"Would you please do something illegal for me? Please?"

[theredbaron47]

<snip> that clusterfuck of an auction site called ebay. </snip>

I liked eBay a lot better back in the old days, before any moron with a camera could take a picture of anything and sell it on eBay. . . before it spoon-fed you how to set up an auction ( even though it pretty much always has, but the computer-illiterate still maintain it's astronomically difficult to list an item ).

[Red Briggs]

Eventually, the owner laughs in the guys face, tells the customer he's the owner, and he can pay the normal price or piss off. (More politely, though.)

Funny. Dude must have mellowed since I quit!!

[edible_hat]

I've had 15-year-olds with school ID cards that show their actual birthdate try to buy cigarettes. Also this fun exchange:

SC: "Can I buy some pot from you?"
Me: "I don't smoke it. Even if I did, do I look dumb enough to deal from work while there's a bunch of cops out front?" (there was a random breath testing station out there during my whole shift, they even tested me on my way into work and when I left)
SC: "Guess not"

[Dreamstalker]

Used to get that when I was selling on ebay too. "Hey, I'm interested in buying your item but I can only afford it if you mark the customs form as a 'gift' so I don't have to pay duties on it. Is this okay?"

My boss was doing this...um, I'm fairly sure if a business is caught falsifying forms that could end very badly. I watched him pack up an item once (this was before I got saddled with the task) and he marked the form as a low-value gift, yet included an invoice/receipt in the box

(the one good thing about printing labels through Paypal; you're forced to create a customs form and if the info doesn't match what's in the auction it won't let you proceed)

[cinema guy]

On Ebay, I used to get requests/demands to lie on Customs forms all the time.

I have to admit, I was guilty of this . Once.

But only after I saw that the company I ordered DVDs from the US sent them with the customs sticker marked as 'commercial samples' - so I figured it was okay.

No-one has ever asked me to do it though.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I have to admit, I was guilty of this . Once.

But only after I saw that the company I ordered DVDs from the US sent them with the customs sticker marked as 'commercial samples' - so I figured it was okay.

No-one has ever asked me to do it though.

I'd classify this as one of those things that doesn't get caught 99% of the time. But it would be just my luck to have my package be the one that gets opened and inspected, and then leisurely sent off to the buyer along with a bill for the duties owed.

Either that or it just gets confiscated.

[cinema guy]

In the past seven or eight years, I've ordered quite a lot from the US and have been hit with customs twice. The bills are high and it sucks, but it is a chance you take to get better DVDs, cheaper CCGs and the like.

Although there was the time that customs had my package, kept it for months for no apparent reason then sent it back to the seller in the states again for no apparent reason, with no duties levied.

[earl colby pottinger]

Software

I used to get the ones who thought that since software is just a disk and disks are only .20 a piece to make I should be able to sell it to them for .50 and we'd still make a profit. Usually I told them that would work if the 30 people working for the company at the time only made .002 per hour.

Use to get that all the time, but I never pirate software and I don't play games (ok maybe a little Teris), I was accused all the time of lying because I said I had no games. Worse, when I had an Amiga I collected the games demos (usually the first level or two) and that was enough fun for me. Again I would be accused of hiding the full games, games I never had and would never pay for anyway.

I am a programmer, when I want software, I like to write it myself.

[earl colby pottinger]

Software

At both the computer store and the games store I worked at I would have people ask where they could illegally download games/software/music/whatever. My usual reply was "well you can find anything on the internet if you know where to look" but that's all I could say.

What would get me when people asked about Photo-Shop, MS Office, etc ... was when I pointed out it was illegal they would response that it was okay, that the manufacturers wanted they to pirate their software so that they did not use a competitor's version (true to a very limited sense).

But when I started talking LOUDLY in public about why would they expect me to pirate it for them, they would tell me that to be quieter as they don't want others to hear. At which point I got even LOUDER start asking why it matters as they told me it was legal, and if it is legal what does it matter how loud I talk?

If they don't drop then and try to insult me, I LOUDLY AGAIN respond why are they calling me an XXX when they are the ones asking me to do something illegal? Never get any repeat requests.

[HawaiianShirts]

I think the closest I've come to having someone ask me to do something illegal for them would be those who basically ask me to let them steal.

The first was from my pizza delivery days. After I graduated from high school, I worked day shifts, so I occasionally made deliveries to local schools for various functions. The grade schools were not a problem. In the junior high and high schools, though, the students in the halls would pester me to give them the pizzas instead of taking them to the office or the classroom of the person who placed the order. I even had one group of kids follow me down the hall begging for pizza, even claiming that the person who ordered wouldn't notice if just ONE of the THREE pizzas was missing. Right.

Then just a year ago, I had a guy come in to my current job (retail electronics) and want to buy a computer from me. We figured out what he needed, and I was about to load it up onto a cart. Then he made his request, which went something like the following.

SC: Cool, man. I don't have my money with me tonight, though. So I'll just take it home tonight and set it up, and then I'll come pay you for it tomorrow.
Me: I can't do that.
SC: Come on! I'll bring the money in tomorrow, I swear. I got the cash on my dresser at home!
Me: No, I can't let merchandise leave the store unless it has been paid for.
SC: But you know I'm good for it!
Me: Honestly, no, I don't. And even if I did, the managers don't, and I'm not willing to risk my job over this. Tell you what: I'll get everything ready, and you can come by tomorrow with your money and buy it then.
SC: But I need it tonight!
Me: You can run home and get your money now, if you want, and buy it when you come back. We'll still be open for another hour or so.
SC: I can't do that. I don't have my car here.
Me: Then how did you expect to get the computer home?
SC: Ah, **** it. I'll go to a store that TRUSTS their customers!

[Bliss]

BTW would you do a favor for me? next time someone asks you where he can download music, tell them to go to www.jamendo.org it's surely not what they have in mind, but it might help spread the theology of cc!

[Jei]

Ugh, it actually happened to me a lot when I lived with my parents at the northern Oregon coast.

My parents own a little retail/surf/bike rental shop, and I would take care of the retail shop every afternoon. I had a group of twenty-somethings come in and ask "Hey, do you know where we can find something fun to do around here? You know, like cocaine?"

Some other guy came in and asked for marijuana, but he whispered it so quietly that he had to repeat himself several times. "Where can I find some *mumble*" "" "*mumble*" "Uh..." "MARIJUANA" "Oh uh, I don't know."

Some fifteen-year-old guy ask me where he could buy some beer without getting in trouble once. Another one asked me out to get burgers at the tavern across the street. (I know some taverns have a separate eating area, but this one didn't. No minors allowed period.)

What actually frustrated me more than their question was the fact that I was the only one they ever asked. Even when my friend was occasionally working with me. Apparently, I looked like a druggie or something. :P

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I forgot to mention the time a guy came in to my games store and asked if we mod systems.

(Note: Modding a system means illegally altering the hardware in a console to play pirated software)

[RetailWorkhorse]

I forgot to mention the time a guy came in to my games store and asked if we mod systems.

(Note: Modding a system means illegally altering the hardware in a console to play pirated software)

Is that what everyone's doing when they tell me "Oh, I Modded my PS3 so I could play the games." Why would you buy a system you can't play unless you mod it, I ask them with several purple and green polka-dotted question marks fluttering over my head.

I always get "Uh..." as an answer.

[Pezzle]

Is that what everyone's doing when they tell me "Oh, I Modded my PS3 so I could play the games." Why would you buy a system you can't play unless you mod it, I ask them with several purple and green polka-dotted question marks fluttering over my head.

I always get "Uh..." as an answer.

I wish I knew how. I have a PAL dvd i won on Ebay that I can't watch. >.<