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Author: Subject: Presents from suppliers
Fred W B

posted on 5/12/08 at 11:29 AM Reply With Quote
Presents from suppliers

This time of year, it used to be traditional for Suppliers or Contactors to a company to pitch up with gifts for the buyer or manager/s they work with.

In today’s PC world is there a fine line between accepting a “token of appreciation” or taking a bribe? Our company sets a maximum monetary value that is acceptable, that being about enough for say a single bottle of good wine, which seems fair to me.

What do other companies do, or is this not an issue in your company?

Cheers

Fred W B

[Edited on 5/12/08 by Fred W B]





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liam.mccaffrey

posted on 5/12/08 at 11:44 AM Reply With Quote
I work for a company with branches both in the uk and us. I have spent time in both branches and there are major differences

Freebies abound in the us, hunting weekends, expensive embroidered workwear, hats, cups, stationary Lots of free lunches, discount coupons for car services, engraved leathermans and maglites


in the uk, I got a ticket to see a 6 nations game last year

It seems to be a much bigger deal in the states

[Edited on 5/12/08 by liam.mccaffrey]





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balidey

posted on 5/12/08 at 11:52 AM Reply With Quote
In my company it used to be the norm for Directors only to get all the mountains of free stuff. A few years ago we decided to put all the items into a raffle, every employee (in work on last day before x-mas) had a draw. Usually every person gets one thing, sometimes two.
We used to split the big Fortnum and Mason hampers down to make then go further. Usually its bottles of wine, whiskey, chocolates, some clothes with suppliers names on.

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jabbahutt

posted on 5/12/08 at 11:52 AM Reply With Quote
Well where I work we get jack! All the stuff seems to end up with the section directors and then amazingly disappears.

doesn't do much for morale this time of year.






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l0rd

posted on 5/12/08 at 11:53 AM Reply With Quote
I work in an Educational environment. Not allowed to accept even a paperclip.

Sad cause i am allowed to accept their full of ****** assignments.

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nick205

posted on 5/12/08 at 11:57 AM Reply With Quote
Used to be a free for all for us, but the level and quality of gifts have dropped dramatically over the last few years and I suspect will be even lower this year.

Working in sales and always grateful to our customers for their orders I have a few favourites who get a bottle of wine. The rest have to make do with a phone call






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BenB

posted on 5/12/08 at 12:10 PM Reply With Quote
In medicine we used to get wicked presents from drug representatives.

So the government made a ruling that they could only be up to a certain value. I think it was set at £5 but they might have put it up recently. Then again, probably not.... I think the best thing I got off a drug rep recently was a laser pointer.

Unfortunately it only seems to be medicine where this has happened, my bros a barrister and he gets cases of extremely nice bordeaux from solicitors.

Not at all like this government to be anti-dr

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StevieB

posted on 5/12/08 at 12:13 PM Reply With Quote
The place I used to work has a subcontractor, the MD of which was into se7en racing big time - he puts on a Caterham drift day every year and invites plenty of people along
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twybrow

posted on 5/12/08 at 12:23 PM Reply With Quote
Nothing allowed over the value of $100, and even then, you need to be able to show that it was not an 'improper payment'. The joys of working for GE....
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will121

posted on 5/12/08 at 12:37 PM Reply With Quote
we are not allowed to personally accept anything more than a diary or calendar, we are instructed that anything else e.g. wine etc is received on behalf of the company and is to be forwarded to head office where it will be auctioned off for charity. But we noticed last year that we received a tin of chocolates and sent them to head office but they never made the auction!! This year we are thinking of sending them some fish second class day after last Christmas post!!!
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Triton

posted on 5/12/08 at 12:38 PM Reply With Quote
Well I operate a scheme where by folk donate £195 then I give them a free pair of seats...even put crimbo paper on them if asked nice enough....

It's this time of year when you find out how unappreciated you really are when working for a big company...





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omega0684

posted on 5/12/08 at 12:47 PM Reply With Quote
the two big companies that worked for were exactly the same, you could do a little secret santa around the office but then alot of the time there was only 5-6 people in your section anyway, so we all ended up buying stuff for everyone else!

as for customers we were told that we are not allowed to take gives from customers, as they were gifts to 'THE COMPANY'. we used to get stuff like trays of donuts, tins of roses/quality streets, you know stuff like that. the way we saw it though was if the chocolate had some how disappeared before senior management new about it then what the hell!

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posted on 5/12/08 at 12:53 PM Reply With Quote
Company policy is *ALL* gifts go into a raffle. Usually everyone ends up with something. Frequently its a nice (to me) bottle of wine. One year i won some ...... rice! (no kidding).

I suspect its like most things - 90% goes into the raffle and people occasionally get stuff 'accidentally' delivered to home The only time i got anything i put it into the raffle and watched other people get my rather nice wine.

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Benzine

posted on 5/12/08 at 01:05 PM Reply With Quote
when I worked for Mars I got a keyring for christmas.





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johnston

posted on 5/12/08 at 01:19 PM Reply With Quote
The last place I was in for christmas all the suppliers sent stuff into the workshop not the offices

all the bicardi went to the foreman the rest got split, Which was handy cos I dont drink beer and the others didnt touch the whiskey

another place done a raffle, everything was numbered. Numbers went into 1 hat everyones name went into another, then they went through everyone to pick 1 out of each to divvy it up..

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Stantman

posted on 5/12/08 at 02:56 PM Reply With Quote
Construction, used to be the one (Prior to the recession). I knew a site manager who had over 100 bottles of whisky in his garage (didn't drink the stuff but to much of a horder to give it away).

Let alone going to Spain to look at the slate quarry .

Generally the rule was supposed to be no more than £25. But then the directors golf days would have been few and far between.

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graememk

posted on 5/12/08 at 03:49 PM Reply With Quote
when i worked in Hemel my old boss used to match my best months commission in the last year as a christmas bonus.

always made christmas worth waiting for.






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mangogrooveworkshop

posted on 5/12/08 at 05:22 PM Reply With Quote
South African employer used to do a thirtheenth cheque at christmas.
Suppliers used to do the whisky thing and sometimes tickets to a local big sporting event like kyalami or the rugby...

Came back to the UK and its sod all except for macdonalds who gave us a two movies as a freebies.

Having said that we burn so much diesel that I have got a power washer and a tom tom on just the points
other than that we have seen zilch






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DIY Si

posted on 5/12/08 at 06:32 PM Reply With Quote
Being field based, I get nothing. My team leader might give us a few bottles of beer out of his own pocket, whilst the office staff get a big do over in coventry or brum. Which means next to no field staff get to go. I wouldn't mind but last year we got a gift voucher, only it was bugger all use. Couldn't buy any beer or chocolate with it as they picked the all the worst shops possible!





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Meeerrrk

posted on 5/12/08 at 06:36 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Fred W B
This time of year, it used to be traditional for Suppliers or Contactors to a company to pitch up with gifts for the buyer or manager/s they work with.

In today’s PC world is there a fine line between accepting a “token of appreciation” or taking a bribe? Our company sets a maximum monetary value that is acceptable, that being about enough for say a single bottle of good wine, which seems fair to me.

What do other companies do, or is this not an issue in your company?

Cheers

Fred W B

[Edited on 5/12/08 by Fred W B]

I work for GE, its the same as you by the sounds of it





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Peteff

posted on 5/12/08 at 08:07 PM Reply With Quote
When I was sheeting and shunting trailers the boss of one company sent bottles of whiskey for us on the loading bay and our gaffer held a draw for who got one and kept the other 9 for himself We didn't find out about the others till one of their drivers dropped it out after Christmas.





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Simon

posted on 5/12/08 at 08:18 PM Reply With Quote
One of our clients dropped in 12 chocolate eclairs today

We'll get the usual wine (urryuck), beer (same), Roses (hhmmm) etc

Think I might have left it a bit late to start this year's pre christmas diet

ATB

Simon






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Guinness

posted on 5/12/08 at 08:43 PM Reply With Quote
I'm in construction and we don't have any rules regarding gifts!

So this usually means I get bottles of wine / spirits from the sub-contractors. But as my boss is too tight to buy anything for clients, I usually end up sending the majority of the bottles on to my clients. Then the girls in the office get a bottle or two. Then if I'm lucky I get to take home what is left!

Not like the old days though! I worked at one firm where the number of bottles was just insane! (It helped that the sector we worked was designing and building pubs and nightclubs!). By Christmas the boardroom table looked like a branch of Oddbins! On the day of the Christmas party we got called into the boardroom in order of seniority, told to pick a bottle of white, a bottle of red and a bottle of spirits. That was at 9.00 am, and we cracked open the wine straight away, motoring onto the spirits by elevenses, and then went out on the Christmas party. (Very messy, and usually didn't finish until 4 or 5 in the morning, with the whole firm sleeping on the sofa's in one of our local nightclubs!, classy eh!)

At the same firm a courier arrived with a massive bin bag and delivered it onto the receptionists desk. When she opened it, it was full of ice and about a dozen whole salmon! Hmm!

Mike






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