Is honesty dead?

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silvermusic

  • #1
    Something I've been pondering this afternoon.

    I had a stock delivery earlier today and when I checked it against the delivery note I found they'd sent me two extra items of one line. We're not talking huge sums here, £13'ish total. So I phoned them up and asked them to add them on to my invoice, it's a line I can sell anyway. The poor girl in their accounts department sounded so suprised that anyone would be that honest, she sounded genuinely shocked. As I explained to her it works both ways, I expect them to be honest if there's a shortage (rare but it does happen) and like wise I'm doing the same in return.

    I get the feeling she really couldn't get her head around being honest as in her words other dealers wouldn't, they just pocket it and keep quiet. I don't know, is it just they way I was brought up to be honest, am I really so odd?
     
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    MrTanner

    Free Member
    May 11, 2009
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  • #2
    Not odd just a dying breed it seems, On a similar note I returned £200 extra I was given by the bank once, suppose its thinking of the poor staff member who made the error, everyone said I was mad...

    seeing how the banks have acted recently they were probably right :)
     
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    D

    Dawg

  • #4
    Since when? And what is it, this honesty? I know that a well known national chain used to severely penalize deliveries that were under, so suppliers used to always bung in extra, and these extras were never acknowledged or paid for... this wasn't any old discount by stealth and dishonesty, this was a .....:)
     
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    B

    BusinessIdeas

  • #5
    I think in truth, and all honesty, :D that people view being honest as an option rather than as being mandatory.
    If someone has dealt dishonestly with you is it ok to return the favour and to be dishonest back? or do you believe that it is never ok to be dishonest?
     
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    H

    hlsps

  • #9
    I think that honesty is a dying breed. I hear some terrible stories, and normally they are told with such pride, I got this or I did this, yet dishonesty is a form of theft isn't it?

    Honesty instead of being accepted as the norm seems to be an "added value" these days.

    I deal honestly with my Clients and would expect the same in return. I am trying to teach my daughter honesty, and manners, values she was taught when I paid an extortionate amount to a nursery each month but which dont seem to be getting taught in school.

    Good on you for 'fessing up
     
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    Techsyn

    Techsyn

    Free Member
    Oct 31, 2008
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    Kent
  • #10
    Where is the benefit in honesty? Finding someone's wallet and being able to find the owner and hand it back intact made me feel good. Simple as that. And I would have done it even if I was absolutely broke.

    Thinking about it, only a few weeks ago I went in a shop I don't normally go in and bought a Kit Kat to get some change. I gave the asian proprietor a tenner and got back change that was obviously for twenty. By knee jerk I said, "hang on, that's not right". The guy started to protest until I described the error and was then immediately very grateful - and obviously surprised. Someone behind me said I was mad. Just goes to show I guess.
     
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    Christiane

  • #11
    Now for a good on story on Royal Mail for a change.
    One of my staff lost her glasses used for driving, couldn't find them anywhere, assumed that maybe they fell in the mail bag while doing the post (she had them on her head). She mentioned it to our collection man the following day and a few days later, he turns up with 4 pairs of glasses and asked her if any are hers, and yes, she got her pair of glasses back. It's quite a common thing, glasses falling in mail bags, apparently!
     
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    S

    silvermusic

  • #15
    SillyJokes said:
    I also reported over delivery, but when I didn't like a product I was sent I was more comfortable sending it back. I think it builds relationships especially if like me a lot of your suppliers are small family run businesses.
    Click to expand...

    I deal with all sorts of sizes of suppliers from one person operations right up to the biggest worldwide household name companies. The firm in question was of the later, and about as big as they get. To me who it is and the size of the company makes no difference with regards to honesty.

    As others have pointed out and to my way of thinking, honesty and integrity shouldn't be either selective or an optional extra. It should be part of how you operate normally and that extends to far more than just checking stock deliveries but every part of you business.

    Maybe I'm just old-fashioned in my ways but I can't stand dishonesty in business no matter what form it takes.

    I'll step of the soapbox now. :)
     
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  • #17
    Most people in my experience are dishonest at some level

    (as an aside jack straw should be locked up for double claiming,and treated like evry other benefit cheat - to send a message to dishonest MPs)

    In a varied career , I have had boards actively conspiring to steal my business, companies in which I owned serious shareholdings, shut down without reference to me, the busienss appearing in another company. Proof on the web of a patent I am author of, refiled by a partner in his name instead. A to$$er I did a website for before christmas, stealing the copy for a site he didnot think I would find.
    (thats now twice) A venture capitalist getting an auditor to qualify accounts, in order to stop a business trading which went down with £100K + in the bank because "we couldnot prove we had sales to be a going concern". When we refused to sell out to another business, the VC decided to steal our cred for another company.in 1992 Got the nonexecs to sack all our staff too.

    It is a fact that many retail staff steal cash or stock, unless rigorous systems are there to prevent it.

    Yes I fought some legally and won in the end,but the drain on resources..

    Ask James Dyson...he only just survived.


    And sure, Ihave had a lot of interests,sothese are not all representative.

    Shameful.

    People. Who needs them?

    I was networking with someone who does several million over the web - and he has just had to scale back, because his accountant had stolen £250K

    It happens at all sorts of levels.
    Did a deal for someone to present at an event - in his interests rather than mine. Who pulls out AFTER tickets are sold - for reasons he knew a month before.

    Cheers mate.

    Can You trust anyone
    People I hate them.
     
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    B

    BlueprintAnimation

  • #18
    I bought theatre tickets for myself and my daughter, changed plans and decided to take and adult friend instead. When I rang the theatre to pay the extra, the woman was shocked at the honesty and said it had never happened to her before, and didn't know how to put it through her system! In the end she said just to turn up anyway because nobody checks the tickets... so in their experience the majority of people must be honest :)
     
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  • #20
    DanMartin said:
    I used to work for Sky News and one month they gave me double pay. I phoned up HR and told them. Not sure if that makes me honest or stupid! :p
    Click to expand...

    I think this shows that you will never make it as an MP.

    Now I suspect your motive was driven by the fact that the error was very likely to be found out.?

    I think maybe for most people the degree of honesty is determined by what they perceive to be the damage to the party making the loss, allied to the likely hood of getting caught.:rolleyes:

    I suspect that if Paul Getty lost his wallet his chances of getting it back would be a tad less than an O.A.P who had dropped her pension.?

    Unless of course she was unlucky enough to be in the houses of commons.:)

    Earl
     
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    M

    m.r.davies

  • #21
    being dishonest now and then when it suits you may be fine.......

    well thats what you think

    it will eventually ruin your character
    be as nice and as honest as much as possible, and people will see these fruits

    everything shines through, sometimes it takes a while, and by that time, its too late.
     
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    mdj101

    Free Member
    Mar 10, 2008
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  • #24
    I found a wallet outside tesco one night, opened it and it had all the cards, money and some kiddy photos so obviously sentimental aswell. Took it to the local police station and a few days later I got a thank you card saying it was nice that there were still honest people about, she couldn't beleive it still had the money in.

    How did she get my address I thought?

    She was a police officer!
     
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    D

    Deleted member 41967

  • #28
    I believe the amounts of honesty in business is dwindly as there's a constant push to force more sales... figures folks.

    Maybe honesty should be renamed to 'Nonesty'.

    Also I think those of us who keep our honesty when doing business will eventually come out on top. It's plain and clear who "diddles" you and who provides the Beef *and* the Salad.

    I would be much more eager to make a sale with someone who I thought was honest, but then again, the general public may be more willing to make a sale with someone who has the gift of the gag and can persuade verbally, even if the information is exadgerated. An example of this is QVC or the shopping channel.

    We got to weigh up who is more likely to get bought from:
    + Honest trader who tells the truth about the product
    + Dishonest trader who advertises the product falsely

    *Rambles*
     
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    Cornish Steve

    Cornish Steve

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    Jul 4, 2005
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  • #30
    sirearl said:
    The one who is cheapest.:)
    Click to expand...
    Maybe the first time, but not the second. What matters is the lifetime value of a customer, so honesty does pay in the end.

    sirearl said:
    Self protection makes it impossible for all people to be honest all of the time.;)
    Click to expand...
    You're just a cynic, Earl, and I disagree with you completely. :) Being honest forced me to leave a former employer, but I can sleep at night and I doubt the then-president of that company could.
     
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    Deleted member 41967

  • #31
    I think honesty would be a characteristic of the next race of super human entrepreuners (never can spell that word).

    It's a human quality, and trust, when seen, is more powerful than anyone, who seems dishonest, selling the best dusters, now matter how much they are enhanced by Barry Scott.
     
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  • #32
    Cornish Steve said:
    You're just a cynic, Earl, and I disagree with you completely. :) Being honest forced me to leave a former employer, but I can sleep at night and I doubt the then-president of that company could.
    Click to expand...

    Not a cynic a realist .

    20st thug to 9st weakling "did you shout at my little boy"?

    Not me mister honest.:D

    The inability to lie for self preservation purposes is a mark of immaturity.;)

    The rest are stupid or masochists

    Earl
     
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    Cornish Steve

    Cornish Steve

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    Jul 4, 2005
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  • #33
    Let me quote a specific example in response then.

    I made about 12 trips to the other side of the world trying to win a multi-million dollar deal. In the end, we lost it because we were honest in claiming our system couldn't deliver certain features whereas a competitor just answered 'yes' to everything. Of course, there was much hand-wringing, and I'm sure some top executives were questioning my judgment and that of others. Still, six months later, the company came knocking on our door. By now, they had realised the competitor couldn't deliver. It had cost them a lot of time and money to find this out, but they had little choice now but to look elsewhere. This time, to my knowledge, they never even approached other competitors, and we won profitable business in very little time.

    I could quote you other examples where the same thing happened. Yes, there are contracts we lost and never recovered, so maybe it's difficult to quantify whether honesty really does pay. Personally, though, I believe it does.
     
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    scott_dciron

    Free Member
    Sep 24, 2008
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  • #34
    Honesty is always the best policy and will some way or an other reward you in the future especially in business. If people see that you care about others and not about yourself then your customers are more likely to trust you which is one of the most important aspects of business.

    Our business is always honest with customers like if we cannot beat a price or cannot supply an item or admit the. Then 9/10 the customer will come back to us even if they can get a better price.
     
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