Gasoline is going up again. Postage is going up again.  My water bill is up as is the electric bill.  I stopped at a McDonalds the other day to take a short break and get a burger.  While sitting in the booth relaxing for a few minutes before getting back on the road, I glanced at my register receipt and noticed that I was charged 50 cents for the pleasure of eating in the “dining room”.  Yep, a surcharge for eating in!

With all the cheapskates and money squeezers I’ve experienced in the mortgage field services business, I really thought I was at the point where nothing would surprise me about how low some people will go for an extra nickle.  As usual, a mortgage field services company broke through my numbed view of the business and really hit a new low.

We raised our rates shortly after meeting with our accountants in April.  I got a call today from the director of field services at one of our client companies.  He wanted us to drop our prices back down to the previous rate.  Here is the logic he presented:  We are going to be in the area anyway working for the other companies.  Since we are going to be there anyway, we could afford to do his inspections for less!

My automated survival brain waves began creating visions of Ebenezer Scrooge and baked turkey.  Surely, Ebenezer is an idol for this man.  He is striving to be just like Ebenezer by squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, and making his barely paid employees work Christmas Eve in freezing-cold offices – in Florida!

Now here’s the funny part:  I know he probably needs the discount so he can continue to make payments on the three automobiles valued over $60,000 each that are registered in his name; or make the mortgage payment on his personal residence assessed at $537,000; or buy more gasoline for his 38 foot sport fisherman boat he uses to entertain other tightwads.

I promised to consider his request if he could get the other companies to call me and say they will subsidize his business.  I think that’s fair, don’t you?