Unfiltered Story #216741

I worked in a laboratory serving the mining industry. My “home” laboratory had a big business in testing oil shale but when this happened I was temporarily working at another of the half dozen labs around Australia which had never done that work. So the staff there knew little of the oil shale testing. I was called to explain things to a prospective customer who had turned up with some samples he wanted testing for oil content.

He’d brought them from a remote country area and was staying with a relative, at least 50 kilometres from the lab. So by the time he got to the lab he had already put a fair bit of effort into the samples by then.

Me: “There is a charge of $35 per sample.”

Prospective customer: “Oh I thought it was free. This is a government laboratory isn’t it?”

Me: “No. But I think you’d find a government lab would make some kind of charge as well.”

With that he loaded the sacks back in the car and drove off. I didn’t hear from him again.