Well, This Is Awkward . . .

nottelling
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:10:14 +0000

Okay, I’ve changed my mind; I don’t necessarily think there is something fishy going on.

I just remembered something that happened to me that changes my thinking. I usually don’t buy gift cards, but a couple of years ago my sister specifically asked for a gift card, and I drew someone’s name in a gift exchange that I didn’t know well. I asked her close friend what she might want, and the friend told me she liked gift cards.

So, I bought two Nordstrom’s gift cards: $250 for my sister, and $35 for the gift exchange (which was the stated gift exchange limit/amount). After Christmas, I got a thank you note from the gift exchange recipient thanking me for the GENEROUS gift with GENEROUS underlined several times. Since it was a $35 gift exchange, the effusiveness of the “thank you” was totally disproportionate to the gift.

Of course, I immediately called my sister and told her to let me know if the gift card was for $35 and not $250. My sister’s gift card was for the right amount, but I’m firmly convinced that the gift exchange recipient got a card worth more than the $35 I had paid for it.

So, maybe this realtor is not a ditz, not a scammer, not disorganized, but maybe the person selling the cards swapped them by mistake. Maybe the recipient of the first card thanked her in an overly effusive way. Or maybe the seller seemed disorganized when selling it, which made her worried that the seller had mixed them up. In that case, I could definitely see her saying, “Let me know if this is the wrong amount.”

She probably should have checked the second card before sending it, but for whatever reason she didn’t, and now she’s kicking herself for it. In this scenario, it would be a kindness to tell her, to give her the chance to correct the mistake. It’s better than writing her off as a ditz! Or harboring suspicions (like I originally suggested) that there is something fishy going on.

Just email her back and say, “Loved the restaurant. You asked us to let you know if the gift card value was less than $100; it was $15. But we really appreciated the gift and especially being turned on to a fabulous restaurant in our new neighborhood.”