Never underestimate how much others do for you before you get excited that they didn’t do it the way you wanted it done. Do it yourself if it’s that critical.
Did you follow me on that one? OK, good.
You’re going to love this one. I’ll file this under “lesson learned for taking individuals for granted”
As you may have read, I finally decided to sell something on eBay. I started out small and simple. A WorldCom hat I had left over from doing my time there. I put it up for bid at two dollars. I got a $2.50 bid and it finally ended at $7.50. Not bad for a hat I got for free. Maybe there’s something to this, maybe I’ll look into dumping all kinds of stuff on eBay. Over the years I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on eBay, why not try to make a little money from it now?
OK, so the guy sends me $11.64 to cover the $7.50 + shipping. Groovy, bagged a profit and rid myself of a bit o’ clutter. I boxed it up, wrote out the address and printed out the sheet explaining that $11.64 – $7.50 = $4.14 for shipping. Teresa was taking the day off yesterday to attend Becca’s classroom activities. I asked if she wouldn’t mind taking it to the post office. No problem.
Last night, I asked her if she remembered to ship it. She said of course. I asked how much it cost. I calculated it by the USPS website but I was still hoping it was maybe a few cents cheaper thereby widening my profit margin. Hey, when I went through all of this for $7.50, I want all I can get.
She didn’t respond when I asked how much it cost. Bad sign. She just grinned. Worse sign. She started to give me the nervous giggle. Worst sign.
She went in, the guy asked if she wanted it sent priority overnight and with signature verification. She said, “Sure, why not?” Then the guy charged her $17.65. She was too shy to question it. She paid it.
So, in the end, I paid this guy six dollars to take my hat. It was cheaper when I was BUYING stuff on eBay!
Poor Teresa begged me not to put this story up here but I saw it as a way to warn the rest of you. If someone does something nice for you like run your errands on her day off, you can’t get upset if it wasn’t done the way you wanted to do it. You’ve just got to smile…
Leave a Reply