Question of the Day - Tuesday, December 26th, 2023

[Sammster]

Well... Gather 'round, folks, and I'll tell you the tale of my Christmas fail.

A couple weeks ago, I took the youngest and we hit the mall to shop for presents for Mom. I had a short list, and she had a couple of other things my wife had mentioned to her as well. We hit a few stores and crossed a bunch of things off of our lists. The last place I wanted to stop was a jewelry store my girls both like to shop at. I found her a couple of things which my daughter approved, we paid, and the clerk took our stuff back to have it wrapped. Score. Wifey likes to snoop, so walking in with things pre-wrapped and threatening the kid with coal if she blabs is perfect. Mission accomplished.

Fast-forward to yesterday morning and we're unwrapping things. I'm pretty excited to see her reaction because I know she's going to love what I got her. Imagine my surprise when she unwraps the first box, goes "ooh $STORENAME!", pops off the ribbon, opens it and says "Is this a joke? There's nothing in here".

I thought she must be kidding, but sure enough, the only thing in the box was another ribbon like the one they tied it up with. I had her open the other 2 thinking maybe they'd accidentally put 2 in one box somehow.

All.
Empty.

...I'm not gonna lie, some poo came out. I was flashing between bewilderment, anger, and sadness. I had a couple of other small things for her, but those 3 little boxes were supposed to be the majority of her presents from me and now she had nothing.

I played the jewelry store visit over and over in my head, trying to figure out if somehow I'd left packages there and taken the wrong ones, but there was no way at all. THEY wrapped them. THEY handed them to me with my receipt, there was no way this was happening.

She was bummed. I was bummed. The kids were bummed. Then she gave me MY present, which was a gorgeous watch, and I felt like crap all over again. The rest of the day was fine, she got a nice clutch from her Mom and I got an Oura ring, but the food smells were a little off, the music was tinny and flat, and the whole edge was just dull because of my disappointment.

First thing this morning I grabbed the empty boxes and my receipt and made the trek over to the store to see if I could figure it out. I was prepared for a fight. I could easily see how walking in and saying "Hey, I bought some stuff 3 weeks ago and when my Wife opened the presents they were empty" definitely sounds kind of scammy. The clerk was super helpful, grabbed her manager, and after making sure my receipt and my ID matched and getting a quick rundown of what happened, she apologized and fixed it. No hesitation, no trying to dance around it, just "Oh no. I'm so sorry, Let me fix that for you." She even threw in a really pretty pair of earrings as an apology for the mix up.

In the end, I still got to see the delighted expression my wife had when she opened them. and she's a very happy camper.

So Christmas saved, and the moral of the story is "Gift wrapping is good, just make sure they do it in your presence, or do it yourself and verify contents"

And here's my watch (and the Oura ring)
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Holy cow! The clerk stole your purchases! Thank goodness the manager believed you. Wonder where that clerk is, today