Terry Mitchell

Every Business Should Use this Code of Ethics



Posted: Monday, January 07, 2008

by
http://commenterry.blogs.com

I wish every business selling goods and/or services in this country would adopt and adhere to the following code of ethics that I am proposing.

As a legitimate business operating in the United States of America, we shall:

(1) Never use fractions of a penny in any price.

(2) Never use the numeral 9 in any position to the right of the hundreds digit in any price.

(3) Never use phrases like "starting at," "up to," "as much as," "less than," or "as low as" in any advertisement.

(4) Assure that all letters and numerals appearing within a written advertisement are of uniform size.

(5) Assure that all words spoken in a radio or TV advertisement are annunciated at a uniform speed and tone.

(6) Always clearly state the true regular price of an item that is on sale, along with the exact dates of when the sale begins and ends.

(7) Never advertise items for which quantities are extremely limited.

(8) Never make ridiculous or difficult-to-keep promises.

(9) Always require that customers take some kind a proactive step to make a trial subscription become permanent (rather having it become permanent by default).

(10) Always clearly state when introductory offers are to expire and what the regular rates/prices will be when they do.

(11) Never display anything in a picture accompanying an ad unless it is included for the advertised price.

(12) Never use disclaimers which negate or otherwise place undue limits on claims made in our ads.

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports. Terry is also the owner and operator of a website that is dedicated to allowing U.S. citizens to find all types of insurance at reasonable prices.  
 
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Jim
from Fort Pierce, FL 4 years ago.
I have been in boat sales for 21 years and I wish consumers would stop lying about their trade in condition and or value. Stop writing bad checks and using credit cards to buy things they shouldn't and while I'm at it, consumers should buy from the local businesses that pay tax locally and employ their friends and neighbors not drive 200 miles to save $150.00 and then want their local dealer to fix all the problems with their new boat under warranty.... aaah to dream.
» left by 4 years ago.
Jim, you're right. That ethics thing works both ways.
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