Ungrateful people (04/13/2022)
Many years ago, I worked for a small auction company, selling art, antiques, collectibles, and household goods.
It was one of my most interesting jobs and I stayed there for 10 years. It was hard work, physically demanding but I learned a lot and I met many interesting people.
One day my boss, the owner of the company, asked me to pick up some ceramics that he had appraised at someone’s house. The owners were pleased with a possible $3500 in proceeds and they decided to sell all of it,
I made an appointment and as always, I took the necessary moving materials with me. However, when I arrived, the items were already boxed up and ready to go. The husband told me that he had decided to get some boxes from a moving company and packed everything up so they could put it safely out of the way.
He did have a request though, he asked if he could have a few of my boxes since they had some other stuff to move. I gladly handed him all he wanted, wrapping paper included. As I remember I gave him eight boxes and traded for the five that contained the items for the auction.
The auction was a few weeks later and their goods sold very well, in fact the they totalled close to $7000. Near double of what it had been appraised for.
Two days later I got a phone call from the husband. It went through my head that he was going express his appreciation for our work.
I was wrong, totally wrong. The man was madder than a hornet and for a strange reason. He complained that he never got his five boxes back, boxes that he had bought for $4 apiece.
After he calmed down a bit, I managed to get through to him and put him in his place. “First of all, I’m not going to make a 40-mile round trip to return 5 empty boxes. Besides, you didn’t tell me that you wanted them back. At the same time, I gave you eight boxes, so why are you complaining? And on top of that, your items sold for nearly double the amount you expected so you really don’t have a reason to complain about $20.”
He still muttered a little bit and ended with saying that he wouldn’t do business with us again.
I shook my head and reported it to my boss. “Some people you cannot please, no matter what you do,” he said. That is true of course, but I can’t get met head around the fact that someone can be so ungrateful, irrational, and unreasonable.
To this day I have trouble with people who show those character traits, I guess I will never get used to it.
