Online Business And Integrity
by Zamri Nanyan

I'm in the process of requesting a refund from a person who sold an ebook to me. It has been a few days now and he doesn't seem to bother attending to my emails and phone.

While this is my first time doing such a thing (asking for a refund online), I should have known it earlier that there are a lot of crooks out there who don't even care about you. As long as they get your money, that's good enough for them.

In my mind, I begin to ask myself.

Where is business ethic now?
Where is integrity?
Where is professionalism?

Just because you can hide behind a website, it doesn't mean that you can always get away from the bad ethics you leave behind.

It serves as a warning for me and it also serves as an advice. I hope you learned from my bad experience. Just be careful with whom you are dealing with online.

Sometimes, flashy beautiful website could actually be a trap to many of us. It doesn't matter if you have been running your online business for a month or for a decade. When it happens, it just happens.

To tell you the truth, I don't mind losing my money to this guy. I just don't understand why he was just plain naive not to see what's in front of him.

I mean, look at the consequences of his bad attitude.

Today, I'll file a complain with his merchant account. Depending on how bad his credit history with the merchant, he could lose his account.

Then, he has to find another merchant account to accept payment online. One merchant account is out. Strike One.

If his attitude carries on, he'll make the same mistake again. Then, Strike Two. And so on until he runs out of other reputable, good online merchants.

What happens to the online community?

Bad news travels like the speed of light.

One person tells bad experience about him will get 10 more to tell the others. Sooner, it will be an army of net citizens talking about him.

His reputation?

Let's just say that it doesn't look that good.

Lesson learned.

Be careful with whom you are dealing with online.

Just like offline business, treat your customers like you see them face to face. Do your business with ethics and integrity.

If you said you'd refund unsatisfied purchases without questions asked, keep your words and don't ask the reasons why they want their money back.

Remember that you could lose that single sale but you could lose even more if you don't treat your business right.

Ask questions, if necessary, before you take out your credit card and hand over your money to a stranger, sometimes whom you don't even know his or her face.

Online business is supposed to be profitable and FUN. It shouldn't be a medium to cheat honest people.

Take this lesson of mine to avoid your own mistake in the future and be good to your business.


About the Author
Zamri Nanyan models a low cost, high profit concept
to build successful internet businesses, as mentioned
at www.LowCost-HighProfit.com . He now owns and
operates several money-making websites from the
comfort of his own house. Read more about Zamri Nanyan
at www.ZamriNanyan.com