Paying The Fair

(My fiancée often travels to Vancouver for business, doing day trips. This particular day, he sends me a text once he has checked into his flight at the airport in Calgary saying that he forgot his wallet at home. Sure enough, it’s on the nightstand. He isn’t concerned about ID as he has a passport, but has no idea how he’ll get around Vancouver during the day with no cash, credit cards, or debit cards. Having arrived in Vancouver, he flags down a cab. As soon as he opens the door of the car:)

Fiancée: “Hi, I just want to be upfront with you right now that I left my wallet at home in Calgary and so I’m not sure if you will be able to accept my credit card number by memory, or I downloaded the E-Cab app that seems to be popular here, so before you take me anywhere I just need you to know that.”

Cabbie: “We’ll figure it out. Hop in.”

(They drive to the downtown office where my fiancée’s meeting is. The cabbie calls his dispatch to see what options my fiancée has. The dispatch advises them that they can do a manual credit card entry. After spending a few minutes figuring how to do that, the cabbie is unable to complete the transaction as the machine prompts for an authorization card, which he does not have. The cabbie calls his dispatch again and they say they can run the charge remotely from their office.)

Fiancée: *handing over his business card* “Here is my work cell number, my work email address, my personal email address, the credit card number, everything you need. If you have ANY issues having that charge processed, please do not hesitate to contact me.”

Cabbie: “No problem, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Hey, you said you have no cash or anything on you?”

Fiancée: “That’s right. Left everything at home but my passport.”

Cabbie: “How are you going to eat today?”

Fiancée: “Oh, I have coworkers waiting. I’m sure one of them can spare me some money for lunch.”

Cabbie: “If I had any cash on me, I’d give it to you just to be sure…”

Fiancée: “That’s incredibly kind of you; you’ve done more than enough!”

Cabbie: “Okay, well, have a good day; hopefully it gets better from here!”

Fiancée: “Thank you, for everything!”

(The cab company did end up calling my fiancée to verify the story and confirm the fare amount. My fiancée asked the accountant to double whatever he had previously written down for a tip and ensured the company knew what a great driver they had. I was glad to hear the story later, knowing someone took care of him for me!)