Wow. I am such a nice guy. No, really. I am. Of course, nice guy is spelled s-h-m-u-c-k.
What is it about me that I tend to believe people? Why do I expect people to tell me the truth? Why do I expect to be treated fairly just because I others fairly? Well, I don’t know either. But I always seem to be ending up on the ‘screwed side’ of most situations.
A while ago, a massage therapist came to me and asked about renting my front room. She told me that se worked at a spa down the street and had to get out of there. She described how the owner would do massages while wearing a bikini top, and how her clients would complain that the owner would tell them that a massage is so much better if you’ve smoked pot first. (And no, a massage is not better after smoking illegal substances. Actually, one should not work on anyone that has.) Of course, I wonder now how much of this was true.
I was told that she had found a place and was going to rent there, but needed to keep working until the state came out and did their mandatory health inspection. It was a few weeks later that I found this not to be true.
She told me how she had several people that she sees once a week, every week, and she gets plenty of referrals. She would simply line them up on a couple of days and therefore be able to cover the rent and have enough to live on. And one other thing... she told me that since these people are regulars, she charges them $35 per session.
Now, if I had someone working for me, I would be charging $60 for each hour they work, and paying them half of that. When I had others rent this room, they paid me $30 per hour. This person was asking for a daily rate. After thinking about it, I told her that I would like $50 per day, but I knew she couldn’t afford that and told her I would charge her $40. She agreed to this.
This seemed to work fine for a short while until she realized that she could not get all her people scheduled on a couple of days. The problem was that there were days when she could only schedule one person. And I understand that she did not want to do a session and then pay out more money in rent than she brought in. So she called and asked about doing a weekly rate instead. I told her to come up with an offer and I’d see if I was comfortable with it.
At one pointing here, I had to give her a set of keys because her schedule was too bizarre for me to be here to open the place for her every time she wanted to work. We also had times where I was at functions and she had people scheduled.
At any rate, I was thinking of charging her $80 per week. My wife was thinking it should be $100. But when my tenant got back to me, she offered to pay me $100 per week, and she really sold me to get that rate. She told me that I wasn’t doing any of her wash or had any other expenses. She really pushed for that number, so being higher than I had thought of, I agreed.
This went on for a short bit. Then one day she tells me that she is going to this Qi Gong class in Orlando and had to cancel several sessions to free the time so she could go. She then asked if she could pay me one week’s rent for the next two weeks. Yep, you guessed it. I said she could. Yep, shmuck.
I kept having ongoing problems with not knowing when she was going to be there. Part of my concern was so I could have all the fountains and such ready for her. (I recently found out that the mist units in my fountains should not be run more than eight hours a day. So on days she was coming in late, I would not turn on the fountains.) The other part had to do with knowing what is going on in my shop. And although I kept telling her this, she was there a lot of the time with my not knowing.
I knew she was on there on Memorial Day because she left me a voice mail telling me so. The next time I heard from her was the following Monday when she came in to do a session like it was just any ordinary day. As I was changing to go home, she yelled out that she would see me later and took off. There was nothing said about paying the rent for the previous week. At this point I was getting tired of it.
Last Friday, I left her voice mail that I would like to see her before I left. When she called back I asked when she could be there. We agreed on 5:30.
After my session which ended at 5:25, I checked my phone to find a text message... “Can’t make it by. In Saint Augustine still. I am going to put the keys in the mail slot because I decided to do onsite massage until I open my space. Thank you for everything.” Umm. I had not asked her for the keys. I had only said I wanted to see her. Of course, I feel she figured I was going to ask for them. Thank you for everything? Does that include pulling my pants down and bending over so I could get screwed easier? And I didn’t even get flowers or dinner.
I asked her about the rent for the past two weeks (keep in mind this was all texting). She asked me how I wanted. Uh? Come on now. In the short bit that this went back and forth, she told me that what I wanted was unfair and that $40 ($10 for each of the sessions she had done) was more than fair. And she could not afford any more.
She finally dropped the keys in the mail slot the next evening after making sue I was not there. She obviously did not want to talk to me.
I’m sorry, but this is a business she is running, just like I am. Guess what my landlord would say if I went to him with “Well I haven’t had enough business this month to cover the rent. Can I skip this month?” I think the response would be similar to “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
When I started out, I wasn’t able to make enough to pay rent, so it came out of my pocket. If there had been none in that pocket, then I would not be here now. What is it with people? Oh, I didn’t make what I expected so even though I committed to you, I won’t pay and you should accept that.
And the sad thing is that I have been way too lenient. I have made sure that the place was clean and the room was always ready. When I needed that room, I let her use the back room, and even had a set of speakers to plug her iPod into so she could have the music she wanted.
Looking at it, it is very obvious to me that even as she came in last Monday that she had no intention of paying rent. Her text message pretty much said that she was skipping out on it. Wow. And this is a business where we have to take mandatory classes in ethics. In my entire business career, I have never treated anyone this way. Oh, I felt like it a number of times, but never did. It creates too much bad karma.
Well, I decided that I would stand up for myself. This morning I sent her a letter and an invoice for the rent she owes me. In the letter, I explained how this came about and according to the agreement we had (which mentioned nothing about how many days she used the place or how many sessions she did), she owes me $200. I gave her 30 days to pay the invoice before I turned it over to a collection agency. I know that an agency will attempt to collect this amount, and if they can’t, it will go out in her credit history. Any time anyone checks her credit, she will have to answer questions regarding this.
Now, part of me says that I am being vindictive. At the same time, I don’t feel like saying “oh well.” If I were vindictive, I would take her to small claims court, and that could affect her license to practice massage. But that is more time and trouble than I want to take. I guess I just want to make my point that if you commit to certain things, you honor them. She can learn this lesson by paying her rent, or responding to questions the rest of her life. But it is her choice. I made the choice to stand up for my rights, not to be vindictive. It is up to her to decide how to resolve it.
I guess I am just tired of getting screwed by anyone that wants to, especially when I go out of my way to help someone in need, which was what her plea was when she was looking for a place to work.