Everyone’s gotta tale to tell

It’s amazing but as soon as you start to talk to people about what you do (or more precisely what I do) they have their own story to tell. It seems that people all over the country (nay all over the world) are regularly being treated abominably in their relationships with other people or businesses. What’s even worse, is that the ones that come off badly tend to be the smaller guy; the underdog; the little businesses. I think you know what I mean. I do a lot of networking and generally, every time I go to a meeting (and usually over breakfast) somebody will tell me their own sad story of being poorly dealt with by a big company.

Quite often they are stonewalled or they get the usual response “the cheque is in the post”. And while we are talking about “being in the post” isn’t it surprising how many documents, that are important to you, go missing in the post. “Oh I’m sorry, the refund for our appalling service defect is in the post”; “the information you require has been put in the post. I did it myself yesterday”; “the complaints form you requested is on its way” etc etc ad nauseum. But when it comes to a demand for payment, a big fat bill, a letter requiring you to perform an obligation – well, that always arrives on time, doesn’t it?

Enough ranting, I was talking about sad stories. I was told a story about a supplier who installed some very expensive technical equipment into the premises of a big company. You know what it’s like – you don’t dare ask for too much payment up front otherwise they go elsewhere. When it got to the end of the job, the big company was invoiced but refused to pay. The result of this was that although the supplier did not go “bust” they had to seriously downgrade their workforce and people lost their jobs and therefore the ability to pay their mortgages, go on their annual holiday to Benidorm, buy the kids a new bike for Christmas and run a decent car.

How many of you have been done down by a big, bad bully? If you have a story to tell, please let me know. I’d love to hear it.

Tina Morgan   www.john-kennedy.co.uk

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