Keep trucking with humor.(member greeting)

Sometimes managing business risk isn't about buying the right amount of credit insurance, obtaining a credit report, or analyzing financial statements, but rather dealing with the totally unexpected things that happen in the course of conducting business: the customer who's having a bad day, technical difficulties, the weather, or even a self-inflicted embarrassment. All have the great potential to create a laugh or two and give you a lift that lasts.

I have worked in credit for a long time and have had several different jobs--some very boring, some very stressful--and it wasn't always fun ... at least not until I started working at Arias Van Lines. Atlas is a motor carrier that is engaged in the movement of household goods and other commodities throughout the United States and internationally. Here are a few of my more laughable memories while at Altas.

Once, we moved an employee of a famous talk show host. It was a large move with lots of expensive furniture. When we got ready to make delivery, the owner of the goods didn't have the funds to pay, so the furniture went into storage. We tried to collect before auctioning the goods but were told the man had died. So, after auctioning the goods and paying all the expenses, we put the leftover funds in escrow while searching for heirs. Well, what do you know, the man came back to life to claim the funds. He told us he hadn't died after all; he was only in prison.

One year, I could have actually influenced a World Series game. The business manager of a famous baseball player called in for authorization and I refused it. I wanted to talk to the owner of the credit card. "Please lady," he said, "he's on the field getting ready to bat." Well, I took the card and that's the year his team won the Series. I like to think what might have happened if I had called him off the field!

Right after 9/11 we moved a man from the West Coast who told us he was blind. Not long after we ...