Costly lessons

In life, there are many instances when one might feel cheated –a lost opportunity that nags your mind forever. I paid a visit to my home town in connection with expediting the work of obtaining the certificates, and in my anxiety to get them done sooner, we entrusted the work to a retired person who was doing some consultancy work in his new found free time.

When I first met him along with my wife he was all business like and assured me that the work will be done without much loss of time. He made us believe that as he is not familiar with the subject, he will inquire about it and go about the same strictly as per the rules. It took him more than a month to find out what needed to be done. This instance itself should have made me extra cautious.

Another incident came by at the time of handing over the applications, which he drafted in front of us. Whenever I questioned him about the steps to be followed in the matter or the language of the draft, he brushed aside such matters. He had an annoying habit of airing his views. If I put a question to him, he may not answer me at all, but would start explaining the same matter to my wife or to others who happened to visit him at that time without explaining the background of the matter to them. For example, when I asked him about his fees, instead of stating a sum, he started narrating a story. He had taken a work for some other person and had incurred quite a large amount of money, which the other person was now not willing to pay. This person, according to him, went to the extent of explaining his clout in the society and he questioned about the genuineness of the bill. In short he was not willing to quote an amount that he would charge me, but wanted me to assure him that whatever may be the final amount, I would settle his bill without any hesitation. I was not willing to go with such an arrangement. I had seen many agents who would agree to do work without quoting their fee - this method is to allow you not to think about the payment but only the work to be done. But when the work is over they will extract their pound of flesh before they part with the product. They will later on explain why their bill is so high, as they had done the work the way you wanted or you directed. I wanted to avoid that pitfall, as I have been a victim of such things in the past. But he did not quote a figure and in spite of my initial reservation, we went ahead with the matter.

Of course I never got my work completed through him, as every time I inquired about the matter over the phone, he had a ready made answer, such as he is on the job! It went on for sometime and when I happened to personally meet him later, I found to my dismay that he had not moved an inch in the matter. He was saying that he did not meet the desired person, as he wanted to be sure about the work will be done, as rejection of the request from a person of his status, will spoil his image. He was more worried about his perceived image than the certificate which I wanted.

In the end, I did not want him to test his ability to get the certificate using his image and the clout of the post from which he retired, while all along adding the expenses to my account. It left me poorer by few hundred rupees, but I learn't a good lesson from that experience.