amazon stocking Apple would be the death of buyer’s club, which is happening right now with certain warehouse addresses being banned. What does all this mean? It means the heavy hitters are getting desperate; like lions who haven’t fed in weeks. That then leads them to do some shady ass “MS” methods; I put the quotes because it really isn’t even MS anymore at this point. FM had a post a few years back about where he draws the line; I’ve begun to see that line being pushed back slowly with every “deal” and that’s where we are in 2019.
So what is this line? Let’s go through some scenarios (btw, I’m not judging anyone; you do you.)
- A store has a limit of $2,000 per day. You drive to multiple stores throughout the day since it’s “per store.” Pretty harmless.
- A store has a sale on a gift card at 20% and it’s limited to 1 per account. You create multiple accounts to “scale up.” Eh, prob still behind the line here since you’re signing up your family. But what if you cloned yourself X times… still behind the line?
- A store accidentally programs a coupon for say $100 off when it should be $10 off… still behind the line because the store should fix their IT? Kinda like a price mistake product? I mean if we’re okay with booking mistake fares, then a physical good is the same concept…?
- You buy with the intention of returning…. like converting candy corn to gummy bears… straddling that line now huh?
- Booking something that you had no intention of flying… are we back behind the line? no harm no foul to the airline right?
- You use a gift card where it wasn’t intended and it works… still behind the line? Because the store should fix their IT right? Is it behind the line if you only do it once, but what if you scaled it up to 5 figures? Is that now OVER the line due to the scale?
- A coupon doesn’t disappear after you use it.. that’s IT’s problem. behind the line for sure right?
- Clicking a button results in free money… doing it once is fine since it’s an IT mistake right? But what if you clicked on it A LOT of times?
The common denominator it seems in almost all of these scenarios is that the IT departments in these places mis-coded something and so someone finds the loophole. Take advantage of it once..your probably have no guilty conscious… clicking on it to the point where you’ve amassed 5-6 figures… that’s when that voice in the back of your head tells you to stop. It used to tell you to stop very early, but now that we’re all starving lions… that little voice is taking it’s sweet ass time to trigger.