Ethical quandry

[Keith A. McGavern]

>...One incident comes to mind where a piano teacher was brought to
>the showroom to assist her student in the selection.   After the piano was
>selected by the student and the teacher tried it, she brought the dealer
>aside and said: "If you give me an artist's bench, I'll approve the sale".
>Needless to say, the dealer was floored. But not wanting a $300.00 bench
>to hold up a $13,000.00 sale, he agreed.  So here she was being paid by
>her student and using extortion on the dealer...
>
>Jon Page
>Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)

Jon, List,

Thank you for this example.

This offers me an opportunity to mention something that started stirring in
my mind since receiving some of the posts on this thread.  This may be out
of our bounds to try and determine, but I would like to receive others
thoughts to help stimulate me to arrive at some solid footing, that is, if
I can present myself clearly enough.

This teacher you described is providing a service to the student and to the
dealer and to herself. (though I'm not necessarily sanctioning the method
or approach you described)  My question: Is it really unethical to receive
payment on the same deal from different sources, or is it only unethical in
the manner or approach in which a person arrives at receiving payment from
different sources?

Sincerely,

Keith A. McGavern
kam544@ionet.net
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
Oklahoma Baptist University
Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA