Today I have been reminded about the importance of Honesty and Transparency when dealing with people. If I ask a question from someone who is in a service industry, what I hope for is an honest and transparent answer. What you often get is a baffling set of half-truths and utter bullshit.
I have spoken about transparency before and it even forms part of the Code of Ethics that I proposed.
I was trying to help a friend with a hosting issue. The company I dealt with showed me just how bad a lack of transparency can be. They were very nice and polite, but they we unable to provide any help. Instead of just being honest about it, they sent me on a wild goose chase. They gave be a website to look at, then a phone number, then another website with another phone number. The final phone number put me back through to the exact same department (possibly even the same person) I had been dealing with a couple of hours previously. Even then they tried to give me more hoops to jump through. In the end, I had to give up, it just wasn’t worth being given so many half truths – essentially being lied to.