Mid July I wrote a blog "Let Me Ask You", an interesting and poignant article about my customers unwillingness to simply accept free as a charge.
Sad to say, here we go again.
My vacation involves 9 people from 3 different families. 4 adults and 5 kids, ages 3-11. When it comes to splitting up the cost the accountants in the family total all the receipts collected and divide by 9. Simple but effective.
There is one member of our group that does not pay and their cost is picked up or split by my brother or myself. I had not discussed with anybody responsibility of payment for this cost, I simply paid because my brother had paid 2 years previous without question or expectations of repayment and I was doing the same.
Once again I am not making the following conversation up:
No Boat: "Hello STFU how are you?"
STFU: "Great, we need to talk about how much I owe for the vacation."
NB: "Don't worry about it, it has all been taken care of."
STFU: "I would like to pay for....."
NB: "No worries, we all had a great time and I won't hear of it."
STFU: "I want to know how much it cost?"
NB: "Listen I took care of it, because my brother paid last time."
STFU: "I did not pay your brother back, but I gave his family a really nice Christmas gift, I want to know the cost."
NB: "If you must know, $3500/9 about $372 I think. I don't want anything!"
STFU: "Whoa, is it really fair to charge the same price for everybody regardless of their size?"
NB: "Let me get this straight (starting to get bent out of shape), you want me to recalculate the cost of the vacation to each member of the crew based on their size and their consumption? How about I just say its free and forget the extra work!"
STFU: "Oh, Okay. Thank-you"
Why am I always getting challenged when I use the word FREE?
bayl
3 comments:
A group of us used to go for coffee or lunch from time to time when I was working. We'd divide the check by the number of people. It always evened out eventually.
Then a guy joined our group for a while. He'd take the check and his calculator and figure out how much each of us owed right down to tax and tip. It drove us crazy to sit there tapping our fingers over pennies.
After the first time, we suggested he get a separate check and the rest of us went back to what we'd always done. That drove him crazy and eventually he dropped out.
There are few things more unattractive in a person than cheapness. It is why I ended the marriage with my first husband.
Another example of a man ruining a beautiful thing for Granny, and as usual does not have the legs to stay.
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