Is honesty not longer an expectation?

A while back I sought to order a custom made product.  The company assured me a delivery date, but I checked up on them. I found out  that their normal delivery was 3x what they had advertised.  When I confronted them, they ignored their quote and laid the blame on me. It seems that if I expected a quality product, then I could also expect their delivery estimate to be grossly off.

I went to another company. Their delivery estimates appeared to check out.  I ordered. The product was produced at least 6 months late. When I got the notification it was ready to ship, I drove to NY to pick it up.   When I got there the paint was barely dry. Yes, lots of off gassing. And, no aplolgy…just business as usual.

The product works fine, but I am amazed at the absence of anything that remotely resembles honesty.

It is amazing that common curtesy sometimes gets lost in business. It is even more amazing when it happens in a customer facing instance.

For example, my job requires certain specialty made components to manufacture certain products. Our purchasing team will reach out with an order, the order will get acknowledged, and then it is dead silent on when we will receive it. The standard turn-around usually is two weeks but if you don't check in with them they might not have it shipped out because of 'reasons'. We had one time where a temperature sensitive item arrived and was wildly out of standards. It turns out the company truck broke down for a day and a new truck delivered it. The only reason we knew is because the driver mentioned it.

It is frustrating, but I tell myself I can only control what I can control. The rest is fate

If they are selling on a platform like Etsy, the push is to promise short delivery times.  (to the point where etsy even shortens my promised delivery times if I'm not paying attention).  

These days, platforms and gurus teach us that it's better to over-promise and never apologize.  That way we get the sale and who cares about repeat customers when there are so many people on this planet?    

Whereas, when I learned selling, the standard was to underpromise and over-deliver.  Promise one-month delivery and if it's going to take about 10 business days, is about right.  

Hi r,

Indeed, the Big City hospital I go to is great at underestimating their performance.  Not by too much, but it reduces frustration and lightens my mood.  I like the idea of getting in to an appointment ahead of time…having results better than predicted, etc.  yes, I know it is a game, but at leAst the game leaves me feeling better.

r ranson wrote:These days, platforms and gurus teach us that it's better to over-promise and never apologize.  That way we get the sale and who cares about repeat customers when there are so many people on this planet?    

Well they're not gurus that I would care to take advice from! Certainly in my business, there isn't an infinite number of customers! Apart from the fact that we still have the remnants of a closely related community (quite a few cousins and even on Skye as a whole, you usually know someone who knows someone) I wouldn't want to make anyone unhappy, because that would make me unhappy. What happened to the satisfaction of a job well done? Obviously you have to make money, but a sale is a contract and you need a level of trust for it to work.
A good tradesman here never needs to advertise, you turn up when you say, do a good job and don't charge too much, and word gets around.