Travis mulling over my dilemma |
In November I received an order for a CURVE neck rest for a Catrike Expedition, so I mailed one to the customer. Shortly thereafter he sent me an email saying it arrived without hardware. Well of course it did...it uses the stock Catrike hardware. No, he said, he needed the entire kit. So I told him I'd send him a kit, and asked him to return the original neck rest to me. When he received the kit I got another email saying it had no instructions. No one had ever asked before, but I created some illustrated instructions and promptly emailed them off.
So why would someone do this? Trikes aren't exactly cheap, and they're a hobby, perhaps even a toy. The neck rests aren't particularly expensive especially compared to the cost of an Expedition, so why would someone choose to skip out on an obligation? Is he sick and in the hospital? Has he died? I may never know.
So fast forward about 40 years and I start this micro business making neck rests for trikes. And despite my experience with the motorcycle (and a few others along the way), or perhaps because of it, I decide to run this business on trust. No pre-paying. Send me a check when you get the neck rest. And so now my trust gets tested again. Should I change my business and expect people to pay when they order?
I think not. I'll probably ask for a physical address and a working phone number with each order, but now that my trust has been tested I've decided I'm not giving into the few. No pre-payment required.
And on a totally unrelated subject (or maybe not), look what I saw on a cold, drizzly and grey day in downtown Seattle. Hard not to smile. Kinda reminds me of one of my favorite film clips.
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