Klarinet Archive - Posting 000198.txt from 2007/09

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Howarth of London
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:45:57 -0400

Tom,

Let us know the outcome.

Years ago before a trip to London a colleague gave me a list of sheet
music to buy for him in a store well known for its extensive
collection. I purchased what I could on his list, paid for it and
went on my way. On returning home, I received a letter of apology
from the store that it had erred in the purchase amount and that I
still owed 2 pounds 7 pence. So I brought it to my colleague's
attention and he wouldn't have anything to do with it. He added up
all the prices marked on what I had bought and came to a value which
was exactly what I had paid. But every month I received this invoice
for 2 pounds 7 pence for the next 24 months (the postage was about 20
pence as I recall). There was no accompanying note (we take
deadbeats like you to court unless you cough up the dough), just the
invoice. Getting an international bank draft would have cost me
about 10 bucks at the time. In retrospect I ought to have put 2
1-pound notes in an envelope with 7 pence taped to a card and sent
it, but getting this monthly invoice with the postage indicated in
the corner was kind of neat, so I let them keep coming. Our next
trip was two years hence and when we got over there I went to the
place only to find out that the store had moved across London months
before, so I went to the new place which as I recall was down by the
docks in a really sleezy neighborhood with a lot of small
industry. I marched in with my invoice and announced that I was
ready to pay up. The place was a mess with boxes of paperwork piled
high and people's desks having the same appearance. The guy took a
look at my invoice and didn't know what to do. He certainly wouldn't
have been able to find my records. So I told him that I'd give him 2
pounds 7 pence and he could figure out what to do, full well
suspecting that I'd keep receiving the letters. But they stopped
coming. I guess that the appearance of the place was deceiving.

Anyway, let us know why the delay.

Oliver

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