Charles, I am absolutely positive that respect still matters.
There will always be people who are less than honest, and who will attempt to use your honesty and reputation for integrity to put you down and attempt to build themselves up.
About the best you can ever hope for is the ability to hold your own head high, and "take the moral high ground".
While you may feel like you need to point out their wrongs, you are only doing them a favor, and you don't owe them ANY favors. I am strongly of the opinion you can count them as people not worth any more of your time or effort. IF they were to listen to you, then you would be teaching them something, at your expense, and far more likely they would use you to "prop themselves up", (or set the ladder they think they are climbing on your back, so to speak) just move to the side and let them fall over.
YOU don't need to stand on a soap box point a finger to have their improper actions cause them grief. wrong behavior has it's own (negative) rewards, which they will reap with time.
In the long run, you should be glad (they did you a favor), since you more than likely would not want to have your good name associated with their actions in the eyes of the customers.
Charles, please send me an e-mail at the address in my profile, I think I would enjoy talking with you further, but I still agree with others that this may not be a very good place to have discussions about this particular subject and incident.