[Courses] [Spineful Living, lesson 2: When Nice = Rude]

[Carla Schroder]

On Wednesday 11 April 2007 21:02, Gretchen Dziengel wrote:
> On 4/11/07, Carla Schroder <carla at bratgrrl.com> wrote:
> >
> > What's the worst that could happen? What's the best that could happen?
>
> Wow, I've been following this course with a person I work with in
> mind, we have, 'communication issues'.  The scary thing is that there
> are other issues I am seeing in a whole new light.
>
> Case in point:  We recently sold our house.  It was in a very small
> town and we were worried that it wouldn't sell at all.  We ended up
> selling it to a friend of ours, a very sweet older gentleman who
> bought it for his daughter to live in.  Now, he's very sweet, but he's
> also a pretty shrewed businessman.  He's our financial adviser,
> manages our mutual fund and came to our wedding.
>
> Nine months after he bought the house, our realtor called (small town
> so she represented both parties, I know never to do that again)  She
> said he was looking for a credit with the local propane company that
> he thought was included in the purchase.  She said she wanted to let
> us know, and maybe we should call him.  We had talked about offering
> the credit, but we had to either cash out the credit or pay $1200 to
> renew the propane contract by the end of August, which is before he
> decided to buy the house.  We had the company cut us a check and
> didn't talk about including it in the sale any more.  It was not
> included in the purchase agreement at all.
> After talking to the realtor, I called the propane company to check
> the dates and then called him.  He was very polite and told me that
> a) The realtor had told him we would include that credit and that's
> why he came down to our final price.
> b) The propane company had told him he had the credit a month after
> they had written us a check.
> c) When he went in to complain, they gave him the date and amount of
> the check that they sent us.
>
> He ended the conversation by telling me that I should talk it over
> with my husband and he knew we would 'do the right thing'
> We had an appointment with him later that week that he said he might
> not make due to weather.  He never called to formally cancel it or
> reschedule.  We talked about it and decided his problem wasn't our
> fault because we had not promised him the credit, we had no knowledge
> that the realtor had promised him the credit and we had nothing to do
> with the propane company telling him he did have a credit when he
> didn't.
>
> However, we haven't talked to him since.  I'm avoiding it because I
> don't want a confrontation.
> So, the worst that could happen:  He could yell and scream at me.  He
> could screw with our mutual fund but that's pretty unlikely.
> The best that could happen:  He could sit down and tell me all about
> how he's suing the propane company.  ( I wanted to sue for giving out
> private information but it wouldn't be worth the lawyers fees. )
>
> If the worst happens, I pull the money out of that fund and put it in
> another one, or the same fund with a different financial guy.  We
> wouldn't talk any more but we're not talking now.
>
> Now I have to call him tomorrow.   Wish me some spine.

Geh. Just what you want to look forward to! In the absence of a written 
agreement, this "shrewd" businessman doesn't appear to have much to support 
his claim. However it works out, best of luck to you, and have some nice 
stout spinal wishes!

Carla

-- 
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Carla Schroder
Linux geek and random computer tamer
check out my Linux Cookbook! 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxckbk/
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