Question

List about 3 (three) unethical behaviors and 2 (two) illegal behaviors that would result in damage to the reputation of a salesperson and share your personal experience where you observed a salesperson engage in an unethical behavior.

Answer 1

Some of the unethical behaviors of a salesperson are

1. Misrepresenting the benefits of a product - this is unethical since a salesperson is lying about the product.
2. Keeping the customers uninformed about the price - When customers are not informed of the promotion or prices just to ensure an accomplishment in the sales target, it is unethical as the salesperson is not honest with the customer.
3. Confirming sales before a trial period: It is unethical for a customer to be part of a sales deal before trying the product.

Illegal behavior of a salesperson:

• Misrepresentation of warranty: There are laws that prohibit the manufacturers or the company to lie about the warranty of the product. This can lead to serious legal issues based on the statutory laws for businesses and merchants.
• Selling a defective item knowing it is defective: The uniform commercial code has laws about the sale of defective goods which make the seller liable for such activities. Hence, when a salesperson sells a defective good with the knowledge of the defect, it is illegal.

Personal experience of witnessing an illegal or unethical salesperson:

One incident where I noticed a salesperson being unethical is when I went to purchase a laptop. The salesperson in an attempt to close the deal to achieve a sales target did not provide a hard copy of the warranty instead asked e to take a picture of the warranty. A few months later when there was a problem with the laptop and it needed service, the company claimed that a picture was not enough to claim the warranty of the product. This was an unethical behavior since the salesperson was fully aware that there would be such problems and still only cared about the sale.