Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 08:59:33 -0400
From: Joe <yojoe@whataguy.org>
To: balloon hq <balloon@balloonhq.com>
Subject: re: overtime

 I keep an eye on the line, and when I'm down to the last half hours
worth of people, I hand out tickets. I give out enough tickets to handle
40 minutes worth of balloons. ( I buy rolls of tickets at carnival
supply houses.) No one gets a balloon without a ticket. I continually
announce this. When my time is up, I'll announce that I'm leaving, but I
will honor those with tickets. This allows me about 10 minutes of
overtime, which makes you look like a decent person, but not some dumb
sap who gets taken advantage of. And when I'm done, I'm done.

If  there is  a huge line, I might  do this for the last hour, not half
hour. I tell them I would rather let ‘em know now, than to make anyone
wait for an hour, and not get one.


Another thing you can do is have a sign posted with your hours.
“Balloons 12-3“ , or whatever. Put it at some distance from you, so when
someone gets to the line at 2:45 and sees 15 people in front of them
holding tickets, according to the sign you are leaving in 15 minutes,
and they hear your ticket announcements, hopefully  they'll get the
idea. If you give them enough warnings, by the time they get to you they
have no reason to complain, and it was their decision to stand in line
for nothing.

If anyone whines, Ill say. “I‘d love to make more, but I have to be
somewhere”, ( like another gig, or in my car driving home). If they
still whine, tough. They are probably like that everywhere they go, and
are just unpleasant people.  And they are probably used to being turned
down for stuff ‘cause they pull this all the time. (And at the event,
they most likely pulled the same stunt with all the rest of the vendors)
It sounds harsh, but remember, decent people understand you have to go
and won't complain.

Joe