I made a bit of a mistake on Friday night. Instant buyers remorse on something I purchased. Except it wasn’t cheap and come to find out the company I was working with refused to offer refunds. I had made the purchase and almost instantly knew I needed to return it. I felt foolish. I had been doing so good making decisions.
I called my credit card company at 10pm and told them the scenario. I was told before with another mistaken purchase that you have 3 days to return any item. I asked the woman on the other end of the line if that was true. “You’ll have to wait for the charge to go through. Once it does you’ll enter a dispute. Our dispute department will review and will let you know if they will be able to recover the funds for you.” It has been a long time since something like this has happened to me. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had to dispute a charge with my credit card company. I went back to my emails to see if I could reason with the business I had made the purchase from. Of course I did some research first. “Is a 72 hour grace period after a purchase still a law?” I typed it into Google and received the confirmation I was looking for. The 72 hour rule or “cooling off” period is put in place to protect consumers aka me in this scenario. I referenced my research in my email back to the business. They replied with a generic long response stating why they wouldn’t give me a refund. I told them it looks like their business practices were breaking a law. They told me that it was a waste of my time to dispute the charge. Obviously, I wasn’t getting anywhere. I would have to wait patiently, something I really don’t like doing. I’d have to trust that the outcome would work out in my favor, something that I really have a hard time believing. I think that’s why I want everything resolved immediately. I believe if I have to wait it won’t work out the way I want it to, I have to hold on tightly to the little amount of control I do have in the scenario.
So yesterday, of course the charge was still pending. I was driving to the gym and I decided to talk myself through the possible implications of my error. “Really, what is the worst that could happen? You don’t get a refund? Maybe you try to sell it, or you just use the tickets, or try to anyway. Even if you can’t do anything to recover any of the money lost, is it really that big of a deal? Can you still pay all your bills this month? Are you still going to Salem and Boston in a few days with your son? Do you still have everything you could possibly want? Are you living comfortably? Can you make up for these lost funds? Is it really worth you losing your peace over a few hundred bucks?” Mind you, I used my credit card besides, so it’s not even like it came out of my actual bank account. Just tack it onto the already massive debt I’ve accrued over time. If I had to chuck it up to a loss, would it really matter 5 years from now? I soothed myself in a way that I never had been able to before. I used to beat myself up over the smallest missteps. This mistake was pretty big, and I was telling myself it was going to be ok. That it didn’t matter. That’s growth.
I can still be diligent about a resolution without being attached to the outcome. I can still be hopeful that everything will work out in my favor without being anxious for an answer every second until I hear an update. I checked my account again this morning, the charge was still pending. Tomorrow I will check again. I’ll dispute as soon as I can, I have the receipts that I immediately asked for a refund if they need them. Maybe everything will work out better than I can imagine. Maybe for some reason this is a lesson I need to learn. I can’t let anything outside of my control disturb my peace, and every mistake I make is an opportunity to grow.
The Girl Without A Face 