At times, business throws a challenge at us that we don’t know if we should stick to our company policies or go the second – or third mile. Always it is our desire to bless others and show them Jesus. Sometimes it is difficult to know how to go about that.
We recently had a situation in business that broke all the rules. A woman – we will call her Beth – ordered a sewing cabinet and received it in several flat boxes. This particular company ships products with the name of the item printed in bold on the box. In her excitement to receive her product, Beth opened the boxes even though they had the wrong cabinet name on the box.
After opening the boxes and starting to put together the product, she realized it was indeed the wrong item. Beth called the manufacture of the cabinet and they offered her a sewing chair if she would keep the wrong cabinet. She agreed to that.
Beth emailed and let us know what was happening.
Doing our research, we realized the manufacture made the mistake and sent the wrong cabinet, we had ordered the correct one.
Beth and her husband spent hours putting the sewing cabinet together.
Once the cabinet was completely put together she discovered it did not fit in her home.
Then she email us wondering if she could please return the product.
The challenge for us was that the manufacture of the cabinet will not take returns unless they are in the original box. Those were long since destroyed.
So what could we do?! We offered for Beth to ship it to us – at her expense, it would be hundreds of dollars with it assembled. Or sell it, send us the money, and we would order her a new one – the one she actually ordered.
We emailed multiple times. She was kind in her communications.
According to the manufacture’s company policy that we had in writing, the returns were not possible once the original boxes were destroyed, then there would be a 25% restocking fee even with the original boxes.
By Beth agreeing to accept the wrong cabinet and receive the sewing chair, the manufacture would not do anything further.
We felt like our hands were tied. It was a $1799 product.
Several decisions had been made that were out of our hands.
I felt the Lord prompting me to call her. You know, one of those promptings that you sit at the desk and argue with the Lord for a while, telling Him all that had already transpired. (like He didn’t already know all that!)
I still felt prompted to call and just listen. Not call with a plan of how to handle it.
So I called.
Again Beth was very kind. She recognized that by opening the boxes that were labeled wrong, agreeing to keep the cabinet, and accepting the chair the manufacture had her in a corner. She also recognized that it made it so that we could not help her through the manufacture in any way.
She expressed appreciation for all we had done or tried to do.
Then she cried. She still had this cabinet that did not even fit in her room.
Beth and her husband had spent much time researching it, and now she was stuck with this sewing cabinet.
I told her I would simply refund her money. Then she felt really bad. She again recognized that it would be a complete loss for me.
I told her “You know what? We have both learned something from all of this. Let’s learn from it, and simply move on and bless others along our way of learning.”
Then after her emotions settled a bit she said, “You know, I haven’t even opened that chair the company sent me because it left such a bad taste in my mouth.”
I had to chuckle. I told her “You go ahead and open it and use it. That chair didn’t cost me a cent.”
Beth laughed and said “OK!”
In the end, she was still stuck with a sewing cabinet that was too big for her room and a new sewing chair. But she did have money to get the right cabinet when she was ready. She assured me I had done all we could.
God was not done.
Within an hour of refunding Beth for the $1799 I received an IDENTICAL sewing cabinet order. It would not cover my losses financially, but I KNEW God was taking care of us.
It was like the Lord was saying “Watch this!” with a big smile on His face.
I had to laugh.
But low and behold. The lady’s sewing machine would not fit in that cabinet. So she canceled the order that was identical to the one I refunded.
“Lord? What were you going to show me?”
Again He was not done. The lady had to order the wrong size cabinet for me to recognize God was moving. Then she turned around and ordered a much more expensive cabinet, which fully covered the cost of the one I had refunded.
I can not out-give God. Ever.
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
My business is in much better hands than mine when I simply listen to what the Lord has to say.
And I get to bless others along the way.
This is what makes life so fun. I just get to do what the Lord tells me and see blessings happen – not because of me, but because of Him.
~Sheila
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Psalms 50:10
I would love to hear how the Lord has shown Himself strong in your life after you have given in a way that you think is going to be a loss.
