Cheating on Smartnet

For the last decade, give or take a year or two, we have had a policy that we do not purchase maintenence on any Cisco gear that comes with a limited lifetime warranty, with some minor exceptions. One of those exceptions is that we maintain SNT on a single device of any given type.

Translated, we have about 4000 access-layer switches across a few hundred sites, which are mostly a mix of 3850 and 3750X with some older devices being replaced by C9300. None of which have support entitlement. In the rare circumstances where we have had a hardware failure, we have been given an RMA. Plus, we maintain sufficient spare supply.

Of course, the gotcha is that the real reasons we buy Smartnet, generally speaking, are for: 1) TAC support. Either because we are truly stuck, or because there is a fire and the impulsive upper management types immediately insist on getting a TAC case open. And 2) Software upgrades. As in 2.0 to 3.x, 3.13 to 3.16 to 16.3, 16.3 to 16.6, etc.

I have ethical concerns with knowingly opening up a TAC case for a 3850 that came with IOS-XE 2.0.x installed, now running 16.3.5b, and has no support entitlement, and said TAC case was actually opened using the one serial number out of the 4000 devices that actually does have support.

At one point, I realized that, whether or not my boss told me to do so, I could be personally liable for knowingly committing fraud. So I stopped performing upgrades and have refused to open TAC cases. My current boss understands, and just picks one of the other 20 or so network engineers on the team to do the dirty work in these cases. Future bosses may not be so understanding. Two bosses ago or three bosses ago would have had me written up for it.

Not once has TAC called us out. Even our account team says that everyone does it, no big deal.

So my question for you... Is it true? Does everyone do that? Do you? Have you had any bad experiences? Bear in mind, no gray market equipment is installed. All legit. Am I overthinking it?