DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: "Grace" and I met a few years ago when our kids started kindergarten together, and since then we've become good friends. Recently, I mentioned to her that I'd just bought clothes from a particular online retailer, and she said: "Oh, no. Their stuff is so cheap looking. Why don't you try ..." and she named a company that sells much more expensive clothing -- clothing I can't afford. I was stung by her remark. While I realize Grace has a lot more money than I do, I can't shrug off how belittled I felt. Should I say something, or just write off the friendship?
-- A.G.
DEAR A.G.: Good thing you didn't ask Grace if your clothes made your butt look big.
Seriously, good friends are hard to come by. So say something to Grace, and don't beat around the bush. Tell her you shop where you do because they sell clothing you can afford, not because they sell clothing you'd prefer. And let her know that her remark hurt your feelings. Hopefully, she'll get the picture and not be so thoughtless in the future. If she doesn't, then maybe it is time to delete her from your list of contacts.
DEAR JEANNE & LEONARD: When my family went away for three weeks, we left our dog with a woman who dog-sits. Our plan had been to pick up "Junior" at 6 p.m. on the day we returned, but our flight was delayed. So we texted "Claire" and explained that we couldn't pick him up until 10 p.m. She responded that she and her family go to bed early and that if we couldn't get there by 9, we'd have to pick him up the next morning. So that's what we did. The thing is, Claire charged us for an extra day of dog-sitting. That's $30! We were shocked, especially since it was her schedule that kept us from picking up our dog the night before. As far as she was concerned, though, since Junior had spent an extra night at her house, we owed her an extra 30 bucks. Wasn't she being unreasonable?
-- The Wilsons
DEAR WILSONS: Be fair. It was the airline that prevented you from picking up Junior at least as much as it was Claire. What she did wrong, apparently, was fail to tell you her policy on evening pickups either at the time you booked her services or when you dropped off your dog. But it still wasn't unreasonable for her to charge you for an extra night, since Junior was there an extra night.
That said, Claire certainly was shortsighted. You must have paid her more than $600 to look after Junior, and she was foolish to squeeze a final ounce of blood from such a good customer, especially since you were late through no fault of your own. Moreover, it's not as if you wanted to pick up Junior at 2 a.m. If Claire wants to shutter her doggie bed and breakfast so early, she'd be wise to waive her late fee now and then.
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Family on 10/26/2016