Betty The Restauranteur

[Ghel]

We should have had a pool going, because you'll never believe what happened. When I got back from lunch today, there was a receipt on my desk from the County Auditor's office for the payment of Betty's real estate taxes for the restaurant. Through the first half of this year. I was amazed.

[taxguykarl]

Unfortunatly in many business, this cost is not ever considered.

Kind of like an assignment in my day job: I had to track down a $2 discrepancy. Needless to say, my time cost a lot more than that....and we underpaid that vendor $47 not $2. My supervisor explained that there were federal funds involved and every cent had to be explained

[earl colby pottinger]

Come on

On the flip side, when I worked at MajorBank, this was taken into consideration in some instances. If a deposit was lost and the customer had a receipt, and the deposit was under a certain threshold (which of course I will not disclose), the bank simply gave the money back without researching where it went. It cost the bank more money to research it than to just give it to the customer, so each branch had a cash line that was funded specifically for this purpose.

Come on, you can tell us, we will not do anything with the info.

[mathnerd]

Really, one of the reasons people don't do backups of their computers is they never calculate how much it will cost to re-enter the data if their databases are lost.

I know one instance that to save $250 for a disk pack for backup purposes the customer ended up spending thousands of dollars in over-time to get the accounting data back.

On the flip side, when I worked at MajorBank, this was taken into consideration in some instances. If a deposit was lost and the customer had a receipt, and the deposit was under a certain threshold (which of course I will not disclose), the bank simply gave the money back without researching where it went. It cost the bank more money to research it than to just give it to the customer, so each branch had a cash line that was funded specifically for this purpose.

[earl colby pottinger]

Backup

Unfortunatly in many business, this cost is not ever considered.

Really, one of the reasons people don't do backups of their computers is they never calculate how much it will cost to re-enter the data if their databases are lost.

I know one instance that to save $250 for a disk pack for backup purposes the customer ended up spending thousands of dollars in over-time to get the accounting data back.

[TimmyHate]

However, if you compare that to the number of employee-hours that go into maintaining their file

Unfortunatly in many business, this cost is not ever considered.

[eltf177]

The bank has made a lot of money off Betty from interest and fees. However, if you compare that to the number of employee-hours that go into maintaining their file (collections, following up on insurance, etc.), I doubt the bank is making anything on this customer.

In the end how much of this "profit" is going to be illusional due to having to be written off as a bad debt?

[Ghel]

The bank has made a lot of money off Betty from interest and fees. However, if you compare that to the number of employee-hours that go into maintaining their file (collections, following up on insurance, etc.), I doubt the bank is making anything on this customer.

Before the bank changed hands, about 5 years ago now, the old management felt that they should work with Betty as much as possible. I think it was mostly because hers is one of only four restaurants in town and they didn't want the bad publicity if it went under. As I mentioned earlier, we can't defend ourself if someone bad-mouths the bank, due to privacy laws.

[eltf177]

Probably they are making bank on the interest, as it were

I see no profit here myself...

[Tama]

Probably they are making bank on the interest, as it were

[eltf177]

A seven year story, wow.

This is why I find it hard to believe it's taken this long for Ghel's bank to finally start putting their foot down on Betty and her shenanigans...

[Tama]

A seven year story, wow.

[eltf177]

BTW, for those of you unaware there is another Betty thread - http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=89989

She's still playing the same games...

[earl colby pottinger]

Inheritance

She'll be back in the same position in a month. Two at the outside. She'll do the same thing I've seen many customers do when they suddenly found themselves with a large sum of money they weren't accustomed to. She'll spend it on crap she doesn't need. Or the IRS will take it. But in any case, she'll be out the money within a few months, and back in the same boat she's in now, trying desperately to bail out water before she sinks.

When my Mom died I inherited enough money to last me four to five years, instead it only lasted me two plus years because I spent it too fast.

This month sold my cabin up north that I could no longer use because of my stroke, so what did I do with the money?

I paid off my tax-free savings, put aside money to pay the income taxes next year and bought two different company stocks.

I still will end up spending the money, but this time I will have the money stored away in places that force me to consider what I am spending the money on, and it will not be a wave of a bank card away. I wish I had done this two years ago, I would infact be richer now since many of the stocks have increased in price.

[eltf177]

But in any case, she'll be out the money within a few months, and back in the same boat she's in now, trying desperately to bail out water before she sinks.

Betty and her husband don't seem to be taking this very seriously, and somehow I doubt they will until the gentleman from the IRS shows up to "help them"...