Two New Family Members … Another Lesson Learned

Yesterday, May 12, 2007, we welcomed two new members into our family. Rostropovich and Galina, Russian tortoises, that we hope will live to a ripe old age and enjoy living with us.

Russian tortoises are not cheap. My son had a garage sale in the spring and made a little over $500.00. He put aside $300.00 of that garage sale money to buy these new pets, and to provide a tortoise table for them. We have called the pet stores weekly asking if they had received a new shipment of these creatures. Yesterday, his dream was fulfilled; PetSmart in Plano had two Russian tortoises and two Greek tortoises (even more expensive). Off we went to pick them up before they could be bought by anyone else.

We fell in love with Rostro and Galina immediately, made the purchase, and headed home to a busy day of an orchestra party, shopping, and visiting with my mother for Mother’s Day. As we were off and running from place to place, I realized that something seemed off. I started talking to the boys about the price of the tortoises and the supplies we bought for our other pets and how much the bill had been when I signed the credit card receipt. Something didn’t seem right to me.

When we stopped to buy gas, I looked at the bill. Sure enough, the girl had only charged us for one tortoise. My first instinct was to be mad, especially when I saw what it cost to fill my tank. When we checked out at PetSmart we had a purchase receipt that clearly stated two tortoises. I told the girl there were two tortoises in the box, and the manager said to her, they are buying both of them. I was not in the mood to spend the gas on another trip to Plano, and we were on a very tight time schedule.

I asked my youngest what he thought we should do. His answer was he didn’t know as he wasn’t sure what the “ethnics” should be in such a case. (He corrected the word immediately, but we still had a good laugh.) I told him I thought he knew what was ethically correct. We then had a good discussion as to our options. My youngest said that if we did not report the error then we would have to name one of the turtles “Criminal.” Unfortunately, we were not able to solve the problem immediately as he had to be at his party at 1:00 p.m.

When I picked him up from the party, I told him we were going to call Rocky at the pet store and report what happened. My youngest said he was glad. So that is what I did. I called and asked to speak to Rocky, and explained our predicament.

Rocky was very appreciative. He said very few people would have called. I told him that would be sending the wrong message to my children. I then talked to another man who was also extremely appreciative. We were able to handle the transaction over the phone, and they are mailing my new receipt.

So no tortoise named “Criminal,” a good lesson learned, and we all slept well last night.

Now my children know that I am not always so ethical when it comes to mistakes made at stores. I can think of another incident this year where I did not report the error. I bought two identical t-shirts at a store. One for each boy, since they do not go to schools remotely close to one another, they do not mind having identical shirts if it is something they really like, and matching tee’s come in handy for trips to Six Flags. I told the cashier that there were two shirts when I sat them on the counter. She grunted something I thought sounded like understanding. When she rang up the shirts, I told her I didn’t think she got both of them. She grunted again. I then got to talking to the boys, paid the bill, and left the store. When we got out to the car and I checked my receipt, I noticed that she had only rung up one shirt. My emotions immediately ran to the angry side. The boys asked me what I was going to do, and I told them I was going home. I felt as if I had done my due diligence in trying to pay for the shirt. I rationalized to them that it was a clearance item and that the store did not give me the sales price on another item the previous week, so it was almost a wash. I told them it was the store’s fault because they needed to train their help better. I also told them that I would have probably gone back in if the cashier had been nicer, but I did not want to go and try to go through the customer service department to pay for something that I had made an extra effort to pay for. Not a proud moment as a mother, but there you go. My anger won out over my ethics.

So as I write this on Mother’s Day, I hope that in the end my boys will remember my more ethical moments, and forget the angry cheating ones. So far they seem like they are going to take after their father and be outstanding citizens. Me, well I will probably have to take some lessons from the boys.