Page 188 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

because I had noticed a trend of your lone buyer not only delaying the
payment but his increasing the delay in payment of the bills with every
passing month. This was a sign of weakening financial position of the buyer
and you should be careful in dealing with this buyer." But he dismissed my
concern saying, "I know my customer more than you know him as you have
just come to Hong Kong and have never done business yourself." He very
curtly told me not to send any reminder to his buyer in future. I understood
the reason given by him and assured him I would not worry for him then-
onwards if he felt so much annoyed. I found this customer very arrogant
and not amenable to reason for my taking this step.

However, he showed up at the branch in the next week, met the Chief
Manager and invited all the four Expatriate Managers to a lunch. It was
a usual affair here for customers inviting bankers and bankers inviting
their customers on a few occasions for lunch or dinner. This was not only
a good networking opportunity but also helped in gathering market
information on various other customers during talks over food and drinks.

On the appointed day, we reached the restaurant for lunch. We had our
lunch and wanted to head back for work as it was a full working day. We
came down to the street to take leave of him. He took out the copy of
the reminder letter sent by the branch to his buyer, from the pocket of
his jacket and said to the Chief Manager, "I think I can tear off this letter
now." The remarks were very embarrassing but Chief Manager said
nothing and we left. I had first time in my life met such an arrogant and
ill-mannered customer who thought he could buy his own terms by
offering lunch to the Bank Managers. What the customer meant was that
he could ignore the letter after he had offered us a lunch as if we sent a
letter because we wanted to create an opportunity for his inviting us to
lunch or dinner. The old saying came perfectly alive here, "There are no
free lunches in this world." I got very upset with the Chief Manager for
not responding to uncalled for comments of the customer on the spot.

The delay in payment of bills beyond the due dates by the sole buyer of

A Banker down the Rabbit Hole | 185