I work in e-commerce, have for 10+ years now. Without a doubt I'm going to Hell, even though, literally, every day, I refuse to do what everything customer's ask of me. Eventually, because of pressure from management or the customer, you will do something you're ashamed of or worse. When you have two small children to feed and your jobs on the line or you need the money it's hard to hold the line. Now that I'm older and the stakes are lower I can give the fuck-off more frequently, and I feel better about myself on the whole, but early on I wasn't so resolute.
Here are the things I've been asked to do and refused, so they just went to someone else to get it done.
- Disable the back button coming from a Google search (Don't want them going to a competitor's site).
- Change the default selection for being included in spam list from no to yes.
- Export email lists ignoring the "include me in spam lists" selection.
- If someone has purchased before, save their credit card information, and if they add something to their cart ever again, charge them immediately, and them make refunds difficult.
- Make the RMA / refund page throw an error the first time, to try and discourage returns. It'd work the 2nd time.
- Add a "pay with cash discount" wish is really a credit card surcharge because the request to pay in cash is never approved.
- Doctor the math for discounts so unless a customer double-checks they won't notice the ~25 cent discrepancy.
- Take donations for a cause with fine print (literally, like 3pt type) that says only a small percentage gets donated.
- Intentional violation of credit card rules, such as storing the customer's credit card without their knowledge, sending credit cards numbers through email unencrypted, refusing to honor recurring payment cancellations, and so on.
- Ship by a slower shipping method than what the customer is charged for.
This list could go on for literally hundreds of entries. The point is that, yes, as the programmer, we are the last line of defense. The stories here with people working in the health care industry just break my heart - so much more at stake then people's money.
One piece of advice I can offer. When you refuse, and they go hire someone somewhere else to do the dirty work, you can always report them anonymously afterward. The satisfaction of seeing them having their credit card processing or merchant account yanked can give you some solace.
But in the end, I don't know if it's a winnable war. I want to say this very carefully, because I in no way wish to disparage programmers from other countries, but what I've seen, over and over, is that if I won't do it, there is always someone in another country, for cheap, who will. I'm sure they've got two kids too, and they need the money. There will always be someone ready to do the wrong thing, for whatever reason.
Here are the things I've been asked to do and refused, so they just went to someone else to get it done.
- Disable the back button coming from a Google search (Don't want them going to a competitor's site).
- Change the default selection for being included in spam list from no to yes.
- Export email lists ignoring the "include me in spam lists" selection.
- If someone has purchased before, save their credit card information, and if they add something to their cart ever again, charge them immediately, and them make refunds difficult.
- Make the RMA / refund page throw an error the first time, to try and discourage returns. It'd work the 2nd time.
- Add a "pay with cash discount" wish is really a credit card surcharge because the request to pay in cash is never approved.
- Doctor the math for discounts so unless a customer double-checks they won't notice the ~25 cent discrepancy.
- Take donations for a cause with fine print (literally, like 3pt type) that says only a small percentage gets donated.
- Intentional violation of credit card rules, such as storing the customer's credit card without their knowledge, sending credit cards numbers through email unencrypted, refusing to honor recurring payment cancellations, and so on.
- Ship by a slower shipping method than what the customer is charged for.
This list could go on for literally hundreds of entries. The point is that, yes, as the programmer, we are the last line of defense. The stories here with people working in the health care industry just break my heart - so much more at stake then people's money.
One piece of advice I can offer. When you refuse, and they go hire someone somewhere else to do the dirty work, you can always report them anonymously afterward. The satisfaction of seeing them having their credit card processing or merchant account yanked can give you some solace.
But in the end, I don't know if it's a winnable war. I want to say this very carefully, because I in no way wish to disparage programmers from other countries, but what I've seen, over and over, is that if I won't do it, there is always someone in another country, for cheap, who will. I'm sure they've got two kids too, and they need the money. There will always be someone ready to do the wrong thing, for whatever reason.