Is this tacky, or what?

Kurt Arends

Kurt Arends

PCS Elected Director 2021-2024
Got this out of a '63 M-M Paramount ambulance. Is this not the tackiest thing you have ever seen in an ambulance? Obviously placed there when it was still in service as you will note that it reads "Master Charge", and not "Master Card".
 

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This post has to have some hidden meaning behind it, because today while looking for something, I came across this card.
 

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Does Mr. Steenberg know you have his card?

I've seen a photo of the interior of a 60's ambulance with a hand-painted sign that stated "All ambulance calls cash". At least this service allowed you to earn some airline miles towards your next flight on PanAm. :yankchain:
 
I don't remember ever noticing that the spelling was wrong, but they never complained when I paid the bill with a check that had the correct spelling.
 
Wow, that is an old one. I remember when Terri placed the "accepting credit cards" placard in the funeral home office.

Pretty soon you can get your family a gift card for the funeral home. I like that!
 
I have a photo (at home, I'm at work) of an ambulance with the MasterCharge and BankAmericard (now Visa) decals in the windows. One private ambulance service I worked for, we carried a small credit card imprinter in the ambulances for billing. We ran some calls there that were termed "POS" calls, which meant they had to "pay-or-stay"!
 
it after all is a business not a service. remember the good old days when you paid a fire company to protect your home if it caught on fire. your neighbor did not pay his house was let burn.
 
So we get back on track a bit, here's the photo I mentioned, from Huntemann Ambulance Service of Washington, DC. You can see the credit card logos in the side window.
 

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This is what I meant in "Humble Heroes" when I said that it is very difficult for people today to understand just how open the free market was up until the 1960's. The "cost" of ambulance service today is hidden from most people, because the current EMS system is socialized to a great extent. If you, like most people, have tax supported ambulance service, you're paying for your occassional use of the EMS system, and you're also paying for your neighbor who calls 9-1-1 for an ambulance trip for everything from a stomach ache to a gunshot wound. Some private services in the 1970's had 25% collection rates, and that's why so many went out of business. Most funeral homes operating ambulance service were subsidizing the ambulance business through their income from funerals. Credit cards and cash payment at time of service may sound tacky in our modern world, but the guys operating private ambulance services were expected to pay wages, insurance, all the overhead, and if they had a 25% collection rate, they were going hungry. In the 1970's the federal government added the burden of applying the Fair Labor Standards Act to ambulance services (overtime payment, paying for "on call" time), and at the same time added minimum staffing and equipment requirements, which increased overhead substantially, and pretty much killed the "mom and pop" ambulance service.
 
Kurt Arends said:
Got this out of a '63 M-M Paramount ambulance. Is this not the tackiest thing you have ever seen in an ambulance? Obviously placed there when it was still in service as you will note that it reads "Master Charge", and not "Master Card".
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Nothing tacky about it - business is business!
 
I have heard of services that had itemized price lists oxygen so much,add cost of nasal prongs,but also had heard horror stories of trying to collect fees,business is business.cars do not run on thanks,nor staff..:my2cents:
 
Mike Burkhart said:
Steve's right! have you ever tried to collect ambulance bills that have been charged? I think we had less than 50% collection rate......... It's tough to get collected!!

:4_11_9:
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In today's society where many don't feel a moral obligation to pay for services already received, this concern carries over to funeral service as well. The mortuary/cemetery operation that I worked for prior to retirement had a very simple credit policy..........."CBS", meaning "cash before service." The only exception was for a VERIFIED insurance assignment, and even these occasionally backfired. Full payment was required at least 12 hours before a visitation, or 24 hours before a service, to eliminate the risk of casketing the deceased before payment was received.

If this payment requirement was explained to the family in an appropriate and clear manner at the time of the arrangement conference, there was seldom any misunderstanding. Of the handful of cases over the years where a service or visitation was delayed, the family displayed the anticipated "righteous indignation", but it was always clear that their intentions from the getgo were to receive something for nothing.
 
When I started in the late 70's we still tried to collect on calls. I remember carrying over $450.00 several weekends while waiting for Monday so I could turn it in. Fee was $50.00 + .50cents a mile, four mile minimum. Supplies were extra and we had itemized invoices.

I worked for a service in the 80's that had the Mastercard/Visa sticker on the passenger side dash. We even had a credit card swiper under the seat.
 
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