A Little Christmas Miracle

I HAVE to share this.

I’ve been going to the same water machine for like 3 years now. It’s about half a mile away and I used to walk down with my cart. Now I walk if it’s nice and take the car if it isn’t, but I go to the same machine. Once I had to call the owner for service when it was not working, and a couple times I just ran into him while I was getting my water and he was servicing the machine. He’s always been a very nice man. The people at the store where it sits have also always been very nice, and when I DO have to ask for quarters they gladly sell them to me.

Then a couple weeks ago they suddenly stopped selling quarters for the machine, and were a bit snarky about it to boot. The second time it happened with a load of snark from the new cashier, I called the owner of the water machine and left a polite message that I know this isn’t his problem but maybe he should know that they won’t sell people quarters for his machine anymore. He texted me back so fast I was still walking home. He offered to meet me at the machine with quarters – but at that point I had used the quarters I had scrounged up from around the house earlier and was headed home with the water I could get.

We have texted back and forth a few times – he’s still the nicest man. He offered to bring me some quarters, so when we got home from dialysis today I let him know we were home and the address. He drove over to our house and just handed me $15 in quarters and would not take my money. He also let me know he had found out that the store had changed ownership about two weeks ago – without his knowledge – so they have to have a new contract from him. He is setting up a meeting and he is going to talk to them about this – after all, he is also more than happy to sell quarters to them so they have enough – and asked me to please call him if I have any more problems. He told me thank you for using his machine. He told me he would be happy to bring me quarters anytime I needed more.

(Side note: Quarters are now MORE precious than GOLD – MY BANK won’t even sell me quarters)

First – he answered my message. Second – he looked into it. Third – he immediately offered to sell me quarters and Fourth – to bring them TO MY HOUSE for me. I was already over the moon – and now, he’s made a Christmas present of the quarters – refused my money. And Fifth – he let me know what is going on and that he is going to address it. He also told me anytime I need quarters he will be happy to bring more to me.

Now in MY world (born in 1959) THAT is how you run a business.

And in ANY world making it a Christmas present is awesome.