I was expecting a delivery of a mattress today from a large retail chain.

When I ordered from the store I requested a specific day for the delivery and noted the time in my calendars. I kept telling my family that it would be delivered today and even prepared the space by taking out the old furniture to be ready. Lots of emails from the retailer including earlier today an invoice, and I noted that the money had moved from my bank account today as well. I was prepped and ready to receive!

Cue waiting at my window at the appointed time. With a sore back from an earlier exertion I had my son on hand to help with the lifting and shifting. Towards the end of the delivery window a large truck pirouetted around on the street and pulled just past my driveway. Woo hoo! son alerted, I opened the front door and put on my best delivery man smile … only to watch as they took out an mattress and walked around the corner and into someone else’s driveway! What, I thought, perhaps they have the wrong address – and my anger was confounded when they appeared with plastic in hand from unwrapping the mattress somewhere else!

I watched them drive off, any slower and I’d have been over the road accosting them and asking to see the delivery invoice. Back into the house and searching Google for things like “can I keep an item if it is misdelivered to me?”. Ready to stalk around the corner and ask a neighbour “have you got my stuff?” On the phone to the store asking what was happening, spouting off to my son and beginning to feel really passive-aggressive! Finally got through to the store and gave them my order number.

My delivery wasn’t today.

Apparently in the 10 or so emails which they’d sent through they’d moved it back 4 days. I’d skim read all of them including the three or so PDFs and missed the one where 14 ==> 18, at the same delivery time.

I was the one who was wrong, but I had plenty of ammunition to prove I was right!

It shows me how often incidents are caused by self-righteous people who think they are right, and perhaps even are right on occasion, but for whom that ‘rightness’ justifies all types of reactions. I’m glad I didn’t tell the delivery guys they were idiots, or bang on the door of my neighbour (although I might have met a new one that way!). I’m glad that I didn’t prove to be a fool to a greater extent than merely watching them and then calling the store, but I wonder how many other people around me today are encountering misunderstandings which escalate into angry words or deeds rather than being clear up?