Paying the Price

After the first week of Jordan trying to sell to predominately LDS people, he has come to the same disheartening reality that I arrived at today. When it comes to money, we, meaning most LDS people, are stingy and even many times, feel entitled to not having to pay full price, or asking price of anything... I believe in trying to get the best product for my dollar..but I find it very unattractive, the person who always tries to 'wheel and deal' everything in life - tries to get sellers 'bottom line' to be only advantages to one of the party's - or tries to always 'get a steal', emphasis on the word 'steal'.
Last week, I had a mother and daughter come into my office for a consultation for braces. After the initial exam with the doctor, I learned that they were LDS and in our stake. I have been given the privilege to, at my discretion, give discounts to family members, best friends and/or LDS members and have many times, used that prerogative to help out some people I know. But I don't do it all the time, usually only with those I know well. But these members happened to be serving in the stake with a dear friend of mine , and because it was a dear friend of mine, I felt inclined to extend the discount. The original case fee was $5800 - I gave an initial discount and then also added an LDS discount, just because I could. It took the fee down to $4700 instead. Today, that mother called me and disappointingly said that I hadn't given her enough on their discount, claiming that I had initially told her the fee was $5300 and then should have discounted off the $1100 dollars, making the case $4200 instead. I looked in my notes as she asked me what the initial quote had been. I usually just write down the final quoted fee..as I did this time. I was stunned..feeling very awkward at the position I was being placed in. I told her we didn't even have a $5300 case fee - only $5800 and $5400.. We ended up hanging up after about 5 minutes and her saying she must have misunderstood the amounts of the LDS discount, but expressing she expected it.
Okay, the poor patient after that phone call should have NEVER said 'is that all you can do for me?' AFTER I gave them a $500 discount. It didn't help that they were Indian (dot, not feather) who traditionally ask 2-3 times for more discounts..so when asked the question, I politely said ,"This is what I offer you" and I went back to the original price without a single discount.
I stewed over the situation for the rest of the day. Do you go to the grocery store, take a gallon of milk to the counter and ask, 'what discount can you give me on this?' Or do you go to the hospital and say 'can I only pay this much on an MRI?'
Today, I gave my last discount. At the end of the day, I closed up my books, came home and called the member of the stake..had to leave a message from 'SISTER' Lott saying that I would go ahead and give the additional $500 discount and hoped this would be satisfactory to her. I most likely will not have many discussions with her as she comes in to the office.

We have two young men attending our ward this summer as they attempt to sell pest control in this area. One is even married, here without his wife, trying to earn money to pay bills and pay for school tuition, much like Jordan in Oregon. I asked these young men over to dinner. I can't use their pest control as we are just renting and our landlord already uses another service. But I can help them in other ways by trying to reduce their expenses. I consider them just as the missionaries. They don't get paid weekly, bi-weekly or even by the month. They get paid at the end of their contract, which is at the end of summer. This too, is just like Jordan. And this isn't easy. They work 10-12 hour days, with 90% of the time being rejected by LDS mom's and dad's. I'm not saying we should be purchasing every product that gets brought to our front door. But many of these 90% members are saying they 'don't even have time to LISTEN' to these boys. That's not nice. No-one is THAT busy all the time. Maybe a day here or there they honestly don't have the time...so invite them back another day. By the end of a week of 90% rejection, they are feeling pretty worthless. Then as the mother of that 'worthless salesman' or 'discouraged missionary', we have a lot of broken hearts to try and mend.
Enough of my day...I feel bad that I no longer have the desire to give anyone, let alone the LDS patient, my kind hearted discount. You will have to catch me on the best of days or be one of my dearest of friends to save any money from me.
And lesson most importantly learned? I NEVER want to be one of those people known to others as 'tight wad', 'stingy' , or the one who only goes for 'the steal'. There are always two sides to a deal - I want the other person walking away feeling they too were treated fairly.