Nothing is Sometimes Better than Something!

Last week I was over at a friend's house for dinner.

She was showing me her new bedroom suite and had remarked how much trouble she had when purchasing the bed frame from a well-known retailer.

She bought the bed and was patiently waiting for the delivery guys to come four days later. When they finally arrived, she had to ask them to unwrap her bed frame. They were prepared to just leave the huge boxes in her dining room. They did the unpacking reluctantly and agreed to take the empty cartons too on her suggestion, but then it was only after they left my friend realized that her beautiful, new bed frame required six legs; not four. She was missing two of the legs and because of the size four legs would not support the bed.

She found the business card left by the delivery men and then realized that the only number to call when you have a problem is in Montreal. After a very frustrating phone call to the customer service department in Quebec she was told there is nothing they could do for her.

She then phoned the Calgary store in which she had made the purchase, but again was told there was nothing they could do for her either.

She phoned back to Montreal and left another complaint. A few days past without any solution.

My friend then left for a one week's vacation on the coast. She had a wonderful time with her children and decided not to think about the customer service dilemma in Calgary for a few days.

When she arrived home seven days later feeling rested and relaxed she listened to the several messages on her voicemail from the furniture company.

The first was a suggestion that she drive around the city to see if she could find other legs that would work for her new bed frame.

The second was a suggestion that perhaps she didn't need the legs and could just leave the bed frame on the floor and the third message informed her that the store did in fact find the missing legs and they would have them delivered the next day.

IF my friend had been in town for these calls...a few things may have transpired...
she might have reluctantly tried to find matching legs on her own time and gas money, but really, what are the chances?

She might have agreed to have her new beautiful bed frame sitting on her floor instead of the lovely chocolate and rich-looking wooden legs and then always been disappointed that she didn't get the purchase she had planned on.

Since my friend was unreachable and unable to accept either of these ridiculous solutions, the store kept trying to come up with solutions and in the end did what was best for my friend.

When my friend was re-telling her story to me, she said, "Sometimes by doing nothing gets you more than trying to do something."

I thought about this for a few days and wondered if her comment was good advice to women.

How many times do we try to come up with a quick fix for our children, our friends, or our partner because we want to make everyone happy?

How often do we start conversations with our boyfriends because we want them to reassure us that they love us when we think they are being distant or cold?

How many times have we wished that could have taken back a comment, or not brought up a subject with one of our girlfriends when it ended badly or not the way we planned?

Women are pleasers and we think what we are always doing is for the best, but sometimes I think we need to do NOTHING and just see what solution presents itself on it's own.

We might be pleasantly surprised and not have to deal with any regrets!