Am I A Sucker?

When my husband was in medical school and we lived in the Bronx, we had an unnaturally close relationship with our mechanic.

He had sold us our car. He repaired it. He inspected it for the state. And he was the guy we were going to sell it back to when we were done with it.

We had originally picked him because his shop was within walking distance of our apartment. (An important consideration because our first car (which we had not bought from him) cost all of $300.)

In other words, we didn’t know this guy from a hole in the wall.

One day, though, when he was in line ahead of me in a pastry shop, I got to the cashier, my toddler on my hip, to buy my coffee and the baby’s cookie, and found that he had already paid for us.

From then on, I thought he was great.

I picked our current plumber because he puts funny things up on an LED sign in front of his shop, like “We’ll fix what your husband repaired” and “A straight flush beats a full house.”

However, hard-sell techniques do not work on me. I recently asked for online quotes for an insurance policy. Which was dumb, because now one company calls me multiple times a day, warning that I “must call NOW  because rates are going up.” For that reason alone, I am not choosing this company.

I don’t know about cars, plumbing or insurance and, let’s be honest, I’m not going to invest the time it takes to truly learn. As my husband (another guy I chose because of his sense of humor and willingness to buy me coffee) once pointed out, “Eventually, you just have to decide: ‘Do I trust them?’”