Three weeks ago, Wayfair mailed me a 10% off coupon with an expiry date of Nov 30.

I decided to make a big purchase and tried the coupon on Nov 29 but it didn’t work.

I made the purchase anyway and called customer support on Nov 30, but they said the coupon had expired on Nov 28.

I asked if I could be given a refund of 10% of the order, given the forgivable printing error.

“No, our policy doesn’t permit that,” they replied, in an era when even McDonald’s can refund your purchase in 20 seconds if you got the wrong order.

“So you guys make a printing error, lure me to make a purchase that you cannot honor as promised, make me talk to three support staff for 30 minutes, and you cannot make things right because of your policy? But your policy has no problem with a faulty coupon or that you can’t do anything about it?” I asked in disbelief.

Crickets!

After escalating the case, I got the 10% refund a week later.

So, despite the policy, it was possible to refund me!

We all make mistakes but reacting badly to a mistake is a greater mistake.