I’m sure it was a mistake. But after a couple of times, such mistakes graduate from “oops” to negligence. Why is Hertz not checking their records more thoroughly before reporting a car stolen? After the first dozen false arrests, why are they not poring over all of their camera footage and paperwork and interviewing every employee from the site where it was supposedly stolen before they report it to the police?
> But after a couple of times, such mistakes graduate from “oops” to negligence.
Once again I think when you are dealing with a very large number of transactions there will simply always be screwups. To insure zero defects would raise the cost of the good or service to an unacceptable level. It's bad but my opinion is it's not criminal.
What's interesting though is that the tech business (and software in particular) is probably the most vocal (say here on HN) when mistakes happen in some other business (or a software business that is not theres) but at the same time for what they do (their own product or service) they regularly turn out non perfect products and experiences that regularly annoy, aggravate and create problems for users. Now none of this gets people picked up by the police but who says that that in particular is the gold standard of 'bad thing to happen to someone'. I wouldn't want to be picked up by the police obviously but then again some companies crappy software can actually create much greater aggravation and harm than that police event.
Your argument applies equally well to the general population. If I lend my car to a friend and then get him arrested by falsely reporting it stolen, do you think the judge will listen to me when I say that it’s a big country and it’s not reasonable to expect a zero defect rate?
Filing a false police report is criminal, literally. Writing bad software is not.
The root of my complaint is the massive inequity in treatment between individuals and large companies. If you want to argue that companies should be punished for making crappy software or that private citizens should get a pass when committing crimes, go for it, but that’s not quite what I’m talking about. The issue isn’t merely that Hertz gets away with this, it’s that they get away with it where you and I would not.
I’m sure it was a mistake. But after a couple of times, such mistakes graduate from “oops” to negligence. Why is Hertz not checking their records more thoroughly before reporting a car stolen? After the first dozen false arrests, why are they not poring over all of their camera footage and paperwork and interviewing every employee from the site where it was supposedly stolen before they report it to the police?