Two recent examples of customers trying to pinch pennies so hard they make Lincoln scream:
False advertising, blah blah blah:
It's garage sale season. Good for the paper (revenue, readership), bad for my sanity. We offer a free garage sale kit, which this year includes a coupon for free coffee (jug or box or something) from a local store...while supplies last. Had a customer who managed to score FIVE kits, trying to get the free coffee coupon. Gas prices here average around $3.79 a gallon. For what she spent on gas, she could've bought enough coffee to drown her whole neighborhood. Best part? She hadn't even placed an ad yet.
Sticker shock:
We had a death notice that was so long, it cost over $1000. Apparently one of the family members flipped out upon seeing the proof/price quote and:
- Counted every single letter, space and punctuation mark
- Compared the notice to other notices already running in the paper
- Put all the info into an Excel sheet, trying to prove that we were overcharging
Our ad system has nothing whatever to do with Excel. This is like, I dunno, trying to analyze the concept of "blue" by using a slide rule and a box of macaroni and cheese.
People.
False advertising, blah blah blah:
It's garage sale season. Good for the paper (revenue, readership), bad for my sanity. We offer a free garage sale kit, which this year includes a coupon for free coffee (jug or box or something) from a local store...while supplies last. Had a customer who managed to score FIVE kits, trying to get the free coffee coupon. Gas prices here average around $3.79 a gallon. For what she spent on gas, she could've bought enough coffee to drown her whole neighborhood. Best part? She hadn't even placed an ad yet.
Sticker shock:
We had a death notice that was so long, it cost over $1000. Apparently one of the family members flipped out upon seeing the proof/price quote and:
- Counted every single letter, space and punctuation mark
- Compared the notice to other notices already running in the paper
- Put all the info into an Excel sheet, trying to prove that we were overcharging
Our ad system has nothing whatever to do with Excel. This is like, I dunno, trying to analyze the concept of "blue" by using a slide rule and a box of macaroni and cheese.
People.
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