Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Present partial information only

Monday, August 11, 2008

Present partial information only

I met a property agent. He was taught to adopt the following approach:

> present the postive aspects of the property to be sold
> tell the negative aspects, only if the buyer ask about them

If the buyer does not ask, then the negative aspect is not disclosed. This is what "professional ethics" is being taught. I consider this approach to be dishonest.

4 comments:

David said...: A buyer can use a checklist for the negative aspects but problem is the agent may also lie even when asked, unless buyer take it upon himself to verify the answer.
Sometimes due to knowledge or only time will tell, it may be difficult to verify. And to seek remedy the only course of action is to sue, which is a costly affair here. So just pray that you don't face such situations.; August 11, 2008 8:44 AM
zhummmeng said...: Selling is about manipulating lies and truths. It begins with half truth and complemented by lies or lies only with truth suppressed.
The irony is lies sell and truth turns off customers.Customers like to hear lies because lies are therapeutic and can give them a false sense of security.
Life Insurance is the most suitable
candidate for this method of selling. Because it is an intangible product the efficacy cannot be seen, touched or tested
and sale is based entirely on the words of the salesmen. This is where everything goes wrong.
People joined the insurance industry to MAKE MONEY, by design or accident. Which ever is the reason, it is NEVER to help the customers but to sell to make easy money.In every selling situation the objective is driven this money or commission. No matter what or it doesn't matter what it takes, by hook and crook, something has to be sold. There is all in the mind of insurance salesmen and women...The selling process is not about identifying solutions to customers' needs but the insurance salesman's needs.That is why ONLY whore life and endowment products are sold and favourite with insurance salesmen because the products give them high commissions.They don't sell terms. Because of this, they have to cook up, concoct, fabricate reasons and lie to convince the customers and to help the customers to justify buying the products and to feel good.Unknown to the customers they are labouring under a false sense of security.(reason why agents like to compare their miserable return to bank rate to help customers feel good and justifiable). This is selling and the greatest salesmen and women are all great liars and cheats especially those who 'achieved' the mdrt, tot or cot. They have cheated and ruined the most number of people and NOT helped the most number of people because in all likelihood they have sold whorelife and endowment to qualify for the awards. These are the despicable people and the public must know this truth about them and the awards.; August 11, 2008 9:50 AM
Raymond T said...: It is the "Caveat Emptor" approach

i.e. The axiom or principle in commerce that the buyer alone is responsible for assessing the quality of a purchase before buying.

It is a warning that notifies a buyer that the property he is buying are " as is," or subject to all defects.

Under the doctrine of caveat emptor, the buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for ordinary purposes.

The only exception was if the seller actively concealed latent defects.; August 11, 2008 9:42 PM
zhummmeng said...: In life insurance the consumers are not able or trained to check or spot the defects of the products. The "defects" are hidden in thick layers and layers of legal and technical jargons . The agents are supposed to be trained and bound by law to disclose and to explain and more importantly to warn the consumers of the defects and the downsides of the products.
But alas, the insurance agents fail and willfully suppress the defects.
Caveat Emptor is not only unfair to the consumers but all the time abused and exploited by unethical and unscrupulous insurance salesmen and women because of greed.
The cash back anticipated endowment products are examples.Deliberately designed to confuse and hide the truth and to misrepresent, companies use salesmen highly
trained in the art of lying and highly incentivised in commissions and incentive trips to dump these products on the unwary, naive and gullible and clueless consumers.
Caveat Emptor is giving an unlimited license to insurance salesmen to rob, cheat and steal from consumers legally. MAS must criminalize it and ban it for the life insurance and financial industry.MAS should or must adopt the pharmaceutical industry practice to impose the onus of disclosure on the sellers or manufacturers. They are to disclose everything, good or bad and sound the warning of the side effects.
The financial industry badly needs a stringent law like this to ensure the long term financial health of the consumers..; August 12, 2008 12:18 AM