Norwich bulletin., 1919-07-18
.souAREs EspEALING BRINGS MOST SATISFACTION

H tWritten Specially For The Bulletin
 A neighbor told me-. last. evening, o1 Fl his. recent sexperierce in attempting to |I get some, ssorefy needed goods from 3 H prom inent New r ork city house. The H goods ordered were all the staples ad- II vertised by that house. They, included I four items. The money. was sent for I them, last March. Sometime in April Lone of the four items was forwarded Il by mail. The others did not arrive l The house was written to. but no 1 answer returned. It was written to- l again and again. Yesterday. almost I four months after the money had been I sent for the. goods. the balance due i for the three items missing was re- ] turned. Without a word of explan- ation or apology or regret.
 r I've, got through with that house, g 1 said my. neighbor. Their advertise ] ments promised. that they had the l goods and would send them same day 1 the order was received. They've kept i my money, four months have. cost me ] the time. and postage of six letters | to get it back; and now throw it at me las I'd throw bone to a dog to stop his syeiping."
 !; "It's a durned poor way. for a firm 1 which wants to do business to act he added It's what I. call poor business policy.". s....... We'll, after he'd sonezi got thinking | about the question of .business rpo1i- fcy- and its relations with the so called <. business men" of New York city AIsos Of my own experiences wffh some of them. cs-',.- As nearly as can count them up from memory. T have, in theelast twen- ty- years, attempted to purchase goods from fifteen New ' ork city houses which make a speciality of ca tering to country trade by mail. Or, at least, which advertise that they
 1 l-1f Tn-ir1 Ia V nd
 heres the = Illustrating fact which
 has led me to give up aIls further at
 tempts to do bus in ess' with them:
 Not a single one of those fifteen
 houses ever. filled an order for me
 promptly. fully, and correctly. Not
 one. ,.e a <
 Perhaps a. couple were filled fully;
 but neither one was filled accurately
 or promptly gsngafi1l l1gs l ber. P. only one
 contained only about half the goods
 ordered, with =-tcredit slips returned
 in place of the money I had sent for
 the missing items Here is sample
 ilustrations of an extreme case, One big house sent out an appeal to those
 desiring Christmas supplies to send in
 their orders early, fin order to in
 sure prompt attention and complete
 filling. I received this. appeal about
 the first of November. The very next
 day after receiving it I sent that house
 an order. for some Christmas goods.
 Some were for. domestic. use:s some for e.hristn1s.s l g'giftsi- and all were specific ally holiday goods 5 whose only value lay in their holiday use
 When the .rriddfe. of December had arrived without, the goods ordered, began to write. and then to telegrap ph
 No attention whatever was paid to any. of these calls, till r sent a per brought a formal reply saving that the goods had been shipped early in No vernber. Whereupon I started rail- road tracers after them without re- suit till the. week after Ncw Years. ylaenf>they drifted in.
 They. had been ordered sent by ex- press and mail. They came by freight They had been ordered sent to one ad- dress; they came to another. The shipment was about one-quarter short of my list and several undesirable substitutes had been sent in place of | the goods ordered. Two of the pack i ages found in the box were marked l outside as if they contained the things l had sent sent for, but actually they l were cheap and utterly worthless imi- | tations. And an examination of the l freight bil showed that. the box had | been received by the railroad at New | ' ork for shipment several days after l instead of Early in No l vernbe
 It cost me between eight and ten l per cent. of the total bill for postage l dilO lSleSIdpa LOilS. etc., 10 get even | a. patria1 correction of the blunders | made. And the adjustment was then offered grudgingly and as if were be- | ing done .sa favor in having my rights l 
 ; Not all. my Gotham experiences have been so completely intoIerable as this. But all have shared more or | less with it. Exasperatipg sslown ess of service; callous disregard of promises and guarantees; utter indifference to | 5he customer s. interests; one. or more of these have always been present.
 And yet the houses which treat their customers that way seem to be mak- ng money. That's where the ."sticker' ,omes in Isn't it true any more that orobity and fair dealing are. step ping stones to mercantile success? sn't it true any. more that honesty. is he. best policy ?'- Is my neighbor nent as he received. is poor busi- less?'' If it. is poor business why 10 the firms guilty of, it prosper, ss-.. s4,s..,' 't...-s
 Say, when Istry, to9think. this thing ,ut, I find myself losing my grpi on oTne things which used to be reck- med fixed anchorages of business mo alsi Where are we at anyway? Nhithers are we tending? What are veto tie up to?f -..>..aa 4s-5.e New York city is considered the .usinesS@ heart of the country. Ifs methods are naturally con idered' s.fully up-to-date and wor-
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