How do you say thanks from a distance?

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Anon1234
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How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Anon1234 »

I want to say thanks to a lawyer and an insurance salesperson who helped me out big time in the last month or so. I don't know either of these people other than as a consumer of their services. They live hundreds of miles from me. Neither of them charged me for their services. If I were to place a value I'd say the lawyer's advice was worth about $250 and the insurance salesperson's advice was near priceless to me, but probably took 2-3 hours to gather. Say it's worth $500-700 based on time. I like to say thanks to both of them and willing to spend about half the values above, respectively. In addition to the free service they were both pleasant, and helpful, and followed up, even after it became obvious I wasn't going to buy anything from them.

ideas.....
Send them each a cookie or fruit basket (that'll be one big fruit basket for the insurance person).
Send them each a cash card.
That's what I've got so far. Any other ideas?

Cheers!
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nisiprius
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by nisiprius »

It's the thought that counts. Just don't procrastinate because of being unsure what to give them. Whatever you send, be sure that it includes a piece of paper with your handwriting on it and your personal "tone of voice" in the wording.

Actually, a Harry & David Fruit-of-the-Month club seems designed exactly for what you want to do... it's not too hard to rack up several hundred dollars' worth of gift, indeed I see the "original" Fruit-of-the-Month Club costs $317.50, and it's reasonably safe--no storage problem, it gets eaten, its pretty easy to bring to work and give away, etc. They have good quality control. The only real objection is that their fruit costs about 5-10 times as much as at the supermarket and it is good but it is NOT 5-10 times as good,
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LadyGeek
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (compensation for services).
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lhl12
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by lhl12 »

If I were the recipient, I would much rather get a $50 amazon.com gift card than a $300 fruit-of-the-month gift. And I like fruit.
sambb
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by sambb »

amazon gift card is the way to go.
Xanadu
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Xanadu »

I second Harry and David. Their fruit is bomb diggity.
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Blue
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Blue »

gift card to local high end restaurant
KyleAAA
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by KyleAAA »

A fruit basket or Amazon gift card or whatever would probably be greatly appreciated, but I bet what they would appreciate MOST is if you gave them rave reviews on every conceivable review site you can find online (is there a Yelp for lawyers/insurance agents?) and recommended them to all your friends. Send out a tweet, post about them on facebook, etc. Give them the gift of referral business.
Woodshark
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Woodshark »

KyleAAA wrote:A fruit basket or Amazon gift card or whatever would probably be greatly appreciated, but I bet what they would appreciate MOST is if you gave them rave reviews on every conceivable review site you can find online (is there a Yelp for lawyers/insurance agents?) and recommended them to all your friends. Send out a tweet, post about them on facebook, etc. Give them the gift of referral business.
This and a nice hand written thank you note would be perfect.
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Anon1234
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Anon1234 »

KyleAAA wrote:A fruit basket or Amazon gift card or whatever would probably be greatly appreciated, but I bet what they would appreciate MOST is if you gave them rave reviews on every conceivable review site you can find online (is there a Yelp for lawyers/insurance agents?) and recommended them to all your friends. Send out a tweet, post about them on facebook, etc. Give them the gift of referral business.
That is something I hadn't thought about. Thanks for the idea.
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pennstater2005
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by pennstater2005 »

Definitely agree with the handwritten note. That always goes a long way.
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by sport »

The last time I gave a fruit basket, I found a very nice selection at costco.com. Of course, the prices were attractive as well.
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Anon1234
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Anon1234 »

Personal notes + Harry and David. Done. Thanks all!
Lai0703
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Lai0703 »

My BF is a Private Investigator and did some work for a friend of a friend, no charge. She sent him a very generous gift card to one of the nicest restaurants in the city, someplace we would probably never go to otherwise. You could Yelp a place in their city for ideas.
2retire
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by 2retire »

If you are going to post something online abut them helping you out and providing great advice, just be sure NOT to mention that they did it for free. The last thing they may want is everybody coming to them expecting free advice.
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ram
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by ram »

I am a physician. I recently got a 15-20 line handwritten note from a lady whom I have never met before. This letter said that her husband (my patient) had passed away. That he spoke frequently about me and thought highly about me. It was a very nicely written letter. I will hold on to it for many years.

A hand written note goes a long way in such situations.
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by Alex Frakt »

My wife is a lawyer. She receives gifts a couple of times a month including flowers, wine, liquor, chocolates, Harry & David collections/subscriptions, thank you notes, and cash. Also a few oddball objets d'art such as a framed "painting" of flowers made up of bits of leather. I just asked her and she prefers the flowers and wine/champagne. I thought she'd go for the cash, but she finds cash gifts "inelegant".

So consumables are good. They can easily be handed on if the recipient isn't interested. She does like the idea of giving a positive web review.

OTOH, please don't give art. Also, if you are planning on being very generous, please check with the recipient to see if your proposed gift makes sense. For example, a client gave her 2 bottles of wine that auction for around $500 each. We appreciate the gesture, but as a gift it's a failure. Neither of us are oenophile enough that we would be able to enjoy drinking something that expensive and so we are left with trying to figure out how to sell it without getting shafted. We'd have been much happier with the cash or a couple of cases of $40 wine.
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BrandonBogle
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Re: How do you say thanks from a distance?

Post by BrandonBogle »

I like many of the suggestions others have said. Personally, rave reviews, handwritten notes, and Amazon would be my personal preference. Just please do not send them a Visa/MC/AmEx gift card. These are considered cash equivalents and may be against their conpany policy (guess that applies more to the insurance guy) to accept. For instance, my company does NOT allow us to accept cash or cash equivalents in ANY denomination. Flowers, chocolates, wine, gift basket, etc. are all fine though.
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