Naturally, people are always more willing to receive than they are to give, even if it’s on credit. Yeah, the country’s economy is near tatters right now, but it’s not as if it’s happening only to traders or only to customers. It’s happening to every one of us!
There is no trader in the world that doesn’t have to buy from someone else and one of the key factors that come into play when building a good customer relationship is trust. If that can’t be gotten, then the two parties will always be wary of each other. However, when you as a customer have patronized a particular trader for a particular length of time, you’d expect them to have a modicum of trust for you, not too much. Just a little. And when you realize they won’t be willing to do that, it can hurt the relationship you have with them.
Last week Monday, I wanted to get something from a trader close to where I stayed. Everything amounted to just over a thousand naira, N1,050 to be exact. The thing was, I didn’t have the extra N50 to give them, I was only with a thousand. I had not anticipated the increase in the price of a particular commodity. Anyway, I tried to get this woman to let me go promising that on my way to school later in the day I’d stop over at her shop and give her the N50.
Mind you, this wasn’t the first time I was buying something from her and I’m sure that she can recognize me at once. Besides, I always take the front of her shop every afternoon on my way to school, so she knew she was always going to see me. I wasn’t going to run away because of N50. Well, she refused that. Instead, she wanted me to return the last item I picked which got the amount to be N1,050. It was something of N150, and when it was deducted, my total fee became N900 which was now within the amount N1,000 I went there with.
However, as luck would have it, she didn’t N100 change to give me. And she wanted me to leave and return later to take it back. I was really angry about this. She was not willing to leave N50 with me, but she wanted me to leave N100 with her. I was ready to stay there to force her to get out of her shop to look for my change. But I didn’t have that kind of time, I had a job to do so I could get to school in time. I told her that I would come for the money on my way to school.
On my way to school, I stopped over at the shop, and to my chagrin, she wasn’t there. It was someone else, and you know how these guys can be. The new person refused to give me the money because it had to come from the person who was actually owing me. So I left. I guessed they wanted me to forget all about that money, after all, it was only N100. But not to me, she wasn’t willing to give me N50 on credit, and I wasn’t going to let her have my N100!
Due to my schedule, I wasn’t able to return to her shop for the entire week until this past Monday. I stopped over on my way to school and when I told the lady I was there for my N100, she was smiling at me as if we were friends and asking why I hadn’t forgotten about it. No, there was no way I was forgetting it, not for her! I took my N100 and went to school. I know it was petty, but it felt good to take it from her.
I wasn’t asking her to sell me goods on credit, I just didn’t come out with enough money at the time and I was going to reimburse her. She didn’t trust me enough to let me go for an amount that could barely even buy a sachet water. So, I decided not to trust her either. Trust goes both ways and she didn’t hold up her end of the bargain.
So, this is just one of those things that happen in daily life. I know she was doing it to protect her business. I’m sure that over the years, people have absconded with her money in such a manner because she trusted them and that forced her to harden her heart. Because if she was the one owing, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
But then, I know she has all her reasons, and I understand. However, that doesn’t mean I have to take it. She does what she has to do and I do what I have to as well. I’m not saying she’s wrong, she has a right to run her business any way she sees fit. But I’m not wrong either, I also have a right to collect my hard-earned money, even to the very last kobo.
As I said before, this is just one of those things in life.
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