Hardwareandtools.com
HardwareandTools.com is one of the largest or is the Internet’s largest hardware store with over 100,000 products shipped to you from Winchester, Virginia distribution center offering 60,000+ Rapid Ship items ship within 1 to 3 business days. Wow that’s impressive, but don’t get your robe and slippers on and flag down the UPS guy just yet. I received an email from a disgruntled friend who purchased from their website. He received a different product than what was displayed in the picture and title of their product’s page, then was rudely accused of ordering the wrong product, because he didn’t read the fine print.
This e-commerce giant uses inaccurate titles, descriptions, and imagery to promote and sell their products. Essentially, this is false advertising.
http://definitions.uslegal.com/f/false-advertising/
Is this what they teach packaging design students at the Fashion Institute of Technology?? For example, if you visit their website at hardwareandtools.com and browse their inventory and/or use their search feature to find let’s say:
a 2 foot 2 lamp fluorescent light fixture you will find a product page with a picture of a 2 lamp 2 foot light fixture, a title that indicates a 2 foot light fixture, but doesn’t say 2 lamp, and a description in smaller font and not in bold that it is a one lamp 2 foot fixture.
I investigated this company further to find that the products on their website are from thousands of different companies and each company offers their product through hardwareandtools.com with free reign to use any imagery, titles, and descriptions accurate or not. The Hardware and Tools Corp. does not ensure accurate descriptions, titles or imagery for any of their products. You will find this statement at the bottom of their page:
“HardwareAndTools.com is not responsible for typographical or photographical errors.”
So where is the accountability from online retailers? Is there such a thing as ethical commerce when it’s a step removed by the internet?
e-Ethics in e-Commerce by Frederick Townes
“Not to get all philosophical on you, but ethics are our concepts of right and wrong. Ethics are the glue that holds our society together. They’re the foundation of our laws, regulations, rules, traditions, manners, conventions and customs. Without ethics, and people’s willingness to live by those ethics, there’s chaos and anarchy.
There’s nothing like buying something from the local merchants in town. You know them, you trust them, they know you and you swap cards during the holidays. These are relationships built on trust.
Not so in the on-line world of commerce. You’re a home page. Your buyers are numbers and e-mail addresses. You don’t know them; they don’t know you. However, you can and should still conduct business like a local merchant.
- Customers will come back, generating repeat sales.
- Satisfied buyers will tell their friends. (How do you think Amazon became so big?)
- You’ll demonstrate your commitment to being a good, on-line citizen.
- You’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror each morning.
Welcome to the world of on-line commerce, where rules are vague, enforcement is virtually non-existent and “the skies are not cloudy all day.”
-Frederick Townes
E-Commerce – Legal and Ethical Issues
On the other hand, “ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with what is considered to be right and wrong” (Turban et al. 2002, p.644). However, what is unethical is not necessarily illegal unless it overlaps with activities that are also illegal. Society will agree on what is considered right and wrong.
To get back to the 2 foot 2 lamp light fixture, if you walked into your local hardware store and browsed their inventory to find:
-a box with a 2 foot 2 lamp fluorescent light fixture on the box
-a title indicating a 2 foot fluorescent light fixture, but not 2 lamps specifically in the title text
-and the description somewhere on the box in smaller font indicating it is only a “1″ one lamp fixture
-you purchased it because you didn’t read the description and trusted the package picture and returned home surprised by what was inside
What would your local hardware store owner do? Well I went to my local hardware store and asked the owner that I know personally, so I told him to give it to me straight. He said he would apologize and be infuriated that a company he purchased from used inaccurate and contradictory titles, pictures, and descriptions on their product boxes.
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