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I remember in my shop assistant days getting cheques from customers who banked with them. It felt like the punchline of an elaborate joke. At the time I was s

I remember in my shop assistant days getting cheques from customers who banked with them. It felt like the punchline of an elaborate joke. At the time I was selling bikes. The kids from the council estate would have their parents or grandparents save up all year in a special book, paying by instalments. Then, at Christmas time, they would get a Raleigh bike, not quite the cheapest but certainly not the most expensive. It would be a nice new bike though. Meanwhile, we also had a trade in second hand bikes that customers would trade in. Out the back would be all kinds of rusting bicycles that had seen better days. Some customers would want these rather than the new shiny bikes. So you would go out the back and find something that would be suitable. Often a little bit of work would be needed to make these left-over has-been bicycles saleable. Then you would get further ground down on the price, adding on components from the workshop that happened to be there, e.g. a new seat or an OEM chain to replace the orange rusted one on the bike. The poor child that would have to ride the thing would be actually too small for it, the parents insisting on the bike the child could 'grow into'. The council estate kids would actually get the correct size for them, the parents would save up for a replacement over the coming year. But these kids buying second hand just had some ungainly monster sized bike that they had to 'grow into'. People of wealth don't actually show off their wealth if they are aristocratic. They still wear the same coat for decades so you can't guess that they are mansion-dwelling loaded or poor. The accent might give a clue but if you are customer service driven you just get on with it rather than make these discrimination thoughts. So, finally, having been haggled down to make the sale totally not worth it, there are one of two denouements. The more common one is to kindly offer to put the bike in the car for them to discover that it is a Range Rover (or posh Volvo). The other 'I have been had' denouement was for them to pay by cheque and for it to be a cheque from this very bank. (payment by cheque dates this story). Along with the 'drat, I have been had' sinking feeling there is also an unwritten understanding that you don't ask for the cheque guarantee card. Just ownership of the chequebook from the bank makes it good enough. By then you have clocked their scruffy attire is actually aristocratic posh or maybe even seen the Range Rover. The rich don't get rich by giving their money away. This lesson was drummed into me by these moments. I think that this bank must know this. Their customer is not going to be flipping houses and cars, forever speculating and living beyond their means. They pay for the upkeep to the estate, Tarquin's school fees and haggle for everything else. The next group of 'least profitable customer' for me happened to be Scottish. Inevitably if I had a customer with a Scottish accent I kind of knew my boss would be grilling me later for being tricked into a discount too far or a freebee too many. There would be a different denouement scenario with your typical Scottish customer. You would have everything agreed and then if some shop 50 miles away had allegedly offered them a price 1p cheaper than your best deal they would be fully willing to walk out on the sale, presumably off to get that 1p saving elsewhere. Luckily Scottish customers were few and far between, as were shoplifters, however, it was the C. Hoare cheque owners (and the other one, Coutts) that you had to watch out for.

loblollyboy 7y ago
I'm born and raised in the US by a single American mother - but my dad was a real Scotsman, sometimes I see my aunt on his side and she always says "you might not have an accent, but I know yer Scottish because yer tight (cheap) and all Scots are tight"
- Japhy_Ryder 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
  - pertymcpert 7y ago
    Irrelevant.
    - loblollyboy 7y ago
      Anecdotal irrelevance
Bokanovsky 7y ago
This reminds me a story a friend of mine told me. When he was a kid he had a job delivering the local free news paper around his local town in the UK. This was at a time when local free news papers were still a thing. At Christmas time he had a plan, he knock on the doors of houses on his round and explain that he was their local paper delivery boy and ask for tips. He did this first on the part of his route with gated mansions in the area. To his dismay all he got was sneered at. He tried again on the council house part of his route and for every house pretty much all occupants were very generous and appreciating of his work. At the other end I'm aware of some people who are asset rich, but not that cash wealthy. They've inherited a huge house or estate, but only have just enough money to keep things ticking over. Often big estates like that start to go into disrepair for that reason.
- Theodores 7y ago
  I did newspapers too. The Christmas tips were a goldmine, I did the paid for papers so there was always a weekly exchange of money. I had to call my mum out to help me carry the vast amount of loot - if only I had that money now! I think that the free newspapers were not welcome by all. Whereas if you are delivering someone their Daily Telegraph or Times then you are of value to them. So I received good tips from all classes of people, although there were the old folk that thought that a 5p tip on a weekly basis was generous. They might stretch to £1 at Christmas time. The other benefit of this network - I had something like 100 customers in the rural shires - was school sponsored walks. I just had to ask the customer base to sponsor me and I would raise ten times the amount of anyone else. But with it came an important life lesson... I was never able to get all of the four figure sum in on time. People would be on holiday, they would move, they would die or just somehow not be around for me to ask them for the money they pledged. Hence I would be at least £50 - £100 short. I didn't want to pay that out of my own pocket but the school was strict about the rules. They couldn't have any kids pocketing the money, which is fair enough. So I never received the prize money for raising the most money. Someone else would get to the stage in school assembly to get the £10(!) book token and the kudos that went with it. My teachers and my friends knew I had raised vastly more than whomever got to the stage, typically they would have large sums donated by relatives, not hundreds of small sums pledged by everyone in two villages. I learned from that more than I would have done had I been up on the stage collecting the prize. We don't do charity for fame and prizes. The recognition comes in other ways. Other ways? Well, apart from the good causes aspect, I was part of the community. I had a support network that I would not have had if I was not delivering the papers. I also got actual respect from my teachers, so years later I was able to do work placement things for the teacher that had put me through the wringer for being tardy paying in the vast sums pledged to 'Save the Children'. Also, in my adult life I think I understand 'personal philanthropy' (not charity) better than most.

loblollyboy 7y ago

I'm born and raised in the US by a single American mother - but my dad was a real Scotsman, sometimes I see my aunt on his side and she always says "you might not have an accent, but I know yer Scottish because yer tight (cheap) and all Scots are tight"

Japhy_Ryder 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
- pertymcpert 7y ago
  Irrelevant.
  - loblollyboy 7y ago
    Anecdotal irrelevance

Bokanovsky 7y ago

This reminds me a story a friend of mine told me. When he was a kid he had a job delivering the local free news paper around his local town in the UK. This was at a time when local free news papers were still a thing. At Christmas time he had a plan, he knock on the doors of houses on his round and explain that he was their local paper delivery boy and ask for tips. He did this first on the part of his route with gated mansions in the area. To his dismay all he got was sneered at. He tried again on the council house part of his route and for every house pretty much all occupants were very generous and appreciating of his work. At the other end I'm aware of some people who are asset rich, but not that cash wealthy. They've inherited a huge house or estate, but only have just enough money to keep things ticking over. Often big estates like that start to go into disrepair for that reason.

Theodores 7y ago
I did newspapers too. The Christmas tips were a goldmine, I did the paid for papers so there was always a weekly exchange of money. I had to call my mum out to help me carry the vast amount of loot - if only I had that money now! I think that the free newspapers were not welcome by all. Whereas if you are delivering someone their Daily Telegraph or Times then you are of value to them. So I received good tips from all classes of people, although there were the old folk that thought that a 5p tip on a weekly basis was generous. They might stretch to £1 at Christmas time. The other benefit of this network - I had something like 100 customers in the rural shires - was school sponsored walks. I just had to ask the customer base to sponsor me and I would raise ten times the amount of anyone else. But with it came an important life lesson... I was never able to get all of the four figure sum in on time. People would be on holiday, they would move, they would die or just somehow not be around for me to ask them for the money they pledged. Hence I would be at least £50 - £100 short. I didn't want to pay that out of my own pocket but the school was strict about the rules. They couldn't have any kids pocketing the money, which is fair enough. So I never received the prize money for raising the most money. Someone else would get to the stage in school assembly to get the £10(!) book token and the kudos that went with it. My teachers and my friends knew I had raised vastly more than whomever got to the stage, typically they would have large sums donated by relatives, not hundreds of small sums pledged by everyone in two villages. I learned from that more than I would have done had I been up on the stage collecting the prize. We don't do charity for fame and prizes. The recognition comes in other ways. Other ways? Well, apart from the good causes aspect, I was part of the community. I had a support network that I would not have had if I was not delivering the papers. I also got actual respect from my teachers, so years later I was able to do work placement things for the teacher that had put me through the wringer for being tardy paying in the vast sums pledged to 'Save the Children'. Also, in my adult life I think I understand 'personal philanthropy' (not charity) better than most.