What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

Until recently I was using a coupon code for a pizza store which allowed me to get any pizza for $5.
I may be selfish but decided not to post it here for fear of it being canceled.
Until recently where one of the friends I shared this code with shared it with some friend of his who got a job at this pizza place causing the deal to "expire".

So coming to my question: What was a loophole that you found and exploited/are exploiting the hell out of?
It doesn't have to have expired if you wish to keep it a secret like me you may wish to censor the affiliated company.

If you need some inspiration/a good read

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/44tard/what_was_…

Comments

  • +11

    Not sure who can exploit this loophole, but it works with the uni I went to.

    About 15 years ago I thought I might do a Masters degree.
    I already had an grad degree from this place, so it made sense for me to apply there and do my masters.
    Well I applied, got accepted (as you do when it's full fee paying) and started looking into classes.
    Anyway around that time I also got a social life, so uni all of a sudden wasn't an attractive thing. Uni (when I didn't need a degree or drinking)
    So anyway you can withdraw from your uni course anywhere up to like 8 weeks into the semester, so I did.
    At the time (along with the new social life), it was also in doubt if work would pay for the course, so it wasn't worth the risk I thought.

    Anyway, before I cancelled my course, they had already sent out my student ID with 5 year validity on it.
    I got FT student discount from everywhere for the next 5 years.

    Some big wins.

    Melbourne F1 - half price tickets
    Skiing in NZ - half price lift tickets.
    Discounted movies.

    I didn't catch public transport so there was no win there.

    • +1

      I have a similar one. The uni I went to didn't put expiry dates (or any dates to identify age of card) on the student card. Can't use it on NSW transport because I don't have the sticker but I still am able to use it occasionally for other student deals. Until I no longer look like the photo I'll be able to use it. Because it isn't a local uni no one knows if it's current or not, or they just don't care.

      Also I was one of the last year of students to get given one of the uni email adresses, which while I can't access directly anymore I had set up to forward everything to my regular email account. Turns out it's still active so I can get student prices on pretty much any software that offers student discounts as I have a .edu account

      • +2

        If you still have your ID and if you somehow can get a Opal Concession card for students you can use it on NSW Transport. You don't actually need to have a concession sticker on your ID when using the Opal network. You only need to show your student ID to a transport officer if they ask.

        If however you were to purchase a paper ticket than you need the concession sticker.

    • +2

      my uni allows you to specify the date of graduation. people in there final semester were "losing" id cards and getting ones with 5 year validity on them

  • +3

    Subway birthday club deal - Signed up multiple times using variations of my gmail address (just moved the dot around). Set my "birthday" to the day I wanted free Subway. Never had to show ID.

    • same with Boost Juice, just download their app and set it today is your birthday to get a free drink.

      • Do they not check your ID only at some Boost Juice's or at all of them?

        • +3

          They never bother to check your ID and always say 'Happy Birthday'

        • @divious: Haha.

      • does it works straight away?

        • Yes, but you have to re-download the app to set your birthday.

        • @divious: just long press it in your app drawer and then drag it up to app info and then press clear data and that will save you re-downloading it (On Android anyway)

        • @Agret:

          I use iPhone and I have to del and re-download the app. Thanks for the tip anyway.

    • None of the staff members at Subway knew that the birthday sub voucher was meant to be activated when used. I used the same voucher 5 times.

    • It depends on who you are dealing with.Some stores do check ID.One even checked my ID after the Sub being made so that they probably could charge me if I could not present an ID.

    • the one at chadstone shopping center always check id …

  • +2

    Event cinemas once hired a bad programmer who put all the discount code comparison inside the Javascript on the page. Somebody browsed the source code for the page and noticed this and posted on OzBargain how to trigger the discount (the post is in the archives, I'm too lazy to search). I bought a cheap ticket before they closed it down.

  • +7

    Friend had 4 years worth of top level FOXTEL for free. He got it installed and there must have been some glitch with the account, no bills were ever received.

    He was afraid to even change the channel too much! I think it also factored in his decision not to move house earlier than he did. Eventually it stopped working one day. He didn't bother calling for fear of receiving the bills, just moved to streaming.

    • +2

      This reminds me of my glitch!

      I received foxtel pay per view for free for 2 years, never had to rent a movie.

  • +18

    I see workers quite regularly take two supermarket trolleys, and roll them over the sensor at a parking gate to get a 2nd parking ticket at the end of the day, and use that to get a day's free parking. Pretty simple. Can't believe they haven't been stopped yet

    • +1

      Hahaha I see this too. I never care and actually wouldn't want them to be stopped, they're there to work and not shop anyway.. so they deserve a place to park.

      • When I worked at Westfields years ago we used to do this by walking past the sensor. That lasted for months. Then one day they changed the settings, so we starting pushing the big bins past the sensor. That lasted a few months. Then they eventually changed the settings again so that you actually needed to drive a car over the sensor.

  • +8

    You used to be able to stick a McDonalds straw into a Telstra Payphone coin refund tray through the top of the lid and trigger a refund of your coin and the credit remained.

    Unlimited free phone calls.

    • +2

      I was waiting to see if anyone else was going to post this one. Made heaps of calls from the Uni accomodation this way for months.

    • +2

      Really people still using coin telephone stations these days?

    • +19

      … or calling 013, and making a reverse charge phone call, then when the machine prompts you for your name you have about 1.5 seconds to yell out "pick me up train st…."

      Then on the other end they'll hear the message and decline the reverse charge.

      • I've done that too !

      • +1

        When I was a kid you could get that couple of seconds just by dialing the person's number(b4 mobiles). I also used to call 1800reverse from my cell and Dad would know to hang up n call me back. Should be able to still do that one.

      • +1

        I used to do that with my mum but my dad never really understood it and always accepted the charges sigh

    • +2

      Heh, sorta related: Hold down asterisk, then pick up the phone. Keep holding asterisk until the screen comes up with an error, then put the phone back down. Makes it look out of order.

    • The other ones were "clicking" the old green phones, or the 199 trick (needed a tone dialer) for a more modern model that was around.

  • +13

    In Germany (before the Euro) a Deutsch mark was about $1 but the exact same size as a 10cent piece. Took $50 in 10cents and used them in vending machines and for public transport.

    • +1

      LOL - classic! I would of loved to see the look on the faces of the employee who counted the coins afterwards.

      • +2

        my dad used to work for one of the cigarette vending machines companies in Germany and regularly had to empty the till…. he saw heaps of currency from different countries. Mainly other European countries though …

  • +9

    A few years ago, I was at Crown Galactic Circus (melb) when I had to go get some change at one of these coin dispenser machines. I put in a $20 note, and ding ding ding were the $1 coins. Realising that the machine gave me more than $20 worth of coins (about $30), I went back and tried with a $10 note and got about $15. I went to an atm, cashed out $200 and got back approximately $300 worth of coins. My pockets were so heavy and I played a few of the games and won some prizes just to not look dodgy. Best night after losing a few hundred at the casino.
    Went back the following week and the coin dispensing machine was fixed.

    • +5

      When I was a kid I put in $2 into a Timezone cash machine. The change would come out and also the original $2. I was tempted to exploit it but didn't.

      • -2

        a kid with morals….how naive :p

  • +25

    I used to ride my motorbike across the Sydney harbour bridge fairly regularly, and I had assigned the number plate to my toll account but to my surprise I never got charged.

    It was only a few months after getting my motorbike that when visiting my parents, my dad mentioned 'you should probably adjust the bag on the back of your bike, it makes it hard to see the number plate'

    You can imagine that no bag adjustment was made.. Went through at least 100 tolls with that bike - bridge, M2, M7, the harbour tunnel, never got charged. That bag was the best investment I ever made.

    • what do you mean? was the number plate on your bag, and if so, can't cops pull you over and fine you for it?

      • +1

        The bag covered the numberplate since it hung a little lower than it was designed to (called a ventura bag rack if you're interested)

        • sweet. thanks :)

    • Probably explains why there are about 15 cameras clustered at the toll recognition part on the gateway.

    • My riding buddies all had flip plates, just reach around and flip it when needed. It was handy for these occasions, but not the real reason why we had them.

  • +3

    This is something that someone with a lot of time would appreciate. Buy a movie ticket. The ticket is checked at the main entrance. After the first movie slip into another session down the hall. Movie marathon. I know this doesn't really count as a loophole.

    • Now at our local they check tickets as you enter the theatre, not just the hallway. Loophole closed, probably doesn't stop you from entering after the movie starts though.

  • +2

    Once I churned to a certain ISP and had working adsl with them after few days but wasn't getting charged. After 12 months I got the email that said congratulations you have been connected then I started getting charged. So basically free adsl for a year

  • +2

    10 years ago or so, changing the message centre number will give you free sms including overseas. Was fun while it lasts.

    • +1

      10 years? More like 20 years ago.
      I remember doing this in 96.
      We had an SMSS in South Africa that didn't charge for SMS's and let you send to any carrier in the world.
      First win was intercarrier SMS's. Back then believe it or not you couldn't SMS Telstra -> Optus/Vodafone(not sure if they were around even). So that was huge.
      Second was you didn't get charged.

      I had years of free sms's

      • Thinking about it, it was around 2001 when I was in high school. So yeah its about 15 years ago. My mate used to spam me with sms-es and I was using the old nokia phone (5110 I think?) which can only hold few sms-es. Had to delete them all, it was annoying as hell lol.

  • -1

    About 20 years ago I needed some money so I decided to sell a gold necklace that my parents had given me. Walked into cash converters and they checked the stamping to indicate the gold %, weighed it and offered me a $ value. It was shit but I took it.

    It then sparked an idea - I then went and bought some silver necklaces and then proceeded to cut the end tag/clip off and solder in a real gold one with the gold stamping on it. I'd then gold plate the necklace a few times so it was clean and looked like real gold. Walked into cash converters and just said I have some jewellery but I had no idea what it really was. The plan worked, they looked for the stamp and gave me the gold value of the necklace! I did that about a second time straight away as I was scared they would catch on as we needed to supply ID. Made a few grand for a poor student at the time and never heard from them.

    • +3

      so you deliberately rorted cashies knowing what you did was fraudlent
      even provided ID

      sounds like a good case for their head office to investigate

      • It's not a rort when I made no claims as to what it was. I merely presented the item as is and asked how much they'd give me. If they're buying then it's buyer beware. I'm aware they now test the gold before they buy.

    • +4

      Fraud, but actually quite clever of you! Gold plating, etc. Nice!

  • -7

    Herp a derp derp I used to live in a studio and it provided free water. I used the stream of water from the tap to create kinetic energy to power my laptop use use he light sparingly.

  • +5

    Years ago when Melbourne had scratchie tickets the kids at my school would carefully cut out the scratched date of a used ticket and replace it with the unscratched date from another ticket. Then whilst on the train have the ticket in hand and if I inspectors entered the carriage would then scratch that days date.

    Before scratch tickets they had paper tickets with the day and month hole punched out - but no year. every friday for a year I'd get the train home from school and search the used ticket bin and find the all day tickets for each day of the week. I kept them in order and the following 2 years i recycled them.

    • In Melbourne there was something similar. I think we used to cover parts of the ticket with our thumb and punch multiple times. :)

  • +2

    Lost my student ID just before I graduated. Got a replacement effective for another three years after I graduated. Still bought student priced transport and student price cinema tickets.

    • +2

      my sharemate she is working at student administration and I can always ask her to renew my card. Before the graduation I asked her to replace my student card, now I can use it until 2018 ;)

    • +1

      I had a student ID card, no expiry date and the photo was so dark it was hard to make out the person. I and many mates used it for student discounts many years after I finished studying.

  • +31

    In Melbourne, from Swan street to get to Exhibition st, you typically have to pay the Citylink tolls. i.e. https://goo.gl/maps/xQNYWFwZ8on

    However, by entering the Rod Laver arena car park, as long as you leave within 10 mins, you can get out for free and avoid the toll completely https://goo.gl/maps/kwGZaXPHcHM2

  • +10

    Optus had 'yes' time. Free calls up to 20 mins optus to optus between 8pm to 12am.

    Loophole 1: if your phone call lasts 19min30, you can hang up and call again for another free 20 mins.

    Loophole 2: if you make a phone call at 11.59pm, then you can get another 20mins free even until 12:18am when technically it should've expired at midnight.

    All you needed was an optus prepaid sim card with enough credit for a 30sec phone call to take advantage of loopholes 1 & 2.

    • +1

      don't know why this was negg'd… everyone knew about this and was doing the same thing.
      I'm pretty sure even optus was aware of this and didn't mind so much because they had a fair use policy ad could've terminated anyone that they thought was abusing their Yes time.

    • +2

      Optus said YES so how could they say NO?

    • Yes weekend also.

      • +1

        Yes used this. Optus didn't care. I think they had 2000 minutes fair use.

        I once went over but got a warning from memory.
        They would have made a fair bit of money with people going accidentally over but I was always very careful.

    • +1

      I used to do that all the time too.
      I remember the night of 9/11 I was on the phone hanging up every 20 minutes

    • My gf at the time did this, I eventually got pissed off with her having to call back every 20 mins

      • reason for breakup then?

  • +3

    With my telstra broadband. We are in an area of fibre optic connection (lucky us!) Signing up was looking pricey with costs for connection and the special router you need for fibre. I was on a $50 plan, The telstra guy told me if I signed up to the $100 plan I got connection and the $100 router for free, then directly afterwards I could use the "30 days free change of mind" part of the service to jump back down to my $50 plan! Saved me about $110.

  • +1

    Had a Pizza Hut coupon for years for $7 pizza, garlic bread and 1.25lt Coke. It was worth about that

  • +3

    Sydney Opal Card Hack. Usual weekly spend was $52 on train fare (Long Commute). Wake Monday morning 5am and cycle between two train stations which would take abit under an hr.

    Trip A to B x 6 trips is $2.36 x 6 = $14.16
    Catch train into work for the 7th trip and hit the daily $15 cap. Trip home would be free instead of $6.46
    Next Day go out for morning ride before 7am (peak) and do another trip $2.36
    Total spend on 8 trips = $15 + $2.36 with the rest of the week free after eight paid trips. Looks like its going to be removed now. Apparently its really easy to glitch on the cbd tram network and has been overused/abused.

    • Opal hack probably will end in June.

  • +14

    Way back in 2005 Amazon started their "Mechanical Turk" service which is basically a digital sweatshop platform and still in operation. You might get paid 30c to write ad copy for a product, 5c to categorise a photo etc.

    Amazon were the only publisher of tasks at that time. They'd give you a business name and address, show you five StreetView-esque photos, and if you could clearly see the business you clicked on the photo, clicked Submit, and if accepted you got 3 cents. (Cash as a US resident, Amazon credit otherwise).

    A few online forums picked it up and wrote browser scripts to make it easier, such as autosubmitting as soon as you clicked the photo rather than having to scroll down to submit, but as I kept clicking on them to gain a few bucks, I realised that 'None of the above' was the answer a good 70 percent of the time.

    …so I hacked a script together to just spam the 'None of the above' button, and occasionally take a break/randomise the submit time so it didn't look obvious.

    Went off to Uni, left it running for days. My acceptance ratio went way down, but the net result was ~US$900 of Amazon credit (at ~73c exchange rate at the time). Needless to say, as a poor Uni student yet to start full time employment, Christmas was good that year.

    The one thing I agonised about was whether it was worth getting a US-model Xbox 360 without warranty, and in hindsight with RRoD, getting a PSP instead was a good choice.

  • +5

    Back at the dawn of time before streaming and torrents, Video Ezy and Blockbuster used to do the "get it first time or get it free" deal. New movies went up on a Thursday, so I'd stop in after work (10pm) and if any of the new releases were all out I'd simple go to the counter and get my free voucher. The guy who worked there knew what I was doing when I told him I really wanted to borrow Six Days Seven Nights, Truman Show and Dr Dolittle on the same night. He didn't care, and thus "Free Movie Friday" was born!

    • +1

      Lol, wasnt this in the reddit post?

      • +1

        Redit post?

        Was a common thing to do in Sydney at the time, especially when DVD's became the norm.

        • in the OP, what you described someone did the exact same thing. Must be common I guess.

        • @thedude23:
          Ahh I see that now.. don't think it was there when originally posted. You have no idea how common it was! Some stores would give you "credit" instead of the correct voucher, which you could use on a 7day game hire.

  • +10

    The drinks in the fridge of most supermarkets tend to be more expensive, so I used to take a drink, put it in the freezer with the chips and frozen veggies or something and grab it when I was done with my shopping, ice cold 2L of coke for less than what they charge for 600mL in the fridge.

    • +2

      Really can you do that? Do the staff look at you suspiciously

      • There aren't usually all that many staff just walking around in the freezer section, to be honest.

    • oh wow… I didn't know they charged different prices.. does that mean that they had different barcodes?

      what if someone moved a refridgerated one to the normal shelf and some unsuspecting buyer was paying more without even knowing?

      • +6

        He is talking about the difference between 2L and 600mL Coke bottles. 2L could be on special for $2 whereas 600mL would be upwards of $4.

        • my bad… thanks for that. I mustn't have read the last bit properly!

      • +2

        You will find the drinks in the fridges aren't available warm on the shelves (usually).

        We did a similar thing when working at Coles as well.
        About 30 minutes before break, you would grab a 1.25L of whatever and go put it in the freezer out the back.
        There would often be 3-4-5 bottles sitting up on the chiller unit just before lunch from the guys filling shelves.

        <$1 ice cold (slushie cold) drinks and usually we would time our lunch breaks with the $2 dozen fresh cinnamon donuts (which ended up being more like 18-20 cause we knew the guys in the bakery)
        Oh to be back in my 20's, powered by sugar, getting paid decent casual rates (great at the time for us "poor" uni students getting $20/hr) and still staying fit and skinny cause we ran around packing shelves and lifting boxes all day.

    • +1

      I reckon the coolest place would be the ice fridge

    • +19

      I used to purchase the half chilled 2L cokes that other shoppers had earlier put in the freezer.

    • I still do this. Put it with the milk though, blends in better there.

    • +1

      Go to the bottlo attached, they have the bottles in the fridge, and the prices are cheaper. I know right? Makes sense….

    • you can grab two bottles (one from the shelf and one from the fridge) - go the self service checkout and scan the one from the shelf twice?

      • +1

        They don't usually have 1.25L or 2L bottles in the fridge. These tend to be like $1.50 and $3 or perhaps even cheaper if they're on special. The 600mL bottles from the fridge are like $3.50 or something.

    • legend, do you also stand at the deli at 4:45 waiting for marked down chickens

      • +1

        Nah, I don't stand around there so to speak, but I usually try and pop by to see if there's any left by the time I finish work.

  • +5

    Back in the day, IKEA SA had a monthly voucher of $20, no minimum spend. What they didn't do, was expire the voucher after use. It was perfect for paying for small items around the house, like photo frames etc.

  • +3

    I would buy games that were heavily discounted clearance items (such as $80 down to $30) from shop A and then take them to a department store shop B and say they were unwanted gifts and I didn't have a receipt. They would give you store credit at the department store B for the value they scanned ($80) and then buy whatever you wanted.

    This is about 15 years ago so not sure if it'd still work now.

  • +2

    in early uni days, when they had their own ticket inspector guy, he just looked to see if you had a ticket on your dash, never actually read it. so you would buy a 20c ticket, and keep using it as long as it looked "fresh", when it started to fade, just buy another one. never got caught. then they got a private company to do the ticket checks, and those guys actually read the tickets, no more 20c parking a month, hello $5 a day.

  • +3

    I was going to write about the classic "enrol in university, get a concession travel card (Opal), then withdraw from courses", but this doesn't work anymore.

    The concession Opal cards are linked to your university enrolment. So if you withdraw after 2 weeks, the Opal system knows, and it's illegal.

    • +1

      yeh i had a qut student card for a good solid 8 years… It had an expiry date on the card, when you were expected to complete your course. This was a field you filled out yourself. I said 8 years for a 3 year degree

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