TONYE COLE: DOES INTEGRITY HAVE A FACE?

The journey home was long and exhausting. A warm meal and a good nights rest were utmost on my mind as I walked through the front door, glad to be home once again. My heart sank as I entered the kitchen to find evidence that I hadn’t been expected home that day for nothing was available, ready to eat and we were all too tired to even attempt cooking. Eating out was an option but the effort to leave home was too much a chore so home delivery became the choice of the moment. A quick call to Domino’s Pizza seemed to resolve the conundrum and I lay back on the living room settee awaiting my soon coming meal.

The door bell rang and I opened it to find a smartly dressed delivery man with a large warm box presenting me with my order with a smile but everything suddenly went wrong when on opening the box it was evident that what I got wasn’t what I ordered. Quick as a flash, the young man apologizes and informs me that the company policy requires them to replace the order immediately then goes ahead to further say they would also have to leave the wrongly delivered order with the customer. Impressed I went in and handed the box of fresh pizza to a visiting couple to enjoy. They had hardly settled into the meal when the door bell rang again and the same delivery man informs me that his supervisor instructed him to bring back the pizza or the money. With slices of pizza already downed, I paid but settled in my heart that the company was one where double speak rules and integrity was lacking.

The Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth and all that is within it, forbade us to swear either by heaven or by earth or anything within them but rather urged us to keep our yea yea and our nay nay. It was His desire at creation that man would live together in spirit and in truth until deception and lying found its way into the hearts of men. So it was with genuine surprise that I received a call the next day from the manager of the Domino outlet apologizing for how the episode was handled. She insisted on sending a fresh order to me in a show of goodwill and an expression of service to their customers. As the new order was being delivered, my sense of inner balance was restored again for in a country were integrity is a scarce resource, I had pleasantly discovered it had a face.

Is your word your bond?