Stealing WIFI-Is It Okay?
September 22, 2009 by Marye Audet
Filed under Coffee News
I was reading an article in the Newark Advocate online about a woman charged with stealing WIFI. There were other issues as well but the idea of WIFI theft is what I am interested in.
First of all, can you steal WIFI? I mean, the coffee shop that offers it for customers is paying for it regardless, as far as I know. They don’t pay per customer. At what point should a person be considered to be stealing WIFI?
At the Panera where we live you can sit in there all day refilling your coffee and using the WIFI. I haven’t never done that but I could just move down there and use it as an office if I wanted to. It seems to me that it would be really unfair but they advertise unlimited coffee refills and free WIFI, so…technically I could.
The woman in the article was a regular customer but hadn’t bought anything that day. She says she ducked in to check something…the store manager says she was there over an hour before he approached her ab0ut purchasing something. Should the police really have been called or was that a waste of taxpayer’s time and money?
What if she sat in the parking lot and pulled WIFI from there? Would it still be stealing?
Some issues of modern times have caused questions that are hard to answer. I mean, fifty years ago you went in a coffee shop, grabbed coffee and pie, ate it and then went on about your day. It was called a break.
Today, with laptops and WIFI we can literally work round the clock. Breaks are working breaks. I would know this because I have taken my laptop to the dinner table when I was trying to meet deadlines.
Anyway, I don’t want to rabbit trail on that. I am just wondering if it was the right thing for the manager to do (calling the police) or if it was just one of those issues he should have asked her to leave and let it go. Maybe refused to serve her in the future if he felt that strongly about it?
What do you think?
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If she was a regular customer that they knew, and she usually bought stuff, then I think all he had to do was gently remind her that she needed to make a purchase to use the wifi.
It’s amazing how time gets away from you when you get online and start doing things. Before you know it, an hour can go by and it felt like 10 minutes.
Calling the police? What a waste of time. I’m sure all she needed was a reminder. And if that didn’t work, ask her to leave.
Elle, I think the manager did both those things but she did not agree to buy anything until the police actually got there. At that point it was too late.
Marye, there is much to this story we don’t know. What kind of a customer was this. One who quietly sat drinking her coffee that she usually purchased, did her work and went away? or one who was constantly leaving a mess, harassing the staff and being difficult? Was what she was doing using a LOT of bandwith? What kind of day was the manager having? Did his top two employees walk out that morning? Did he have issues somewhere else that caused this to push him over the edge? I’m not excusing any of this and either way this could most likely have been handled gently with out police, but sometimes not. Some people are just crazy. Once I heard of a craft shop that called the police, because 2 customers who were related wanted to share a pattern.
I agree Marla. There are always numerous perspectives to look at. What concerns me is the direction society seems to be going. A store should be able to ask someone to leave without calling the police to have it done. AND what a waste of tax payers money to have the police called out to do something like that.
I don’t know the answer. I just found it interesting to think about.
My opinion was that it was blown completely out of proportion. I’m guessing that there was a solution that could’ve been a lot better for everyone involved and without the police. But after working in retail and having to have customers literally taken out by the police, I know that situations can arise where the police do need to be called. That being said, wouldn’t her real crime be trespassing if she wouldn’t leave when the manager asked her to?
I would think so. She added to the problem when she lied about her name as well. I mean who lies about stuff like that? How stupid. I guess I am just trying to muddle through it in my mind…as far as what is o.k. and what is not.
Actually, if the owner wanted to keep his wifi for his customers he could just have a password of the day or week and change it. Then only give it out with a purchase.
that is a great idea
I have to agree with Diana