Toys R Us and Me: A Story of Good Karma... OK, so heres the deal. Its not often in December that you experience the kind of help and good fortune that I got when dealing with Toys R Us this week. I went in the other day and found a ton of cool deals on various Disney Infinity products. The assistant manager was making sure all of my offers were correctly applied, and he spent a good 20 minutes or more insuring that I was taken care of properly. At one point he had to temporarily remove a product that had already been applied to the register ($75 item that was price-matched to $55). Long after I left the store, I realized that he had forgotten to re-ring the $55 item. I had a $75 product in a bag and I never paid for it. So, my situation was this. I could do as some (many?) would do and be happy with my good fortune of getting the product for free. I mean, money is really tight this year and I just want to make sure my kids have a good Christmas. Any saved dollar at this point is extremely important. But as a believer in Karma, I had a good degree of discomfort with not paying for the item. I wrestled with this issue overnight, and even had a couple of conversations with people close to me. In the end, I decided to do the right thing. I called the store and explained the situation to the manager, and told him I could stop by to pay for the product. He said, Thanks for calling us. Because of your honesty, if you come in Ill just charge you $20 instead of $55. The store manager didnt need to do that. I was already willing to pay $55. Initially, I was just happy that they had price matched WalMarts $55 price, and that I had gotten $10 off a purchase of $35 or more, twice because we set it up as two transactions instead of one. And several other products were Buy One, Get One Free. Even without any savings on that $75 item, I had already saved 50% on an original order of $100. But with the price match, I was getting $70 off $175 purchase. Thats a pretty good deal when purchasing electronics and video game items. Needless to say, that outcome alone would have made me very happy. But because I did the right and often unusual thing, I saved another $35 - $105 off of $175. Sure, I could have saved another $20 by not saying anything at all. I could have attempted to justify it by thinking that Toys R Us is a billion-dollar company that makes money hand over fist this time of year and doesnt care about its customers. I could have thought, Maybe this is good Karma for all the other times companies have screwed me by not taking a return, or by pricing items more than they should - or like the rental car company this past week that said I have to rent a car for two days instead of one because they arent open on Christmas and cannot prove I returned the car to their overnight drop within the 24-hr period. The difference in rental car price? You guessed it. About $55. The irony was almost too much to ignore. But I didnt take that approach and I now feel a sense of satisfaction from doing the right thing. And its not something that is hanging over my head - negative vibes within my subconscious. Instead, its a positive seed that was planted that may in turn continue to prosper over time (and thats the true nature of karma, isnt it?). I know, this isnt exactly an Oprah moment that affects the lives of many. But I have to admit that it was pretty cool seeing the reaction on the store manager and his employees faces - as if they had just witnessed a Christmas Miracle (lol).
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:48:49 +0000
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