4 ms·

Agree. To consume a local store's customer service resources with every intention "not" to purchase a product there is immoral.

plmokjn 16y ago
Bestbuy and customer service aren't normally found in the same sentence
_delirium 16y ago
The asymmetry of the extra-legal moral obligations is somewhat odd to me, though. I can accept that extra-legal moral obligations exist, but why not on all sides? When we discuss things on the corporate side, most people seem to be of the opinion that the law is all that matters: if a retailer can find a tax loophole that lets them book all their profits in Bermuda, even though they actually did business in and used the resources of the United States, then well, good for them. But if a person dares waste the retailer's time, even though what the person is doing is every bit as legal as those tax games, suddenly that's a moral issue we should worry about. If a company goes out of its way to uphold ethical standards above and beyond what the law requires, I do try to do the same when dealing with them. But for companies that only go by the letter of the law and play hardball, I don't feel I have any obligation beyond the letter of the law either.
- gjm11 16y ago
  I quite frequently hear or read complaints about companies' ethics -- exploitation of tax loopholes, spreading disinformation about global warming, getting their press releases to appear almost verbatim as newspaper articles, etc., etc., etc. Perhaps there's a correlation with politics? Most of the politically-charged stuff I read has a leftward rather than a rightward skew, and generally lefties are more concerned about the ethical behaviour of businesses and righties about the ethical behaviour of individuals. (Yes, I know that's a sweeping generalization. And is it just me, or is "lefties" quite a commonplace term and "righties" really weird?) Note: Please let's not turn this into a discussion of any of the particular ethical transgressions I mentioned; the point isn't whether, e.g., oil companies are really spreading disinformation about global warming, nor whether that's a bad thing, but whether they're commonly accused of doing so by people who think it is a bad thing. My experience is that they are.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
jasonlotito 16y ago
> To consume a local store's customer service resources with every intention "not" to purchase a product there is immoral. I'd question why it's okay to consume a non-local store's resources? I'd also question the concept that people go into local stores with every intention not to purchase. People go into the store with every intention to compare products and price, but that doesn't mean the local stores loses because of the person's intention.

plmokjn 16y ago

Bestbuy and customer service aren't normally found in the same sentence

_delirium 16y ago

The asymmetry of the extra-legal moral obligations is somewhat odd to me, though. I can accept that extra-legal moral obligations exist, but why not on all sides? When we discuss things on the corporate side, most people seem to be of the opinion that the law is all that matters: if a retailer can find a tax loophole that lets them book all their profits in Bermuda, even though they actually did business in and used the resources of the United States, then well, good for them. But if a person dares waste the retailer's time, even though what the person is doing is every bit as legal as those tax games, suddenly that's a moral issue we should worry about. If a company goes out of its way to uphold ethical standards above and beyond what the law requires, I do try to do the same when dealing with them. But for companies that only go by the letter of the law and play hardball, I don't feel I have any obligation beyond the letter of the law either.

gjm11 16y ago
I quite frequently hear or read complaints about companies' ethics -- exploitation of tax loopholes, spreading disinformation about global warming, getting their press releases to appear almost verbatim as newspaper articles, etc., etc., etc. Perhaps there's a correlation with politics? Most of the politically-charged stuff I read has a leftward rather than a rightward skew, and generally lefties are more concerned about the ethical behaviour of businesses and righties about the ethical behaviour of individuals. (Yes, I know that's a sweeping generalization. And is it just me, or is "lefties" quite a commonplace term and "righties" really weird?) Note: Please let's not turn this into a discussion of any of the particular ethical transgressions I mentioned; the point isn't whether, e.g., oil companies are really spreading disinformation about global warming, nor whether that's a bad thing, but whether they're commonly accused of doing so by people who think it is a bad thing. My experience is that they are.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

jasonlotito 16y ago

> To consume a local store's customer service resources with every intention "not" to purchase a product there is immoral. I'd question why it's okay to consume a non-local store's resources? I'd also question the concept that people go into local stores with every intention not to purchase. People go into the store with every intention to compare products and price, but that doesn't mean the local stores loses because of the person's intention.