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A Year End Revue - a little late

Selling knives is not a straightforward matter. Amongst the highlights last year was an email from a man who said he was in the middle of a jungle and would I immediately send him precise instructions as to how to light a fire with his knife. Another interesting communication was from China with a picture of a knife which gave every appearance of being run over by a tram which I was accused of selling some eighteen months before and it had malfunctioned and I was being asked to replace it. Turning down the offer I now receive large numbers of emails in Chinese presumably abusing me but perhaps the key ingredient of effective abuse is to send it in a language the recipient understands.

Even our genial British post office has changed. The office can be surrounded by anti ram posts and the clerk sits behind armour plated glass. When you post anything larger than an envelope the clerk holds up a chart which displays amongst other things pictograms of bombs and machine guns and asks you if your padded envelope contains any of these.

Misunderstandings are now frequent. One lady in front of me handed over a money to be changed and on receipt of the money started shouting what's this, what's this, last week I got more give me my money now. To which the clerk behind his armoured screen responded - fluctutations. The lady who did not appear to understand what he meant retorted fluctutations to you to, fluctutating English, fuctutating post office. And so you can see life in not easy at the coal face of knife sales. regards Malcolm http://www.sheffield-gb.com

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on January 23, 2014 at 4:35

ROFL, which I shouldn't be Malcom! I love the email from the jungle but better is the consistency of postal services everywhere. I often wondered if anyone answered the question, is it a bomb with a yes? If you are like me the same post office sees me and my packages at a minimum of once a week. They know my name and and address by heart. Seems if I were going to mail something "not right" I wouldnt hand them something with well know information on it LOL

Terribly sorry that the knife did not live through the tram accident, what a waste of a tool. But berating you every week must be entertaining for them so at least we know they have something to do even if they no longer have a knife they dont remember where they purchased.

I do hope that 2014 does not bring any additional crazy folks on the scene, they sure make everyday life hard afterwards

Jan

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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by M. Carpenter on January 23, 2014 at 11:14

The interesting thing is that they do not assume that if you are posting a bomb you speak English so they hold up a little chart with pictures to make it easier for you to pick out the offending piece of kit in your padded envelope. The British post office now specialises in making posting things as difficult as possible.

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on January 23, 2014 at 15:35

I don't get it. I get the same line of questioning when I send out something in a padded envelope. Thing is, when I use the priority boxes, they aren't questioned.