You made a mistake. Own it. Apologize.
I've experiences some challenges this week as a consumer.
Yesterday I ordered my lunch online. It's a simple process. The 
restaurant is just down the street from my office and they have special parking for "pickup" orders. By the time I get there my order is sitting in a bag waiting for me or comes out quickly thereafter.
When I arrived there was another person checking out and there was a bag on the counter behind the checkout. Lovely, I thought, as I waited patiently.
My turn, but the bag wasn't mine. No problem. I paid and continued to wait patiently. After a few minutes the lady asked to see my reciept. She said my order wasn't showing up in the system.
She asked the line cook.
Then the manager came by. It seemed a little chaotic but I was patient and didn't pay too much attention. This went on for more than a few minutes when she came around the counter and whispered that she thought she had given my order to someone else. She didn't want the Manager to know and get mad.
I smiled and said "not a problem".
You know. Just take care of it. Eventually they had a new order come out. In the meantime the Manager came over, apologized and handed me a $10 gift card. Truth be told. All I needed was for the lady to say she made a mistake and fix it. Things happen. Will I go back there? Of course.
Today, I wanted to find my missing glasses. I had gone to get new eye glasses in June, before my trip to Italy. It was buy one, get one free.
They were able to make my sunglasses while I waited but my regular glasses had to be special ordered and I wouldn't get them until after the trip.
They promised to call when they came in. To Italy and back. No 
call. By September I knew there was a problem and went by the store. After 30 minutes of searching and asking questions, the manager came out and helped me.
There was another Connie Harvey in their system and the glasses had gone AWOL. No problem. Reorder them. Straighten out the names in the system and call me when they come in.
Here it is January and there have been no calls. I stopped by the store again. (This store is not on my way to anywhere!) The same manager was there. She remembered my story and was shocked that I had not gotten my glasses.
She searched everywhere and they were not there. The computer said that they had come in. Helplessly she looked at me and apologized. She asked if I had the same credit card with me that I had used. She gave me a full refund.
I can be very impatient sometimes. But both of these instances were small inconveniences.
I wasn't angry. I just wanted it fixed. And they did.
They owned it. They apologized.
I'll start all over next week with the glasses.
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