Does a handshake count for nothing these days?

[SilliamWhale]

I think the point is, it's a done deal if that's what the parties truly intended. There are moral and legal obligations.

But all the aggrieved party can sue for in a court of law are his losses. If he won his case, the court would only award his actual costs, plus very rarely punitive damages.

So what did that broken word, given with a hand shake, actually cost? (Edited to say, that's probably loss of reputation which is hard to replace with money!).

Im being practical about it though.

 

[SilliamWhale]

This is what's wrong with the country

Slight exaggeration

 

[Mursal]

All our funerals now feature handshaking with the relatives. Not sure what to make of sometimes hundreds of people queuing to shake the hand of someone they hardly know.

But in business, worthless.

 

[Dry Rot]

All our funerals now feature handshaking with the relatives. Not sure what to make of sometimes hundreds of people queuing to shake the hand of someone they hardly know.

But in business, worthless.

The Chinese have a saying I'm rather fond of. "Cheat me once, shame on you. Cheat me twice, shame on ME!".

Reputation is something that's hard to make but easy to lose. I think farmers, especially livestock farmers, have an advantage because we spend so much time reading body language it becomes second nature. So much so I'm hopeless at remembering names and actually listening to the words!

I went to a funeral like that in the west of Ireland. The old man had fallen asleep in his arm chair in the sitting room and not woken up which the daughter was quite contented with. But after shaking hands with a couple of hundred visitors she was a nervous wreck.

 

[roscoe erf]

To cut a long story short, bought a new machine from an area rep in the company of the local sales man and shook on it. Few weeks later was contacted to say dealer had over sold there allocated number of machines and that deal is off. I still take a man at his word but has the days of this gone?

happens a lot these days some peoples word isn't worth sh!t