It is also useful to mention that in my country (Germany) we do not refer to school students and university students with the same terms. School students are Schüler, university students are Studenten.
So in ca. eight grade, as every year, we had a photographer come and take our photos. These photographers were also responsible for handing us student IDs. Getting one was optional but I opted to do it. Well I got my ID and was surprised to see that they seemingly messed up the expiration date. Not only did it cover more than the current school year, it was so far in the future that it would be valid for one and a half years after I graduated, if everything went to plan. I have no idea how this fuckup happened.
I’m pretty sure you can see where this is going. I graduated as planned, and one of my favourite fast food chains had a special offer for school students, allowing them to pay significantly less than the normal prices.
I went there at least once a week, usually more often. I had already dropped out of university and was still getting the discounts for school students that I got in ~eight grade. It helps that I’m a woman and my looks have stayed mostly the same, so the picture still looks quite similar to how I look today even, deep into my second attempt at university. I think I might still do it if it hadn’t expired, they have gotten quite expensive and I hardly go there anymore.
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That’s pretty wild. I wish we had that when I was young. Back then we had to fill out our Schülerausweis ourselves and get it stamped in the Sekretariat. “Accidentally” the year in my DOB made me a bit older than I actually was and the secretary didn’t check and just stamped it. This way I reached the legal drinking age of 16 a bit prematurely and I was actually able to purchase beer at the store with this document 😂
It sounds like you took advantage of a loophole in the system, and while it might have felt harmless at the time, it’s technically fraud. Companies usually count on people using discounts honestly, and exploiting one for over a year crosses a line. It’s understandable to feel conflicted, on one hand, it was a small personal gain, but on the other, it was knowingly misleading the business. Moving forward, sticking to honest ways to save money will save you potential trouble and guilt.
Oh god i couldn’t even figure out how many times I’ve done something like this. I did 11 or so years of schooling after high school so far, but, in the years between, or with no longer active educational affiliations, I’ve been milking that for years. I wonder if my 2014 student prime is still active at the same price lol. 🤷♀️ I used my undergrad VPN for a full decade after I graduated. Kind of annoyed it’s not still working, need to call the registrar.
Good on you! I’d call that an honest meal, it’s not like they were going to go under if all they served were students.
Same, but it wasn’t fast food. In fact I also didn’t cheat anyone 😂 I had a student account with my bank, for some reason they kept it that way even though I had finished my master degree 3 years prior, so for 3 extra years I didn’t have to pay any account fees or any other sort of fees for withdrawal or anything else. I didn’t save a fortune but at least 300 over that period.