Buying a car should be an exciting experience as new cars even smell good. Yet, as I made the single largest purchase of my life (other than my house) last week, the general manager of that company made it very clear that I was a probable thief, a possible liar and an inordinate waste of his time. Clearly, I didn't smell as good as the car!

Although this man was a foreigner, he seemed to have mastered what has become the Jamaican mantra for conducting business: everyone is a criminal until proven otherwise.

Profit from bad debt

Yet this company, as others, has taken their experience with bad debt and turned it into profit. Their policy was to hold my United States dollar cheque for 30 working days, and this GM was doing his very best to enforce it. The cheque cleared in five days and when I pointed this out to the GM, he made me prove it.

To cut a long story short, when I pointed out that I had been promised the car on a certain date, his dry response was, "There are always several sides to a story."

And when I asked that he confirm that I had in fact been given this assurance, he simply informed me that he was not going to spend his entire day on my problem.

Yet, I don't really think that this man really thought I was a liar or a thief. I think he was more trying to profit further from the transaction; and rinsing my money for a further 25 working days was going to look good on what I am sure is a very healthy balance sheet. Instead, I spent the entire day on my 'problem' and did in fact get the car.

Difficult place to do business

Banks and businesses give the defensible argument that fraud and default are very high in this country so they implement procedures to protect themselves from this damage. Yet, in truth, many of these procedures have long left the realm of protection and are bathing in the waters of profit. The result is that Jamaica is becoming a difficult (and at times unpleasant) place to do business for all.

There is no distinction between those who pay their bills and those who do not. In fact, those who do not pay bills manage to negotiate with the debt collectors and in some cases get off with dramatic reductions on the amount owed. Meanwhile, businesses put up their margins or rates to protect their bottom line and the good ends up suffering for the bad.

ASSIGN CREDIT RATINGS

Not only do businesses assume their customers are dishonest, they also assume their staff are. They spend a great deal of time and energy that could go into customer service and product development on controlling theft.

They eventually factor it in as a cost and try to keep wages as low as possible to compensate. Again, the staff member who never steals will be paid at this same rate, and also has to work each day under this oppressive shadow of suspicion.

Other countries have successfully dealt with this matter with credit ratings, and perhaps the time has come for Jamaica to adopt this. Your treatment, rates and conditions would depend on your record, not on the wrongdoings of others.

Likewise, a young man recently suggested to me that we need an employee database/rating on which you could track potential staff. He felt the incentive to remain in good standing on this list alone would encourage staff to stay on the straight and narrow.

Stop punishing citizens

Certainly, the time has come for Jamaica to stop punishing those average-honest citizens for the actions of a few.

Furthermore, the time has come for businesses to stop profiting from this unfortunate position we are in as a nation. And certainly if they are going to fleece us, the least they could do is leave out the insults and throw in a smile!