I know your boss, so I expect a discount.

Has anyone ever worked for a company where the company name includes what seems to be someone's first name?

Our family surname doubles as a first name.

Most first names surnames have an S on the end, such as Andrews, Collins, Edwards, etc.

But occasionally you get the ones without the S, such as psychic John Edward.

We owned a breakdown towing service in Australia. A lot of people decided that they should get

free towing or reduce rates. Our company name was our surname with an S followed by towing service.

Let's use Philip, not our real name. All right, so the company name would be Phillips towing service, I guess.

Practically every week, I would get a phone call from someone saying that they were a friend of Phillips,

and he had told them they could have a free tow, or a $10 toow.

In Sydney, most basic towing starts around $60 for a tow around a corner.

My response would be, which member of the Phillips family, sir?

It was always a male. They would say, what do you mean? I know Philip. Philip is a surname, sir,

and there are four members of the family who work in the business. Who are you friends with sir? Click.

Obviously, these people didn't care if the person who organized the

tow got fired for not getting paid or not charging enough. They were entitled to use the service

for free or for their decided amounts. When I was working as a receptionist, I had someone ring one

day and tell me that they were my boss's doctor. I called my boss and said that there was someone

on the phone who said he was the boss's doctor and the boss told me to put the call through.

It turned out to be someone who was selling timeshares who had worked out a way of getting

past a receptionist to their target. After that, I asked the name so I could confirm who was

actually calling.

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