
     
     
     What If It Breaks?               
                                                                  

                                                  By Gary Bryant

          It just happened to me.  Well not  exactly.  It happened 
     to the guy I sold the thing to.  You know, it broke.  It's one 
     of the biggest fears  people have when the buy something used.  
     It's one of  the biggest fears people have that SELL something 
     used.  

          You've heard all the clich's and axioms: Buyer Beware!  
     You break it, you bought it!  There's lots of sayings and 
     proverbs that warn you about buying  something used. Let's face 
     it though, most of us don't  want to be cruel, most of us don't 
     intend to cheat  anyone. So what would you have done, if you 
     were me?

          I had a fairly new printer for sale. I had owned it about 
     a year, and I had decided to upgrade (or downgrade, depending 
     on what you really know about  computer printers).  I put an ad 
     in the local  classified, the price was nearly half of what I 
     had  paid initially.  The printer had worked flawlessly for  
     the entire time.  I confidently placed an classified ad.
      
          Then all of a sudden, I received  a phone call. The man 
     belonging to the voice on the  other end was interested in 
     the printer.  He came, he  saw it print perfectly, he bought 
     it and took the  printer home that same night.       
     
          The next morning I receive a call from him saying the printer 
     would not  work.  

          "Not printing anything," he said.  
          
          We chatted on  the phone for nearly an hour.  One problem 
     had arose  when he and an overly confident companion had taken  
     out the ink cartridge and had not reseated it properly.  Once 
     this was rectified, The printer test worked fine  but the software 
     would still not execute commands.  To make  a long story short, 
     our buyer had inadvertently  plugged the printer cable into 
     the wrong computer port  and managed to fry the printer.

          The poor guy didn't even have a chance to see the thing 
     work and it  was toast right before his eyes!  Should I take 
     it back  and refund his money? It worked when itleft me! 
      
          To his credit, this gentleman never hinted at returning 
     the printer nor did he insist on a refund.  He is left with 
     repairing it himself at additional cost.  
        
          Every once-in-awhile, we are confronted with ethical
     decisions that are not clearly defined. There are times  
     when there is no virtuous winner, no repentant loser,  
     just an awkward situation.  What would you have done, 
     if you were me? 


