Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 20:19:21 -0400
Reply-To: Richard Golen <rgolen@umassd.edu>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Richard Golen <rgolen@umassd.edu>
Subject: Re: Parts Place - Dear Vanagon List Subscribers
In-Reply-To: <41200074272241410@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 06:41 PM 7/27/00 -0400, Kevin Hale wrote:
>We offer it back to her at fair market value, she does not have to buy it.
>No one screwed anyone.
>
>In retrospect we should not have called Melissa, but we thought it a good
>idea to give her a chance to re-own her beloved van.
>
>Melissa stated that she was a college professor at ( I believe ) Eastern
>Michigan University. She did not appear illiterate or mentally handicapped
>in any way that would lead us to believe she required "extra" special
>consideration. She appeared to be about 30 years old.
>
>
>
>Why all this mis-information?
>
>
>Most colleges and some high schools offer a course called Economics 101. I
>hear it is worthwhile. I would think it would be required by anyone in the
>teaching profession.
Kevin,
Like Melissa, I too teach at a university.....business law, in fact. I do
disagree that you did not do anyting illegal. In contract law (be it common
law or the Uniform Commercial Code) there is an underlying or implied duty
of "good faith" and "fair dealing". Part of this duty is that a party with
superior knowledge or bargaining power does not unfairly take advantage of
a party with lesser knowledge or bargaining power. Clearly, Parts Place (as
stated in its catalogues, etc) holds itself out to be an "expert" in things
VW.....obviously an English professor does not. So legally you took
advantage of the situation, and your "offer" to resell the van for $3300
clearly shows you took advantage of the situation.
By the way, my university offers a course called Introduction to
Economics....however, it also has a course called BUSINESS ETHICS (PHL 215
I believe), and perhaps it should be a requirement of folks in the business
profession as you believe that Economics should be required by anyone in
the teaching profession.
If you REALLY wanted to do the right thing, perhaps instead of contacting
Melissa and asking her if she wanted to buy her van back for $3300 (the
moral equivalent of rubbing salt into one's wounds...after all you KNEW how
much she hated to part with the van), you could have said, we'll sell it
back to you for the FAIR MARKET VALUE of the repairs we did plus the $200
we paid you for the van.
What you have done is what many companies these days seem to forget, keys
to a successful business are satisfied, repeat customers as well as a good
business reputation. It seems to me that all that counts here is your
bottom line.
Even if you don't buy my "good faith" and "fair dealing" argument, the law
is not always the "judge" on what the customer and the public perceives as
right and wrong....its the ethical and moral conduct of the company in
question as well, and that ultimately effects the public's spending habits
and a company's bottom line.
If that is the case consider this. You paid $200 for the van, and lets
estimate that you spent $500 in getting it to run. That's $700 in costs,
leaving you $2,600 profit. However, you now have a BIG (given the number of
folks on this list, as well as the number of folks who also are on other
VW-related lists (New Beetle, Watercooled, Vintage, Type 2, etc.) public
relations problem. How much goodwill and potential sales have you lost from
these listees because of this? I bet you've lost more than that the $2600
profit you made from the sale of the van.
Personally, had the story been how wonderful Parts Place was in undoing a
"tragic" mistake by one of the list members (and yes, if you check the list
archives, you will see that we both praise as well as complain about
certain suppliers), I would more than likely order that set of shocks that
my 87 Vanagon Westy needs from Parts Place. Why? Because I would have
respected the way you treated one of our list members. Instead I'll order
the shocks from one of our tried and true list suppliers. Chalk at least
that lost sale against the $2600 profit made on the van.
Richard Golen
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