Absolutely this. I do it on a small scale already. Occasionally I'll order one of those "highly rated" things on Amazon and it's a total piece of shit, or comes with a card inside and it says something like "leave us a 5 star review and we'll send you a 2nd battery for free" or some shit like that.
I'll write a review and out them for leaving the bribery card inside, or I'll rate a shit product a 1 star review, and sometimes the company will offer me a refund and tell me I can keep the product if I take the review down.
I'll email them back agreeing to take the review down after I've been refunded the money. After I get the money I'll update the review to provide the information about trying to bribe me to remove my review.
Once, a company tried TWICE to get me to remove my review. The dumb fucks sent me a 2nd $40 Amazon gift card. Lol
Also, one extra note: unfortunately $250,000 doesn't even go that far. I'm not sure if this volunteer department buys most of their trucks 2nd hand or not, but for new trucks prices have drummed up so high that a Pumper (type of firetruck without the big ladder on top, that you would typically picture in you mind if you were to think of a firetruck) costs $1,000,000 or more. A ladder truck can run $2,000,000. This volunteer department has 10 trucks already. I'd guess something like one ladder truck, two or three pumpers, a couple brush truck, and two or three tanker trucks for hauling lots of water around.
The article says this:
"Naturally, he refused the offer and brought up Australian consumer law, which is quite similar to the European one for these matters. In a simplified form, retailers are responsible for warranty claims and must replace or refund the defective item; then they take the issue to the manufacturer. When confronted by Goran, Umart went to the trouble of quoting the Australian Consumer Law but made a seemingly byzantine and twisted interpretation of it, reiterating that a refund at the original price was the proper remedy."
Now it totally sucks, but there isn't the faintest blip of a bastardization or a twisting to the warranty policy refunding the amount he paid for the RAM. It says in plain text that they have to issue a refund or a replacement. It does not say the customer gets to choose whichever they want, and a refund most definitely doesn't mean you get more back then what you paid for it.
Now what umart did next is definitely a shit move that they should be on the hook for. Keeping the ram and sending it off themselves without first checking with the customer. Umart should pay for that fuck up.