Here's A Man Who Cares About His Parking

[jimmybop]

It was in 1989 that a shabbily dressed man went up to a
teller at the U.S. Bank of Washington in Spokane, and asked
her to validate his 60 cent parking ticket. She refused.
The man asked to talk to a bank manager about the matter.
The manager also refused. So 59-year-old John Barrier with-
drew all the money he had on deposit -- $1 million -- and
took it down the street to the Seafirst Bank. "If you have
$1 in a bank or $1 million, I think they owe you the cour-
tesy of stamping your parking ticket," he said.

 

[abaldacci]

i agree with him good for him

 

[Zurg]

This is why it is important to KYC.
Know Your Customer.

 

[Saffron]

Hee hee!! I love stories like this!

My favorite story is one about Gerry Garcia. No one would wait on him at some luxery car dealership. No one that is except an older gentleman. Gerry liked him so much, he bought a couple of cars (so the man got a whopping commesion) and he bought the man a brand new car in his choice of color! Never judge a book by it's cover!!

Elvis Presley used to do stuff like that too!!

 

[Jeff in BigD]

I'd probably do the same. It shouldn't matter what the cost of the parking is or what the size of the account is, it's the principle.

 

[nativetxn]

I love this story! Good for him

 

[kylara]

Maybe it is me, but I have a different take on this story. Most companies only validate parking if you did business in that store/company. Did the man do business in the bank that day. If not, validating his parking was not in order. Usually when banks, malls, etc have paid parking, it is with an outside vendor which means someone pays for the parking when it is validated. So I could see not validating the parking having nothing to do with the man being shabily dressed but the fact he didn't do business with the bank that day. And as for the know you customer...with most banks being multi-branched...even multi-state that is not so easy, 'specially if they didn't do any business that day. Ironically, after the took all the money out, he would have then had an actually reason to have his parking validated...since he then did do business at the bank that day.

I know that the college I work for can validate parking for the Downtown Center that we have. However, they will only validate parking for people who do not work for the college (we get reimbursed a different way) and only those that are doing business with the college since the college then has to pay for each person they validate parking for to the outside parking management company.