Yesterday I went to Boots to get enlargements done of some of the photos I took last week.
All well and good, I chose the option of instant 8x6 prints. When ready I went to the counter to pay for them only to be told by the assistant that she couldn't let me have them as they were clearly the work of a professional.
Needless to say I wasn't pleased. It took an argument and clearance from her manager but I got them in the end. Then it struck me...
The assistant had thought the work was far too good to have been done by one of their usual customers. I realised that this was flattery, albeit back-handed flattery.
Hi ho, such is life
14 comments:
Well, at least you know you've "arrived".
Haha true.. or at least that is what I would like to think!
The succinct rejoiner would have been, "Yes, I AM a professional".
There again I don't suppose too many professionals use the print service in Boots.
There again, again... you could have looked her in the eye and said, "and you are far too beautiful to be working as a shop assistant in Boots so you must be a TV presenter working on an undercover assignment, but if you don't tell on me I won't tell on you."
There again, again, again, you could have said, "If you think they're that good I'll let you have them half price."
But... what the F*** business is it of hers unless she has proof, so "Gimme the photos or call the police," may have been the thing to say. So many options, as ever.
Very impressive!
The other branch in Romford actually gets professionals so they are more relaxed about higher quality prints but still it was annoying then flattering.
I wish I had thought of the other gambits though. That probably would have gotten me arrested!
Thanks Liz!
Flattering indeed :-)
Success in small increments, eh?
Silly woman.
For years I participated in an amateur musical ensemble with an elderly German couple who lived in Houston. In "real life" they made quilts. They built immense, complicated-looking looms, fabricated their own materials and wove rugs that were so magnificent and flawless that the main crafts fair in the state of Texas refused to permit them to sell their work at the fair; they rudely said it was not hand-crafted. Eventually the couple found crafts galleries that recognized both the quality and the fact that the works were handwoven.
It seems you are facing a similar frustration. Good luck! I have really enjoyed watching your work develop (sorry; pun not intended) over the last few years, jams, and yes, you are indisputably professional now.
OT and BTW, my blog is now on WordPress... here.
It was after a fashion eh Cherie!
I was sorely tempted to do that SE!
Absolutely Susan!
Thankyou Steve. I did look back at what I was doing 5 years ago and the difference!
I have you on my blog list again too
What an odd argument.
True and I am not the first person to run afoul of this either
You should take it as badge of honor (well, honour in your neck of the woods)!
For flattery: last year in a bar in US a joker of a waiter demanded my ID with date of birth to let me have a beer. That was indeed OTT. Wanted to make a scandal but relented after half a beer....
It is a badge of honour indeed. I would have been pissed off at being ID'd for a beer though... being 27 years older than the drinking age in the USA!
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