Receiving gift from company your business placed an order with

[Darkend]Viper

[Darkend]Viper

[Darkend]Viper

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Got bit of a situation here.

About 4-5 weeks ago we placed an order with a company for about 85k worth of computer gear. The company that we ordered from last week said that I, personally, will be receiving a thank you gift. In this case a laptop.

Now what are the legalaties of this? Is it ok to do and receive? Someone at work has found out and said it's a sackable offence.

A bit about the order. Due to the size of the order I had to get a few quotes from different companies. I managed to haggle said company down so our place got a cracking deal compared to what other companies were offering. This saved our company (school btw) about 8.5k.

Now i can understand if they had offered me to this before hand as it would be classed as a personal gain. But i didn't know I was going to receive anything from them. I wanted the best deal that we could get for our company.

From what i'm looking at it as it's been sent as a gift for custom after the order has been placed. Therefore having no affect on the quotes and or order.

Anyone got any help?
 
Other persons jealous tbh. :rolleyes:

Can't you just use it for work to keep them happy?

It's best to check with your job contract because i know mine says that i cannot accept a gift from anyone personally if the value exceeds £20.
But if they wanted to send a gift to the business then that is different.
 
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Speak to the Head Teacher or someone of similar ilk. It's best not to go over any heads, lest you find yourself on the dole.

It does seem unfair that you yourself receives the laptop. You used school money to purchase items for the school in their time. It should really be their property, but if you end being allowed to keep the laptop - Win!
 
[Darkend]Viper said:
Got bit of a situation here.

About 4-5 weeks ago we placed an order with a company for about 85k worth of computer gear. The company that we ordered from last week said that I, personally, will be receiving a thank you gift. In this case a laptop.

Now what are the legalaties of this? Is it ok to do and receive? Someone at work has found out and said it's a sackable offence.

A bit about the order. Due to the size of the order I had to get a few quotes from different companies. I managed to haggle said company down so our place got a cracking deal compared to what other companies were offering. This saved our company (school btw) about 8.5k.

Now i can understand if they had offered me to this before hand as it would be classed as a personal gain. But i didn't know I was going to receive anything from them. I wanted the best deal that we could get for our company.

From what i'm looking at it as it's been sent as a gift for custom after the order has been placed. Therefore having no affect on the quotes and or order.

Anyone got any help?
Click to expand...

I'd be very surprised if this isn't coved in you contract of employment. Most companies do not allow personal gifts from suppliers over a certain value (if at all).
Best bet is to check company policy, a free laptop isn't worth losing your job over!
 
Normally they pretend its a competition i.e. as a valued customer we'll enter you in our free prize draw. The guy at our place who makes the decisions on which software we buy has so far "won" a week in the maldives and a golfing weekend at Wentworth.
 
Seems simple enough... the order was placed on behalf of the school and with school money so the "gift" is for the customer ( ie the school ).

Just talk to the head and maybe say it would be of use to you for the job you do.
 
Legally, it's not really a problem. Employment wise, it could be a big problem, as it could reflect badly on you, looking like you made the choice on the 'gift', for example.

Talk to your boss, then the company. A laptop isn't worth your job, or even being in the doghouse with your job...
 
donate it to the school, as a prize for the next open day or somthing, you look great infront of the school, and te over person hates u more.
 
When suppliers give out free gifts like this is it normally written down anywhere (like on an invoice or something which would go to other people)?

At our work we have a policy about not receiving gifts. But if no one else was aware of it, then I wouldn't mind a free iPod/Laptop/Digital camera etc when we next do a big order :p
 
If you work in the public sector you will almost certainly have an anti-corruption policy that governs things like this. It's usually kind of odd though, a colleague of mine was given an iPod by Sophos after we updated our systems to a new version, and was allowed to keep it. But after deployment of some software by a different company the company took us out for a meal and we had to do it without telling anyone higher up as it was against the rules. Bearing in mind that both happened after contracts had been signed and products delivered it always confused me as to why they were different. Of course the rules probably change from place to place anyway, so you really do need to check. :)
 
Most public sector organisations will have a register of gifts and hospitality that employees should complete, but this is usually for small gifts or a lunch.

Taking something valuable like a laptop is really a bit of a no-no because why couldn't the supplier just knock the cost of the laptop off the bill so the school benefits rather than one of their employees, regardless of the circumstances it leaves you open to allegations of corruption.

This sort of thing goes on all the time and is an often accepted part of business in the private sector, but public sector employees are expected to be whiter than white. Many are as bent as a 9 bob note though ;)
 
As somebody else said - legally there is no problem at all.
However this kind of thing should be covered in your company handbook and in this situation whatever is printed in there is "law" as far as your job goes.

The problem is that what can happen is "conflict of interest" where you will maybe push all future orders to one supplier no matter the cost because you will personally benefit.
This is of course not the best thing for the company you work for as they may not be getting the best deal.

I'm the IT Manager where I work so ultimately I decide where we are going to purchase items from.
We basically declare any interests to HR who will tell us if we can accept the gift for ourselves, or the company can accept it or we decline it.
Examples - we placed an order not so long ago and we were given two free 19" LCD panels.
It was decided we would accept these - but for the company, not for us individuals.
Christmas before last we were sent 3x IPod mini's.
We were each told we would be able to keep those for ourselves.
I've been on a couple of corporate events with suppliers, I've also had to turn a few down.

If in doubt check with your HR department.
Seriously, don't try to hide it because things like this can come back and bite you when you least expect it.
Stay transparent in your work and then you've got nothing to worry about.
 
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