Saying "no" to a client

From Pursuit Magazine

There is an excellent post over at Pursuit Magazine about how sometimes saying no to a potential client is what an ethical PI should do.

There's even a nifty flow chart (see left).

Naturally, this prompted me to create my own flow chart detailing the realities of the initial potential client meeting.

Don't Ask

Well, Dear Reader, just when I thought things couldn't get much worse, they took a turn for the predictable.

Have I mentioned how much I hate tyre-kickers and timewasters?

I think I might have. Once or twice.

Enter Hazel, not her real name. Actually I have no idea what her name is at the moment, it has changed twice already in our communications.

Hazel is trying to pump me for advice and information under the guise of being a 'potential client'. Except that I know there will never be any work and, more importantly, dollars coming my way from the elusive and mysterious Hazel.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe"

Well, be that as it may Roy Batty, there are a number of things I have yet to see while out on a long and lonely night of surveillance.

For the most part, it would seem that non-PIs out there think surveillance is all like this (a scene from Horrible Bosses):

Seriously?

It's more like this:

An offer I can't refuse...?

I've recently had an enquiry that starts out innocently enough: locate the current whereabouts of a woman who is believed to have entered the country with her child, in contravention of a Court Order from her country of origin in favour of her ex-husband's custody of the child.

I say "starts out innocently enough" because I was contacted by a Russian Tractor Factory on behalf of the father as he is a major client of theirs.

Call me uncharitable, but while this Tractor Factory is most likely entirely legitimate and above-board, the very first thing that comes to mind is the Rossiyskaya Mafiya (Рoссийская мафия).

Harsh!

#ethicalpi?

If you have been following the current News of the World saga, you may have heard about Jonathon Rees, PI extraordinaire. 

If you haven't, and even if you have, you really should read this article on Rees published in the Guardian.

I stand amazed at his impressive accomplishments -

Billing woes

I have an issue that I've been thinking about for a while now but I'm no closer to a solution.

Sometimes, relatively frequently even, I do myself out of money by completing cases in a too timely and efficient manner.

Is that even possible, you ask?

Yes. It is.

The use of Human Intelligence Sources

Just like Mulder's "Deep Throat", I too have my inside sources that provide me with much-needed inside information at times. Information that technically may be illegal to access without proper authority.

Authority that, naturally, I lack.

Now, if it's perfectly legal acceptable for states to cultivate covert HUMINT sources, really, how can I be punished for doing likewise, albeit in a private capacity?

The height of hypocrisy, anyone?

Putting a dollar value on violence

I have a bit of a dilemma, Dear Reader. I have been contacted by a Reputable Businessman who has been unfairly treated by another gentleman and seeks (in)appropriate recompense.

The other party is a dubious character of some ill-repute around this city, a shady businessman known as Marky Sales (not his real name).

Now the Aggrieved Party and Marky Sales had a verbal agreement about the provision of some goods and services which, in essence, were to be paid in full upon completion of said services.

The Aggrieved Party did not have a sales contract or written agreement with Mr Sales, because Marky gave his word. I know you are asking what could possibly go wrong with this gentlemanly arrangement...?

The difference between Unethical and Illegal

From time to time we may be asked to undertake a job that does not sit comfortably in a black and white worldview. Some jobs are more suited to a particular shade of grey - where the law can be bent to suit a particular purpose. Bent, certainly, but not broken.

I guess you might label these types of jobs unethical.

Then there are the types of cases where action very clearly sits on the other side of conventional legality. There is no convenient blurring of the edges of the law here, we are asked to do the illegal.

What's the difference?

Price, mostly.