Some people
That is the title of an old song by Cliff Richard. The text came on my mind after the mail I got from Br. Gr from America. Some months earlier he had asked to buy a book, but unfortunately I had none left. He was disappointed, I knew Peter Fox from England had some left and I asked him if he could send me one. Peter did so, and I was kind of embarrassed that he paid the maling cost, that were higher than the cost for the book itself. But anyway, I could make the American happy. I gave the bank information that he needed for the payment but nothing happened.
He only kept on asking for the book. I said after payment. His reaction was his bank was unable to pay, because they never dealt with foreigners. I advised him to go to another bank. Same story. I found it strange, so many Americans had paid before, never problems.
AND THEN
Then he asked if he could pay by Western Union. I was not happy with that for so little money. My wife went to a post office that cooperated with Western Union before. But that was history she was told. I looked up some addresses in other towns. We found some and she went there with the number we got from Br. Gr. They checked the number but could not pay me out. She went to another address, same story. Somethng was wrong with the number. I told Br Gr what happened and he asked if I had another idea. I told him ‘give a good friend some cash and let him pay by bank like everybody does.’ The reaction that I got was shocking. ‘I paid you once, not again.’ And also: The local banks do not deal with foreigners, because they are not to be trusted. Now it appeared they were right and I was such a foreigner. I could not believe my eyes.
One of the nice things of pigeon sport are the nice contacts with people from all over the World. But honestly speaking sometimes I feel ashamed to be a pigeon fancier. Thanks God people like Gr are an exception. I do not know how many hours of our valuable time was wasted on this guy, therefore I did not answer. I did not want to waste one more minute on him. I was too ashamed to tell my wife who had to walk 2 x 20 minutes to an office that cooperated with Western Union.
But I can tell you it hurts to get such a reaction after all that we did trying to help 'a foreigner'. How can a civilised person, frtom wherever in the world, say that foreigners are not to be trusted? And...Can you believe we are talking about a stupid book?