Lies!

Pic from WWW

Yesterday Stephen and I were out scouting for a fan. Not for us but for someone else so we had to look for certain features that wouldn't be an encumbrance at all. 

Anyway, we settled for a table fan and the shop assistant saw us looking at the one on display.  He told us that it was easy to assemble and added that there was no screw involved so fixing it and using it was easy. I told him it wasn't for us and he said that anybody can dismantle and assemble it for easy cleaning.  

We decided to get that fan.  We told him to fix it for us and test it before we buy it.  Happily he agreed and then came the moment of truth!

We noticed a screw and he said, "Oh that's just to hold the two pieces together".  

So while he struggled to make it look effortless, he showed us just how difficult it would be for someone with less aptitude to manage the cleaning whenever necessary.  

When he began to use the screw to hold the front and back cover of the fan, we asked him about the screw again.  So from "no screw" it became "it's just one screw".  

I don't think he understood that we wanted a fan with just the clips holding the covers together.   

In the end, the moral of the story is that, if you want to sell a product, you have to be honest from the beginning.  Once your customer catches you in a lie, the trust is gone completely.  

We didn't buy that fan but we found what we wanted by going to another store.  

Lies take care of the present but not the future (I read this somewhere).