BullionVault took my Gram (back)

A little while back BullionVault placed their bar lists under password protection, meaning that only registered users could download the full list. Automated downloading is the primary technique I use to get hold of my bar lists for the database, so for BullionVault I had to program a special emulation to bypass that requirement (this task was successful, but annoying). Part of the necessary parts was to have an actual account, so I signed up.

I was delighted when as part of the client experience, they gave me a gram of gold to start the account with. I felt richer, by the magnitude of one gram of gold, and to be honest felt a little smug having added some of the good stuff to my net worth, however small. I wondered a little about the business model but really gave it no second thought beyond the semantics of redeeming my one gram (the downloads were working, which was all I wanted).

About a month ago, I received the following email:

Dear BullionVault user,

We are about to reclaim the free gram of gold you received when you first registered your account 'BULLIONBARZ' with us.

As I'm sure you recall, it was given on a "Use it or lose it" basis.

And with new enquiries now running at very high volumes here at BullionVault, it's time to give someone else the same opportunity that you had.