Last month I asked printers to tell me if customers had ever asked them to lie. I'm not talking about a customer requesting printed samples a few days before the boss expects them, or about a designer marking up a printer's invoice when handling the printing (standard procedure). I'm talking about customers asking printers to be deceitful in some way on their behalf.

To be honest, the thought never occurred to me until a printer I know said that a customer asked her to falsify a postage-meter date. She refused, and she wondered if other printers were ever put in similar positions. Evidently, the answer is yes. Let me first thank all the subscribers who took the time to email me. Here's what they said.

The responses were interesting - and encouraging. Of the few dozen printers who responded, almost every single one said that they would NOT lie for a customer, even if it meant the loss of a client.

What exactly did customers want these printers to do? It varied. Copyright infringement was one issue. People want copies made of family photos that have been taken by a professional. Or they want copies made of photos or articles clipped from magazines. "I wish there was something I could say back to the customer who becomes belligerent when I will not lie for him/her" a printer wrote. He posts signs in his shop, saying "We cannot legally duplicate pictures with a copyright. Please do not ask us to break the law, which protects the rights of others." Another subscriber wrote that he'd lost a lot of color copier sales due to his honoring the copyright laws. "People get downright indignant when I won't break the law for them."

One subscriber said that he's been asked to create invoices to meet a purchase order deadline for a client's fiscal year end, although he delivers the materials later than this date. (My guess is that this is a common request, when a marketing or advertising budget is tied to a fiscal year end and a buyer has to "use it or lose it.")

Being asked to lie "happens very infrequently," wrote one subscriber, "yet more frequently than any of us would like." Usually, he continues, it's when a buyer doesn't want his/her superior to know something. For example, a corporate designer was late in giving this printer materials, yet had a mailing date that couldn't be missed. The designer asked the printer to lie to her boss about the date that the piece dropped in the mail. The printer refused. "If asked to lie, I tell the buyer I will not lie to them or for them."

A printer with 35 years in the business said not only would he refuse to lie on behalf of a customer - but that he's never been asked to.

Some customers put printers in uncomfortable, if not compromising, positions. One printer wrote about the customer-designer-printer triangle. The designer gets the printer the job. The customer pays the bill. The printer has to keep BOTH the designer and the customer happy - and get paid by the customer! What happens when occasionally a designer asks him to bury an alteration charge somewhere on the final invoice, when the mistake was caused by the designer? How should the printer react? If he "holds the moral ground," he might well lose the designer-client, who brings in a lot of work. If he complies, he might take a financial loss on a job.

"Just say no!" if asked to lie, replied another printer. He was once asked to falsify an invoice so the customer could get reimbursed. He refused. “A printer's integrity should never be compromised,” he added.

Most printers who responded to my query felt the same way. "If I am going to lose a customer because I've refused to stretch the truth for him or her, that relationship is doomed anyway," one printer wrote. When meeting with every new employee, he tells them that he requires honesty. Besides, keeping track of "every falsehood, half-truth or misrepresentation by omission takes more intellectual capacity than has been given to mere mortals."

Years ago, at the beginning of his career, this printer reluctantly agreed to add a designer's "production fee" to a customer's invoice. The extremely angry customer called days later, invoice in hand, demanding to know why this fee existed, since he'd already been billed by the designer for his work. It was the last job the printer did for this client. And the designer moved his work to a competitor.

So the consensus is to never, EVER lie about anything to customers. In this business, where so many things can go wrong, relationships must be built on mutual trust.

Buyer, beware of asking your printer to twist the truth. From where I sit, he or she will just say no.