Well, I always thought it was. But for one UK moving company at least, it’s not so. I admit to being more than a little surprised. Let me explain.

A very good friend of mine was moving house. He asked which moving company he should use and we, in the interest of balance, said that we would recommend using a BAR member company. So he got quotes from three and chose one. All fine so far.

I thought it might be a good idea, seeing as how I knew the person concerned so well, to interview him, after his move, about how it had all gone. Having a customer’s perspective in this way I felt would be helpful to other movers and, assuming he said some reasonably polite things, would serve as excellent publicity for the company concerned. We had done this sort of thing before, with good results all round. My friend agreed.

Out of courtesy I called the moving company to explain that I would be interviewing the client after the move. I would provide them with a copy prior to publication, to give them a right of comment; and would waive my copyright on the published article to allow the company to reproduce it for its own marketing purposes if it so wished. There would be no charge. I thought they would be delighted.

Not quite. Before I had even explained fully my intentions the owner of the business had assumed my intentions were dishonourable (even though he didn’t know me), had accused me of being in league with an organisation with which I have no connection, threatened to pull out of doing the move (only seven days before D-day), and demanded my address so he could “have it out with me” face-to-face. Exactly what ‘it’ was I have no idea. Naturally, not wishing to cause my friend any distress, I backed off.

Wasn’t that odd? I would have thought he would have been delighted to demonstrate his skills to the wider industry and have free marketing collateral for the foreseeable future. But no. I felt that my parentage was being questioned and all I had done was try to do someone a favour. He was clearly not very proud of the service he was planning to give to my friend. Very worrying!

Was it me? Have I missed something here? How would you have reacted? I am intrigued to know.