I like my shoes. Not in a girlie, “Oh my god aren’t these just divine!” kind of way. In the way that I have had them for a few years, and they are very comfortable now. So, when they need repairing, I repair them rather than risk buying some new ones (they were quite expensive, it is not that I am tight).
I dropped them in to be resoled at a local shoe repairer, and then a few days later popped back in to pick them up.
“Hello, I would like to pick up my shoes please.”
“Sure, here you go. That’ll be £26 please.”
I reach into my wallet and hand over a card.
“Oh, sorry, we don’t take credit cards.”
I grumpily put back my credit card, and swapped it for a debit card.
“Err, or debit cards. We only take cash. The banks make enough money out of me already.”
“Cobblers!” I said, having waited almost thirty years to say that to an actual cobbler (despite growing up spitting distance from Northampton, if you can spit fifteen miles). It is possible I suppose that subconsciously I have only been getting my shoes repaired all this time, simply to await a moment like this.
But now I was stuck. I only had £20 in cash on my person, but I really needed the shoes.
“I’m sorry, but that’s our policy, it says so on the door” he commented, ignoring my cobblers pun that no-one will ever have made before and whilst pointing at the postage stamp sized notice on the shop door.
“It’s a bit backwards isn’t it, cash only? Where did you send them to be repaired, 1975?”
“Yeah, funny, but I’m not giving the banks any more money from me, it costs me a lot to use cards as payment for small things.”
“But now I have to go to a cash point, which is out of my way, then come back here, so it is actually costing me, the customer here, more money to do business with you.”
“I see your point. Do you want the shoes?” he asked, bringing a swift end to the debate.
“Well, yes!”
“The nearest cash point is in the town.”
I returned that lunchtime after using my valuable break to visit a cash machine. He was not there and his assistant cobbler was even less interested in my plight. Nor did he offer me the opportunity to say, “Cobblers!” again. Which was disappointing.
Honestly, I will not return to that place. Unless I can not find another place that does repairs when I next get a hole in my shoe.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
He’s right though. If he set up credit/debit card arrangements, he’d have to put up his charges to pay for them and that would not be fair on people like me who pay cash to small businesses. It’s the banks’ fault for overcharging – his only error is in not having a business close to a cashpoint.
Still, it gave you an opportunity for a splendid bon mot.
Damn to the places that dont accept cards.
Its like the places that dont do chip and pin yet, its pretty much the only reason I ever still use a pen.
Most places have enough of an IQ to put up a “£10 minimum spend for credit cards” notice so they can accept cards for the big, £26-level transactions where it’s worth their while, whilst not getting stung for the charges when people are only in to get a new key cut.
Though the prices they charge for new keys these days, you need a bloody credit card anyway…
Sounds like the bloke is a bit of a heel. If he cant afford the charges he must be on his uppers. There again maybe he was he a sole trader?
That Nick Leasing lives near you Angry. You remember him the brogue trader, mind you so does Daniel Day Lewis who was in that film “Last of the Moccasins”
Well I am tipping my hat to such a splendid example of one of the tradespeople pointing his finger at the usurers and saying “pah!”
I only ever use cash and employ a small Filipino girl to secrete it in her special place, for added fragrance when making purchases.
Credit is for the poor and the stupid.
z – I wasn’t even wearing a hat?
Oli – Honestly, it was like stepping back in time.
Dominic – It was worth his while as he still got his £26…
Billyboy & MrsF – any other puns you’d like shoehorn in there?
S Hamilton – I find a wallet works just as well. When I don’t lose it.
Next time tell him you only barter, and proffer a couple of shiny chickens in payment.
Actually, if you take a little time to comparison bank shop you can get these charges down to very little indeed. He is clearly not a canny buyer, so may not be a very canny businessman, and is likely overcharging you anyway (if you’re paying £26 for a new heel you’re getting overchanged).
£26??????????? WTF are they?? Solid gold shoes????