Honesty tested

Remember when you were young and your parents taught you that taking something that doesn’t belong to you is stealing? As you grew up, you also learned that if you got too much change at the store you should give it back. Or if you ordered just a hamburger and were given fries too, you let them know. That message was hammered home as we were repeatedly told, “It’s called being honest.”

Well, Terri and I were tested this week. We ordered one of those bed in a box memory foam mattresses online. Almost a week after ordering we still had not received it, so I called the company. The rep agreed that we should have received it by then and told me she would get things moving. She gave a new tracking number and the mattress arrived two days later.

This company gives a 100 night risk-free trial but we didn't need that much time. After sleeping on it for three nights, we agreed it was too firm for us. We discovered they have a store about 35 miles away, so we went there and ended up liking one of the other models they sell. We told the salesperson that we wanted to exchange the one we just bought. He explained that it would be better if we called the company, request a pick-up of the original, and place a new order for the one we wanted. We were able to take care of all of this on the drive home.

Two days later I got a delivery confirmation text from UPS. When I pulled into the driveway and saw TWO boxes on the porch I had to laugh because, when I got the new tracking number for the original order, I said to Terri, "Watch, we're going to get two mattresses." And here we were with three-- two of the original model, and one of the second choice!

Now this was a pretty valuable piece of merchandise that was left at our house for which we were not billed. There were probably several ways we could have profited, or we could be honest and let them know about the mistake. In a well-timed coincidence, someone we know had posted on Facebook the previous day how Amazon double-shipped her order and she was going to keep it. Terri and I talked about how that is not how we were raised and it really isn't the right thing to do.

I’m proud to say that we never considered keeping that mattress. I called the company, explained what happened, and the rep initiated a UPS pick-up for the next day. To our parents: You did well, we passed the test!