One shouldn't laugh but
I used to work for a rather large auction house (but not one of the big two). We once got a fax from a french chap who was selling a rather nice european work of art through us but it turns out that he had some special requests. We were not allowed to sell it to (amongst others) Princess Di, Saddam Hussein, The Gettys, Mr Bush... and if we did sell it then we weren't allowed to send him a cheque as he was afraid of international burglars. It did sell and a few months later I got a letter from the chap's dad saying that his son was a schizo and he had power of attorney, shouldn't have sold it etc...

But best one was the welsh bloke who used to phone up every month when he got his statement which said he owed us £105. Everytime he got one he would swear blind that he didn't owe us anything (in a nice Ivor the Engine accent). We knew he had Alzheimers so he could never remember what it was about. How we laughed.
(We did write the debt off. After a few months)
(bowser, Fri 2 Jan 2004, 10:58, Reply)