Would you steal ... petrol? ... a training course?
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2005-11-26 08:43:26 - Graham Ellis
Would you drive into a garage, fill your car with fuel that your passenger had promised to pay for, but then drive off without paying when your passenger wouldn't pay after all? If you did, then it would be theft.
Would you book yourself onto a training course, spend four days learning about PHP and enhancing your skill set and job prospects, then just say you would "rather not" pay for it when some third party who said they would foot the bill doesn't do so after all? If you did, then it would be theft.
We're lucky. We're very VERY lucky. 92% of our customers are real gentlemen (and 7% are real ladies) - a pleasure to train and we know we're going to be paid the agreed amount for the training given. Occasionally - very VERY occasionally - we have a spot of bother and even then it will be resolved, 9 times out of 10, by a slightly sharper letter, email or phone call.
So we find ourselves at present in a unique position. A man who sat at our dining table, who learnt PHP in our home, filled in his review to say what a great course he had, would "rather not" pay for it. He's been promised that a third party has arranged finance with a fourth party for it, however it seems that there's a communication failure (or a failure of desire to sort it out) somewhere down the line.
If my passenger refused to pay when I filled up with fuel in a garage even though I understood him to have agreed to make the payment, then I would pay and take it up with my passenger later. That might mean it was the last time that my passenger WAS my passenger, and it might mean that I ended up footing the bill personally in the end - but more fool me for filling up on the understanding in the first place.
I'm glad that our current situation is unique - a first time. It means that I can make every effort necessary to recover the debt without it impacting too much on other commitments. It means that I can raise a small claims court case secure in the knowledge that it's "just" a day of my time that would be taken up. Of Course, I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope that Mr Xxxxx Xxxx is ashamed enough of his behaviour to settle his debt ... and if it means a few less weekend trips from the East Midlands to Somerset for him with his girlfriend, he should remember that his PHP skills will, nurtured, earn him a salary for years to come whereas a few sexy weekend breaks will soon be forgot.