One afternoon a few days before last Christmas, we received a call from a customer who was in quite a pickle. Luckily we were able to help her, with a bit of help from an unexpected source - my lovely dad.
The customer had broken down and been towed via first directory (first direct's roadside breakdown assistance service) to a garage. When the time came to pay her bill, the customer was stuck. She'd lost her cards a few days before and the garage wouldn't accept payment via her father's card over the phone. Being an hour away from home and the garage due to close at 6pm, she felt stranded. It was a tricky one.
Then I thought there might be an easy - if very unexpected - way to get some cash to the customer.
I called my dad.
I'd noticed that he lives near to the garage, and thought I'd see if he was around and willing to help out. When I explained the situation, he drove straight to a nearby ATM to withdraw £210 from his own account before heading to the garage to give it to the customer.
Once the customer had paid for the work she called me back to pay the money into my own account, and I redirected it back to my dad (AKA the Best Dad Ever).
My Dad said, the customer was really appreciative as she had been quite upset. It was such a good feeling to be able to lend a hand. To thank him, I bought my Dad a celebratory bottle of his favourite gin which I'm still waiting for him to share with me!