While we’re taught as children that greed is something to avoid, plenty of business owners learn that it can actually get them quite far. But when one company refused to listen to the single person who understood their online presence, their greed came back to bite them.
Below, you’ll find a story that this company’s former web designer shared on the Petty Revenge subreddit, detailing a costly business mistake that benefited him, as well as a conversation with the designer and some of the replies amused readers shared.
When this web designer finally asked for a raise, his company decided it was actually time to end his contract
Image credits: Studio Republic (not the actual photo)
So after completing his last task for them, he came up with a brilliant way to get revenge
Image credits: Budka Damdinsuren (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Sora Shimazaki (not the actual photo)
Later, the designer shared another detail about the situation
Image credits: Mark_ibrr
He also clarified a few things readers were curious about
"A single individual can, under the right circumstances, have the last laugh after being mistreated by an employer or client"
We reached out to the designer in this story, Reddit user Mark_ibrr, to learn more about the situation and what inspired him to share it, and lucky for us, he was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. "I got pretty upset when I found out the company refused to increase my yearly contract," he explained. "The company functions as a white label reseller, so it didn’t have any proprietary technology, product, or manufacturing techniques. The value of the products depended 100% on the marketing and branding, which I created pretty much by myself. I’m not going to take credit for all the success, but I did play a pivotal role that I believe justified my demand of a $25,000 increase."
"To add insult to injury, they planned to to replace me with a whole team overseas because, and I’m going to quote what I was told by a current employee: 'Someone in India will do it cheaper,'" the OP revealed. "So I shared my story to show Redditors that a single individual can, under the right circumstances, have the last laugh after being mistreated by an employer or client."
We were also curious why he believed the company ignored him so many times, despite his multiple warnings to purchase the domains. "I’ve done a lot of work for start-ups and they all make the same mistake: they like to run with baby shoes," the designer told Bored Panda. "The start up mentality of 'move fast, break things' can accelerate growth, but it can also cause a lot of problems: poorly developed products, bad service, negligence, etc."
"While the company was extremely efficient in some aspects, like procurement and forecasting, it was really bad brand developed and diversification," Mark_ibrr continued. "Upper management was obsessed with increasing revenue through their only sales channel (Amazon) that they completely ignored other possible revenue streams like retail or even selling through their own website. Instead of investing in their successful brands, they kept pumping more brands that sell the same products but under different names."
Image credits: Headway (not the actual photo)
"I originally bought [the domains] because I was good friends with the Marketing Manager, and I would have given them to her if she asked personally"
"As to why they ignored my request? Same reason why they waited for the FDA and FTC to come knocking before fixing some of their shady business and marketing practices, or why they didn’t address consumer and employee complaints: we know it’s broken, but we won’t fix it until it starts costing us money," the OP added. "They didn’t even had a Director of Product Quality to set proper standards until recently, she quit 6 months in…"
We also wanted to know at what point Mark_ibrr decided to sell the company their domains at a high price. "After the whole FDA and FTC fiasco, we had a 2 hour meeting about how to fix the whole product line to avoid further sanctions. That’s when the idea of selling through company owned websites came to be," he shared. "The reasoning was (and I’m paraphrasing here): 'We don’t have to worry about that many regulations or Amazon’s policies if we own the selling channels, let’s go with that.' But they couldn’t decide what domains to use since they couldn’t use their trademark names on the packaging or labels."
"That’s when I knew they were not going to decide on what domains to use before my contract ended," the OP continued. "1 month after that meeting my contract was terminated, and 2 weeks later I decided to check if they had actually done anything with the work I handed over, and apparently, they had not. Out of pure curiosity, I decided to check if the domains were available and how much would they cost, and surprise surprise (or not) they were. And they were cheap, heck, you can even save money if you bundle the .com domain and add other variations such as .net, .store, etc."
Mark_ibrr shared that he ended up purchasing 12 domains for about $15-120 each, spending less than $1,000 total. "I originally bought them because I was good friends with the Marketing Manager, and I would have given them to her if she asked personally, but instead I got a very aggressive email from the CEO demanding I handed over the domains (he didn’t even asked if I paid for them or not)," the designer explained.
Image credits: John Schnobrich (not the actual photo)
"I felt played, so I decided to become a player"
"I contacted the Marketing Manager, and she told me she had quit soon after I left because she also felt unappreciated (She got a better job at a much better company after a couple of months, and we are still good friends)," the OP added. "But the last straw was when the company photographer was denied a $2 an hour raise… He was a hard working kid that always turn in good work."
"Anyway, I knew their numbers and was confident they could pay the $90,000 I demanded. I felt played, so I decided to become a player," the OP told Bored Panda. "While I didn’t get the full amount, the $75,000 I got was enough to make me happy."
Unfortunately, however, Mark_ibrr does not believe his former employers learned their lesson from this experience. "Most of the people I worked with are no longer there," he shared. "The domains they got so angry about only redirect straight to their Amazon Storefront, their main competitors made it into a national retail chain, and most of the work I did was replaced by low quality content (except for their best sellers, I guess they know better than to [mess] with the money)."
We would love to hear your thoughts on this story in the comments below, pandas. Have you ever gotten petty revenge on an employer like this web designer? Or do you have a former boss who you wish you had gotten back at in a similar way? Feel free to share, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring petty revenge in the workplace, look no further than right here!
Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)
Many readers applauded the man for seamlessly executing his revenge
