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I'm a relatively new subscriber to The Times and Dick Yarbrough has quickly become my favorite columnist. His articles are laced with goodness, love and wisdom.
So you can understand why I was shocked when I read his April 10 column, "The customer does still come first." His comments read: "I was a tad miffed (to put it mildly), they fired me before I could tell them to allocate their assets where the sun doesn't shine" and " while this snit was under way ..."
Wow. It sounds like Mr. Yarbrough threw a fell-blown tantrum at the office of his investment firm. It seems the snit was caused when he didn't have time to park and they wouldn't send someone down from their plush offices to pick up his check for deposit. Didn't they realize the man had a column to write? Did it ever occur to Mr. Yarbrough that this crack staff itself might have been too busy to rush down to his car? Perhaps they were helping other clients who had taken the time to come into their offices.
Following his logic, I should be able to drive to the grocery store, call their office and ask them to send someone out to my car to get my grocery list and fill it. And I should be able to go to my service station and ask them to send someone out to fill up my gas tank. I'm sure they'll jump at the chance to do it.
It's a shame Mr. Yarbrough spoiled his tribute to the recently deceased Jay Shapiro, co-owner of an art supply store, by using his column to rant about losing his temper. The extraordinary thing Mr. Shapiro did was to travel 20 miles across town at 10 p.m. to pick up an easel for Mr. Yarbrough so he could have it the next morning. Can you imagine said customer driving 20 miles across town at 10 p.m. to pick up anything for anyone?
All of us appreciate good customer service and try to frequent those businesses that provide it. So in an effort to keep Mr. Yarbrough from having a heart attack in the future, I would suggest that the next time he tells someone to jump and they don't, he should take a deep breath, count to 10, and then get his too-busy "bohunkus" out of his car and carry out his part of the business transaction like the rest of us mere mortals do on a daily basis.
I think I'll look up the investment firm with the crack staff. I admire them for having the nerve to fire a client who was clearly out of line.
In the meantime, I will continue to read and enjoy Mr. Yarbrough's entertaining columns.
Carole Branum
Flowery Branch