Do nice guys finish last?
Jan. 5th, 2006 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI know I've been on the receiving end of nice gestures in the past, but recently, it's hard to keep that in mind. It seems more and more that going out of your way to help someone is merely an invitation to getting a kick in the teeth.
Poster child: Our recalcitrant tenant in Seabrook. He is behind two and a half months in rent and nothing has been deposited yet this month. Unlike the storied landlords of popular fiction, I am not immensely wealthy and if I do not get a payment this month, I will be in the tightest financial straits of recent memory. Drew needs some money to close on a house; Natalie deserves a birthday present. The way things stand now, not only will we be unable to help our own kids, we will instead be borrowing money against our credit cards - again - to pay for this deadbeat to live in our house.
Runner up: The store client who brought in a box for shipment that was leaking oil. We repackaged the contents and sent it per the client's instructions, which included a summary dismissal of our suggestion to insure the package, which was being sent by postal mail. Sure enough, the package has not made it to its destination. And sure enough, the reason the package has not done so is because we must have screwed up somehow.
Various and sundry: There has been a steady stream of clients through the store over the past few days complaining of having "left" their stamps on the counter after buying them. And we're supposed to do what, exactly? Why, reimburse them! One woman came in today, claimed she left her stamps on the counter, could not produce a receipt (though she offered to show us the change from her ten dollar bill), and, well, got pretty huffy when we suggested that this was not our problem. In the end, Drew and I gave her replacement stamps just so she would go away.
And while the vitriol is flowing, I must mention that we continue to bleed money owing to idiots who insist on charging $2 purchases.
"Would you happen to have cash? It's a pretty small charge," I said to one customer, who had just made a whopping $1.52 purchase.
"No!" came the emphatic answer, "I'm collecting frequent flier miles!"
Ye gods.
Cheers...
Poster child: Our recalcitrant tenant in Seabrook. He is behind two and a half months in rent and nothing has been deposited yet this month. Unlike the storied landlords of popular fiction, I am not immensely wealthy and if I do not get a payment this month, I will be in the tightest financial straits of recent memory. Drew needs some money to close on a house; Natalie deserves a birthday present. The way things stand now, not only will we be unable to help our own kids, we will instead be borrowing money against our credit cards - again - to pay for this deadbeat to live in our house.
Runner up: The store client who brought in a box for shipment that was leaking oil. We repackaged the contents and sent it per the client's instructions, which included a summary dismissal of our suggestion to insure the package, which was being sent by postal mail. Sure enough, the package has not made it to its destination. And sure enough, the reason the package has not done so is because we must have screwed up somehow.
Various and sundry: There has been a steady stream of clients through the store over the past few days complaining of having "left" their stamps on the counter after buying them. And we're supposed to do what, exactly? Why, reimburse them! One woman came in today, claimed she left her stamps on the counter, could not produce a receipt (though she offered to show us the change from her ten dollar bill), and, well, got pretty huffy when we suggested that this was not our problem. In the end, Drew and I gave her replacement stamps just so she would go away.
And while the vitriol is flowing, I must mention that we continue to bleed money owing to idiots who insist on charging $2 purchases.
"Would you happen to have cash? It's a pretty small charge," I said to one customer, who had just made a whopping $1.52 purchase.
"No!" came the emphatic answer, "I'm collecting frequent flier miles!"
Ye gods.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 03:44 am (UTC)After all, only supermarkets can afford to charge everybody 2.5% (whether you pay cash or card) for "card processing fees", so then if you're paying cash, well tough then, nobody gives you back 2.5% :) -- and GET AWAY WITH IT! :)
A policy could help.
Just so you have a view from the "other side", being much more often a customer rather than a seller, I happen to hate cash with my guts.
Here in UK the CC industry is very developed, so normally only poor and old pay cash. Or, of course, in case when you want the taxman to err... bite it -- "cash-in-hand payments" are virtually untraceable.
Apart from this,
1) Cash is objectively slower to pay, especially the elderly who will excruciatingly slow produce one coin after coin, and then count the change meticulously...
2) Cash is worse in terms of tracking in the personal finance software; you have to jot down cash payments or face a huge chance to forget and have to trace it back... I mark EVERY payment in my MS Money, just in case.
3) Cash is money not bearing any interest since the moment you withdraw it from your bank account in the cash machine. Normally I just withdraw as much as is needed for the pub or park-o-mat in the car park...
4) Cash is DIRTY... who knows whose hands held it before you...
5) Cash is heavy and extremely inconvenient to carry. I don't have "koshelyok" (purse) anymore, only a "bumazhnik" (wallet) with some CC's, store cards and driving licence. I store small "koshelyok" in my car to pay the parking fees only. Don't carry it with me anymore except to the gym.
6) Cash does not accrue loyalty points or does to a lesser degree. Be it points, frequent flyer miles or others. Unfortunately the customer had a point here...
Can something be accepted instead of cash?
(I wish they already have introduced this pilot scheme of paying with your mobile phone... that would solve the problem of "micropayments". There are some projects about that pending in the UK)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 04:40 am (UTC)What's going on with yr tenant? Did he lose his job or something?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 06:41 am (UTC)What I don't like about it, though, is the temptation for various service providers to establish "micropayments". Which would eventually lead to "pay as you go" world where EVERYTHING will have a cost attached to it, even if .001p... Extremely annoying concept. Arrrgh, hate it. Worse than difficult to account for cash...
no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 07:42 am (UTC)All our money has been going to good causes too, y'know. Like lawyers, who *really* need it. On an independent financial audit to prove we have no secret fortune (it did, but it cost big bucks and we've just discovered that in the Swiss legal system, you cannot claim damages or get legal and other costs back for being wrongfully accused unless you're wrongfully... put in prison!). I suppose we should be glad it didn't get that far, huh?
Then there's the massive bill on back taxes because the tax people changed their mind about what office space we were entitled to claim... and after 5 years (and five years' worth of that was... massive). And more funds (that we don't have) will be required to change a 'state of the art' boiler that has lasted only 7 years despite being a 'lifetime acquisition'. Fortunately, we have a large woodpile because it may come to that (although I'll miss the hot water). Naturally, this is happening during the coldest winter for decades.
And we won't mention the cost of Junior's studies, or the fact that some of Sir's clients are taking 3-4 months to pay. Not funny, being constantly broke and feeling like everybody's taking you to the cleaners.