All was well until I heard from one of the salesperson who I first dealt with in the beginning stages of trusting them with my business.
I know that this has been said many times, but sometimes I’d like to think not everyone is trying to undercut me and to be more trusting of others. After having gone through severe lying, manipulation and gaslighting in a past toxic workplace, and despite getting burned by three retail stores to date (two in Malaysia and one in Indonesia), I still wanted to think that in “First World” countries, business practices are less sketchy with the number of bureaucratic processes they have in place. To free up mental space to focus on other things, I wanted to ease up being hyper vigilant without feeling that I needed to get everything in writing.
But this misplaced trust came back to haunt me yesterday. It turns out what the salesperson claimed in our Zoom phone call, didn’t hold water, and resulted in an unexpected fee of £75 from their accounting department. As hindsight is 20/20, I should’ve captured everything that I discussed in my call with the salesperson in a follow-up email. But I guess I trusted the wrong person again. A person who now, of course, with people cc-ed in our email thread, has to back her job and her position in the company that I now had a contract with.
I’m trying to see the silver lining. I trying to get the pros to outweigh the cons in this £75 charge. I know the amount is small change to some people but it’s a lot to me. I hate having to sit with this feeling of scarcity. And losing.
With this £75 lesson, that I will pay for, after clearing my head from the new resentment that I now have for the salesperson and the company, and after a glass of whisky, reserved only for weeks like these, here are my takeaways from this £75 business “course”:
- Be an ass. Get everything in email. Don’t bother about niceness or worry about tone or being uptight. Although you may be a person who keeps your word, not many people do. Cynicism is a way of survival and should be applied generously with people who have not put in the work to earn your trust. Not everyone deserves as seat at your table simply because they half-heartedly showed up for the door gift.
Moving forward:
After spiraling into wondering if I should even bother with this business because of yet another hurdle thrown in on a terrible week, I now have to stop myself, force myself, to remind myself that this company is only one segment in the pipeline. They can be switched out–should I choose to do so. Yes, that company is important at this stage. But it’s thankfully not a monopoly nor a Catch-22.
Some of things I can do now:
- Observe the development of this tarnished relationship with the company closely over the next six months; and
- Seek out alternatives during that six months
- Think about whether the disappointment and loss of trust is with the salesperson representing the company or the company
- Accept the sunk cost with a glass of whiskey and a cheese toastie
I think I’ll go for the latter