Kathy posted a condolence
Saturday, August 17, 2013
My Dad loved working on the job, side by side with his boys and Wes. Working in the office was a different story. Billing and collections were the main downsides to the business and I think, if he could have, he would have worked for free.
Being in construction, we'd learned some pretty colorful language over the years. We had a customer who refused to pay his bill. For months I called this person and finally, I wrote what I thought of him using some of that colorful language on a sticky note and placed it on Dad's copy of the invoice along with a customer copy and handed it off to Dad so that he could go to talk to this customer.
Off Dad went, with the note hidden in his file on his own copy. I'd asked him to remove it but he wanted to be reminded of how frustrating this customer had become. The customer's complaint had been the mess, which turned out to be a handful of gravel left on the edge of the grass but amounted to an incredibly large portion of the unpaid invoice. Dad reviewed the copy of the customer's bill with him and there was a question so my Dad opened his own file, not realizing the customer was suddenly standing beside him.
Dad heard sputtering from the customer and suddenly realized that there was the sticky note, in all it's colorful glory, in big one inch letters. What transpired was the customer denying what I had said he was, a cheque for the full amount and the customer's desire to meet me to prove he was a nice person.
We deposited that cheque and I still have that sticky note. It's now my reminder. And no, I declined to meet that customer.
