It costs nothing to say THANK YOU
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-02-11 07:18:45 - Graham EllisIf someone spends a time writing you a letter, and does so above and beyond the call of duty of their job, then it's an act of kindness and a brief "thank you" is called for - at least in my book. In times gone by, that meant scribbling a note on a piece of paper, putting a stamp on it and popping it in the post, or picking up the phone and making a quick call. But these days, with nearly all my correspondence being on line, it's even easier and even cheaper. It costs nothing but a couple of minutes of someone's time to say "Thank you".
Sadly, there's a number of people out there who don't. I've surmised, even think of acknowledging help and advise given. I'm afraid that I can even see something of a trend in my incoming mail box and make an educated guess as to which ones are unlikely even come back with the minimal of courtesy - and they're NOT necessarily the ones you would expect either! However, there are lots of exceptions to every trend and I will continue to go on answering even the errant groups; I'm more easily surprised by any politeness shown, and I often learn things as I research my answer.
As I wrote this piece, I did a search back through the blog looking for "rude old people". I was thinking of an incident in Torquay where a sprightly pensioner couple forced my stepson off the pavement and into the track of oncoming cars, acting as if they owned the road. And what I came up with was the cow (sorry - that's unfair to cattle) who queue jumped on the Geek Cruise. The reason I'm seething today is that I took time out to research and answer a woman who wrote with a proud "I am 70 and" in her email asking for help ...