Here in Australia, I purchased on-line 2 dozen bottles of a nice red wine @$14.50/bottle on a particular Monday. Tuesday, they turn up and I opened the boxes and they had sent me 2 dozen bottles of the same brand but of a considerably dearer variety @$38.50/bottle!!! The difference being almost $600.00!! Being an honest person I decided to call them up an tell them of their error. The young girl on the phone thanked me and said that they would pick up the wrong wine and send me the correct stuff.
Just about everyone I had told this to at the actual time of receiving the wine, just said, "You should keep it" and "It's not worth trying to send back as you won't get thanked" and "They are a large company who can afford it" etc.
The next day, Wednesday, the courier company who delivers the wines on their behalf turns up to pick up the wrong wine. I ask, "Where is my replacement wine?", to which the driver told me, "He only picks up, he does not deliver"!! Hmmm.Wow, that was a quick pick up!
By Saturday (!!!), I still had not received my replacement wine!! I ring the company up and ask where my wine is and even the girl in the order department said, "Yes, I heard about this mix up about the wrong wine"!! So, they knew it was a big deal. She said that my replacement wine would be out to me by Tuesday, this is over a week after I had ordered the original wine!! It seemed they were quick to pick up the wrong wine but not so quick to send out the replacement! Hell, I could have been dying of thirst for all they knew!
I also said to the girl that I hope that I was going to be recognised for my honesty as there was almost a $600 difference and that I could have quite easily have kept the wine and they'd be none the wiser. She assured me that they would "look after me". To be quite honest, I didn't really want a "freeby" and would have been more than happy with just a note from management saying "Thank you for your honesty". However, I did not say to them what I expected their thank you should be as I wanted to leave that up to them.
Anyway, Tuesday rolls up and sure enough the wine arrives. I look inside the boxes and it was correct, but there was no thank you note from the Managing Director or General Manager, nothing, nada, zilch!!!
I waited until the Friday and to see if something else would turn up, but still nothing. So, I ring the complaints department and get a young girl from Complaints. I told her the whole story and she said that someone would ring me by next Tuesday.
Tuesday rolls around and I get the "Complaints Manager", you know, the same type of manager that you see at McDonalds, the 16 year old straight out of highschool, or maybe still in highschool. She told me that she was "Authorized to give me a $20 gift voucher for being honest". Not a "Thank you ever so much, sir, for being so honest", just that she was "authorized" to give me this voucher. I felt like saying, "Stick it up your ****".
It's not the voucher or the money, it is the priciple of the thing. I don't need a freeby, I just wanted the recognition for being honest. My point is, you either go the whole hog and give something which is commensurate with the value of the returned goods, or you do some other similar gesture with a written note at least. A $20 gift voucher is neither and more of a kick in the teeth.
I run a company, and if this had happened in my company, I would have been in the car and out to my customer the same day with the correct wine and I would have given the customer at least 6 of the more expensive wines, or something of equal value, that were wrongly delivered as a reward for honesty.
The whole ordeal has not made me feel that being honest in this day and age is something that is valued by anyone.
