Blog from 12/14/07 - moved from Yahoo

Never Too Late
��� I work for a non-profit that raises funds through the efforts of volunteers in chapters all over the country. They have to pay dues and other invoices to us and some are better than others about getting their money to us in a timely manner. Almost invariably the excuse they use when we call them about past due amounts is "but we're just volunteers". Up until now I've had to accept that gracefully and ask them to do better.

But now I'm a short-timer. I am leaving this job in less than three weeks. WTH do I care whether I massage their egos anymore. So this guy calls me today and goes off on me as soon as I answer the phone. "what are you doing charging us finance charges, don't you know we are volunteers and they have to take care of their REAL jobs before they take care of paying us." When I try to answer him and explain that the finance charges accrue automatically and that I can credit them off he interrupts me and continues to bitch about how we are stealing charitable money by charging them finance charges.

Well, he picked the wrong day. I just buried my uncle yesterday, I have another job waiting for me, and I don't have to take this sh!t anymore. I said his name over and over until he finally stopped talking and said "What?" I told him that they probably shouldn't volunteer to do a job if they didn't have time to do it. I told him that the finance charges have been on his statements since June (its now December) so why is he just now noticing them. And I told him I didn't appreciate him calling me up and yelling at me without even waiting for me to explain the situation to him. He just said "OK" and hung up. So I figured the next call would be to my boss.

Instead he called back about five minutes later and apologized for calling and going off on me. He asked me if we could do something about the charges if he mailed a check today and I told him we would. He said goodbye and we both hung up.

I should have done that a loooooong time ago.