Saturday, March 14, 2015

'Buying' Time

Today was an encounter with a repeated customer. Normally I don't deal with small deals as I always feel it is not worth the effort hence I quoted a premium price. He agreed initially and again he requested for the same amount with the same price.

Knowing that it will be routine encounter, I set off my journey to reach at the agreed time and destination. However, I received a message on our agreed time that he will be late, 15 to 20 minutes late. I took it lightly as I was engrossed with my phone and did not have much planned today.

He arrived 20 minutes later in a taxi from his work place. Immediately when he came out of the cab, he offered to buy me a drink but I refused as I felt it was unnecessary. Very quickly, he took out the agreed amount and passed it to me and quickly head off.

It was a natural instinct for me to put the money into my wallet when I did notice something. He had paid me an extra 33% on top of our agreed price. Very quickly I ran towards him to return him the extra amount but he was so insistent of me keeping it as he had 'wasted' my time waiting for him. I tried my best to return the 'surcharge' but he just smiled and ran away into the mrt station.

It's quite crazy and I'm still thinking about it till now. You've taught me a valuable lesson today!  

No comments: