How my House Number got Painted on My Curb
The other day when I got home I found a note on my front door. Here is that note…
Today As a service to the residents of this area, new house numbers are to be painted on the curbs in the front of the homes in your neighborhood. These numbers will be painted within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of receiving this notice. This is important service, it enables Police, Fire, Ambulances, and repair/delivery personnel to locate your home quickly in the case of emergency.Large black numbers on a white background will be painted with high quality paint. We estimate the value of this service to be $10.00, but there is no fixed charge, all donations large or small are greatly appreciated. In order for this service to be effective, we feel that all numbers should be painted. We will greatly paint your number at no cost to you to achieve this continuity. This service is offered on a free will donation basis to your community to ensure quicker response times of need. Thank you for your cooperation and have a great day.
Now, me and my wife like this done on our curb, so it no problem with getting this done. As a matter of fact the letter is rather well written. Here this guy is willing to paint all numbers on all the curb for each house on our street. And yes, as long as no one parks in front of the numbers, it is helpful for people to find the right address. And the way it was written gave me a choice to have it done free or pay for the service. Either way I was going to get new numbers painted on my curb.
Now this type of thing has been done for a long time. My friend Glenn would do this to earn some extra beer money. He didn’t use the letter but the concept was the same except there were no freebies. And once he had enough money he’d quit and go to store.
In many respects I admire this guy who offered this service. At least he was offering something of value in return for his request for money. Not like those people who hold up signs at the freeway off ramps.
Lesson One
Well as promised in his letter this guy painted my curb. He knocked on my door to let me know that my curb was painted. And her is were experience pays off. And my advise to everyone out there – before you pay make sure the job is done to your satisfaction. My excitement was soon turned to disappointment. Here was my newly painted numbers. But they were the wrong numbers. My house number is 445 and now my house number was 465. (kind of give a new meaning to new numbers. dosen’t it?)
Lesson two
Make it clear in a civil manner that the job was not done correctly. To the credit of this gentleman, he promptly fixed the problem. And I have my numbers back once again.
Lesson Three
When you make a mistake, admit it, suck it up and fix it promptly.
Once the job was done, I did pay him and he was on his way.
Tags: Curb Painting, entrepreneurship
