Long before Seamless became many New Yorkers' go-to for ordering food without having to talk to a human being, it was SeamlessWeb, a site whose main business was helping white-collar firms organize large food orders for their late-working employees. So color us not surprised to learn that those same employees—especially the Wall Streeters—have been gaming the system for years, getting their corporate masters to buy them steak and mac 'n' cheese dinners on a regular basis. Sadly, unless you work for one of the 3,500+ firms that use the company, you can't try these tricks at home.
Still, since we know you are curious, here's how a basic scam would go:
Typically, junior professionals are allotted about $25 per meal at the office. But there are tricks to leverage this cash on Seamless. If employees want to order dinner, for example, they have to stay until 8 p.m. "But you could still order for a 7 p.m. delivery at 6 p.m., then call the restaurant directly and tell them to bring it right away," one employee says. "So I'd finish work around 6:30 p.m., hit the company gym, and then grab my sushi--spicy tuna rolls--on the way out."
Golf clap. Other tricks include using non-present employees allowances to get more food ("Sure, someone could have cross-checked actual office attendance with the online orders, but is such effort worth the investment bank's time?"), ordering large amounts of random things like toilet paper and then calling places and telling them to bring beer instead, and, our favorite: "One employee, who lived by Morgan Stanley's Midtown offices, would even remote into her office computer from her apartment, place an order on Seamless, and then call the restaurant and change the delivery address to her apartment."
And here we were feeling like we'd gotten away with something when Seamless offers 10 percent discounts on orders to celebrate crappy weather.
