A question on ethics.

[philoÂÂ]

The OP did not mention a quoted price here and sounds like he just wants to be honest.

[philoÂÂ]

On the job I retired from my billing rate was something like $120 for the first hour and $90 for each additional hour.

If it only took you 15 minutes to fill out the rebate card and mail it... on my job at least that would have been $30.

We were told to do all of our paperwork on-site and to bill the customer for our time.

Considering we were keeping production lines going that could cost a customer a million dollars or more a day (if down)...we certainly did not get complaints if we sent them a $500 or $600 bill.

[Irreverent Maximus]

Nothing wrong with that. I suspect that you have a love of what you are doing, too. I had a love of what I did, but my body did not. Well, with the exception of the last year and a half with one employer. That was all TS&R. Once my employer wanted me to wear multiple hats again (be a one man work crew), I went elsewhere. My body no longer liked digging trench, laying out/lifting heavy things, pretty much entire projects, all by myself.

It felt good to wake up in the morning and not feel like I had been rolled down a hill in a barrel full of rocks. I do, however, have an urge to further my PLC skills and work in a pure motor control environment. Nothing like toting a laptop instead of all the other crap. That, and my wallet might stop bitching at me. :-)

[philoÂÂ]

I was in the industrial battery business for 38 years...the large ones found in fork lift trucks. Two years ago my knees went and had to get them replaced. I am glad to be retired now.

Although even after the knees were replaced they are not as good as new...my back sure feels a lot better now.

I have been sort of forced to learn how to repair laptops now...as towers and desktops are not as prevalent as they once were.

I look at laptops more as watch repair though.

[trader4]

.

The above doesn't sound anything like the situation that occurred. A problem is that a lot of info is lacking. But clearly this isn't a volume rebate that some reseller gets. Without any more info, I would suspect that the client agreed to pay for the cost of the appliance that the OP obtained at a local store plus the cost to install it. If that appliance had a rebate, then I would think in most cases, the client is entitled to it. But we don't know for sure, because we don't know what the actual contract that was made was.

I recently bought paint at HD that had a $40 rebate. That rebate was available to anyone. If I had a contract with a painter to pay $1000 for his services, I pay for the paint, he picks it up at HD, then clearly that rebate would be mine. It's also not a good idea to pull this with a customer, because it's usually easy to find out what rebates there are online and then you have a problem.

[RobertMacy]

What amazed me the most was watching live coverage of the trial, followed by news peoples' sound bytes of what had happened. It was like they were somewhere else! What came into mind was, Isn't English their primary language? And, didn't they watch what I just watched? They were worse than Oprah interviewing a guest, simply ignoring what was ACTUALLY said and giving opinions and asking questions based on God knows what.

This ought to cause a really high jacked thread.... I personally do not believe that OJ did that crime. Several reasons: OJ was football player, from being around them, they use their hands when angry and frustrated. They would simply pound people silly, not stab, they're just not 'tool' type people. Plus a 'proffessional knifer' keeps his knife as in the weapon was never found. Importantly there are indications two people perpetrated the crime, not one. The man killed was a 'look alike' not the intended target to have been included. During the trial, met OJ's people at his home in BelAir and people one hires are a reflection of themselves, outstanding individuals of high integtrity. Can't believe OJ did the crime. Later, after acquittal down in LA, met M Clark [that was ONE bitter lady!] and felt like taking a shower afterwards, some people just leave you feeling like that.

Guilty, or innocent? Not for me to judge really.

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

ah, so you believe that the best way to keep existing customers, get new referrals from these existing customers is to not give them something that makes them think better of you?

[Wes Groleau]

In a court of law, they wouldn't even bother to show up and you'd win.

If they did show up, and you had proof that they cheated you by foot-dragging, you'd probably win. But if there is no jury, it's hard to predict what a judge will do. I remember after one case asking a lawyer, "Did that judge actually say on the record that he was not going to do his job?" "Yeah, but what are you gonna do?"

[Fat-Dumb and Happy]

A little history, State sues TigerDirect, OnRebate

[Bob(but not THAT Bob)]

The one-and=only rebate I never got was from Circuit City.

I'm not saying that I had anything to do with their untimely demise.

But I'm not saying I didn't!

[Bob(but not THAT Bob)]

Rebates typically take 6-8 weeks to receive. But not everybody knows that.

So what is your client going to think of you showing up with $$ so long after the deal?

Will he be thrilled, or... suspicious?

[philoÂÂ]

Since the rebate was probably for ten dollars I have a feeling it would not have been a court case.

[philoÂÂ]

Now that is interesting. If anyone had an issue with Tiger Direct...sending them a copy of that PDF might actually get them to "pay up".

[nestork]

The pivotal point here is: It turned out that the appliance that I picked had a rebate coupon.

A skeptical person would suspect that the reason you picked THAT appliance was because of the rebate offer. They'd believe you saw the opportunity to benefit yourself from the rebate, and so it was the rebate that steered your decision making.

I don't think that can work because both your client and the appliance manufacturer are going to want the ORIGINAL of the sales receipt. It's really the owner of the appliance that should photocopy both the original of the sales receipt and the rebate form and keep both together in case he has to make a warranty claim.

I feel that you were acting as your client's _agent_ by picking out an appliance for his use. As such, you should have had your client's interests foremost in mind when making your purchase decision. If you feel that your client would have also made the same purchase because of the rebate, then the ethical thing to do would be to refund the rebate to your client. To act in his best interest is to act as he would have under the same circumstances. And, he entrusted you to make the best purchase decision you could ON HIS BEHALF. But, in all fairness, you should mention that it took a little time to fill in the coupon, address the envelope and mail it, and let your client decide how much is a fair reimbursement for your time and effort in that regard.

As soon as you realized there was a rebate to be had, you put yourself in a conflict of interest situation. You either act in your clients best interest, or you act in your own best interest. He trusted you to act in his best interest. If you feel you were acting in your clients best interest because he would have made the same purchase entirely because of that rebate, then you are correct and you did act in his best interest. But, that means the rebate is HIS money. If you now keep a substantial portion of the rebate for yourself, then it can't be said that you were truly acting in his best interest. In that case, it's hard for us not to believe your game plan was for your client to get the stove and for you to get the rebate.

Give the rebate money to your client and get a tip and some word of mouth advertising out of the deal. If your client finds out there was a rebate paid on that purchase and he never saw a penny of it, he'll believed you betrayed him. He'll believe he could have had a stove more suitable to his needs were it not for your betrayal. So, he'll badmouth you for the rest of his life. If he relates the story exactly as you related it to us, his audience will agree that ethically, you have an obligation to return the rebate to him because you were acting on his behalf in making the decision to purchase the stove which offered the rebate. You can't say you were truly doing that if you give him the stove, but keep the rebate for yourself since the rebate was the reason for purchasing THAT stove.

[The Daring Dufas]

Many companies look at the cost of a piece of equipment including the cost of removing and replacing it when deciding to repair it. I don't know what the percentage is now but it must be very high for large items like a machine used in a manufacturing operation. That's the sort of thing that happens during a planned shutdown of the manufacturer's plant. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

During the time the O.J. Simpson circus was going on, I was getting breakfast at a restaurant when the waitress said, "OJ?", I loudly said, "OJ! I'm tired of hearing about OJ this and OJ that it's idiotic and I don't want heart it anymore!", the poor waitress said, "I'm sorry, I was asking if you wanted orange juice." of course I apologized. ^_^

^_^

[recyclebinned]

I have decided to give my client the entire rebate minus one dollar for my trouble and expense since, as someone here mentioned, I was acting as an ag ent of my client even though the rebate had nothing to do with my decision to purchase the appliance since I didn?t even know there was a rebate unt il I made my decision to buy that particular model which had the rebate or for that matter if or when I would even get the rebate. Most of my clients are very nice people for whom I would gladly do the same. In the future how ever, since I do also have some clients that I don?t particularly like, a nd under the same circumstances for those particular clients I would probab ly not even bother filling out the rebate coupon or mailing it in since I k now I wouldn?t be getting any money for it.

[The Daring Dufas]

I've done a lot of mess cleanups like the time an area manager for a supermarket that he decided to have someone else install a backup generator for his store. He told me that the other contractor had given him a much lower price to install the used generator. I later got a call from the manager asking me if I would get his new generator running. I asked why he was calling me? I thought someone else had installed the genset? The guy who installed it told the manager that he just installed them, he didn't fix them. My price had included repairing any problem with the used equipment. I charged the same amount of money to repair the installation that I would have charged to start with. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

Me and my late friend GB often repaired HVAC systems for people with little money and didn't charge them a lot and when we did it for an old fellow who lived a few blocks from GB, the old man's family called us to repair their equipment and paid us full price because they appreciated the way we helped their family member who had a limited income. ^_^

TDD

[Irreverent Maximus]

Good deal.

When asked how much do I owe you?

Um, what's for lunch?

Some things you do, just because.