Real-Life Decision Making
You are the manager of a drycleaning shop. A woman has brought you a wedding dress to be cleaned. Her wedding isn't for three days, but she bought the dress second-hand and wants it fresh for the wedding. You promise to take extra care with the dress and send her on her way.
You take the dress back to the factory, put the dress in the machine yourself and return to the front counter. A few seconds later, you hear a bang from the back. The filter in the drycleaning machine has blown up.
The filters in these machines are filled with very fine granulated carbon to absorb loose dyes from garments, so when the filter exploded, so did all of the dye. The bride's pure white dress is now a dark dove-grey from top to bottom. There is no way it will ever look new again.
You call the customer and ask her to come to the store right away. You know you will have to explain the situation to her and she won't be happy. However, you have a few choices.
You could explain it was a freak accident and tell the woman there is nothing you can do. After all, you will have lost her as a customer anyway.
You could tell the woman you are very sorry and offer to pay her the $400 value of the dress. Technically, you're only responsible for the value of the second-hand dress.
You could tell the woman you are very sorry and offer to buy her a new dress. Her wedding is in three days and, business or no business, you feel bad about what has happened.
What do you do?