Today has been generally OK. A bitlot of work. In fact I am still at work but getting ready to leave. Some customers take soooo long. They want to keep pressing their point, over and over and over and over and over and over. After having spent many hours with staff, this particular customer spent 1-1/2 hours of a Board meeting. Nothing new, just the same request. The Board backed the staff recommendation, which includes signing a standard form District agreement. After the customer spent a few minutes reading the agreement he went to one staff (still in the Board meeting on item 2) and said the customer wants to discuss the agreement. She deferred – still being in the meeting and all, but geeeze. This is a form agreement, no changes allowed. And the customer wants his water meter installed in 1 week! (Mind you this conversation has been going on for over a year, and now it is a crisis.) I guess some think that if they push hard enough and make it seem impossible, others will bend to their wish. [We did do some bending, earlier at the staff level.] It is clear that not everyone looks at utility service every day, so explaining stuff is a large part of what we do. I think we generally do it fairly well. Many people say they understand – they don’t like what we are telling them – but they understand. Since we never got to that point in this case, we are wondering if maybe it is a cultural thing to argue every point and continue to try and barter. We have many different cultures, and judging by accents many are first generation in the states. If bartering is a cultural norm for many, maybe we need to take lessons on how to indicate the bartering is over.
OK – one thing about leaving late is that traffic is fairly clear. Time to jet on home.
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