> We laughed that guy out of the room, thankfully.
If the customer can be made happy and the company can make money by just making an increase to a version number with no additional changes, why not just do it?
If the customer can be made happy and the company can make money by just making an increase to a version number with no additional changes, why not just do it?
It builds trust in your company, so that when they think about renewing their contract they remember you have integrity and aren't trying to rip them off. Instead, you believe in your product and are actually trying to sell it on its merits.
It also becomes a funny story they tell their friends / others in the industry, which could lead to further business.
There are no downsides to owning up (I'd even claim the upsides above), but there are some possibly gigantic downsides to not owning up.
Don't you think the client would be happier with a refund and an explination?
It's likely also criminal, as fraud is illegal, but even if not the deceit should be something that makes your conscience bristle.
Is it ethically wrong to ship chicken bits like that? You can make arguments either way (e.g. a device might not have been QA'd or tested for the disabled features, and the feature itself might be faulty, e.g. that's extra support labor they didn't pay for). But that's a different question to whether the salesperson should have sold them a feature they already had access to.
The customer has already paid for that feature. Best case we rip them off and take their money for nothing, which is scummy. Worst case they figure it out later and sue.
Either way it's the wrong thing to do.