There is a certain hardware store in our town which I used to patronize very often. If this store could not supply what I wanted, I would go to another hardware store across the street and usually obtain the desired article. In this way I became acquainted with Mr. Knock and Mr. Quiet.
Mr. K. was a man who would tell everybody if he thought an injustice was done him. Mr. Q. was a man who very seldom said much and it was very difficult to get him into a conversation.
Mr. K., I noticed, had some old electric fixtures in his window and when I spoke to him of it, he began a tirade against the Company. He said that they had treated him very harshly, in fact, they went so far as to institute a lawsuit. He stated that he was entirely right in the matter, but rather than get tangled up in a lawsuit, he paid the bills, but never used the light until the contract was signed up recently. Mr. Q. had gas lights and seemed perfectly satisfied.
I saw Mr. K. very often as I passed to and from work. At times he would stop me to have a chat. As the occurrence mentioned happened about ten years ago, I tried to explain the matter from the standpoint of the Company. We became very friendly, and one day I said: “Do you believe in justice?” “Yes,” he answered. “Then you should hear both sides of this story,” I replied. And then I went on as follows:
“We have about 4,000 consumers. One of them persistently refuses to pay his bills. We cannot distinguish one from the other, so we are forced to sue. Now, unfortunately, Mr. K., you were the one to be threatened with a lawsuit. We only knew you by name (Mr. K.) and you thought of us only as a firm of hard people who liked lawsuits. It seems we were both wrong and if we had known you personally, Mr. K., we positively would not have had this aggravating misunderstanding.” I explained in detail where he had made a mistake in not notifying us to cut the current off, etc. We went deep into the matter and at last he saw that from our side of the fence we were right and from his side he had made a mistake.
He said: “Well, send me a salesman, but not the one who signed me up before. If it does not cost too much I will wire.” I had one of our salesmen go to see him and he took along an electrical contractor who promised to make his bid as low as possible. The contract was signed for six 75 W. MAZDA C LAMPS to be installed in the store. There were two narrow front windows and he had on 75 Watt Lamp put into each, with proper shades.
When the first bill reached him, he felt very much gratified and told everyone how nice electricity was, and so forth. People looked at him in amazement and wondered because he had always been knocking us before.
His brother, who owns a few houses and a store, wants electricity now. Mr. Q., across the street, fell in love with Mr. K .’s window lighting and asked me to send a salesman around. He wired up, and his son and two daughters also wired up not long afterward. All this only goes to show that it pays to talk when you spend your money. Good talks make good friends.