Exceed expectations and disappointment - a real life story

On return from our vacation, I treated myself to a bottle of perfume: Rococo. It was the first time that I bought the luxurious perfume version, and I applied it with pleasant expectations. However, I could hardly smell anything. I tried it on for a couple of days, asked other people, and then went back to the store. The salesman agreed with me almost immediately, and we took a new bottle. Due to all the smells in the store I could not really smell it and told him that, but assumed that this one would be all-right. All this was a very pleasant experience, and we both were satisfied with the way we dealt with it.

The next day I tried the new bottle: and it turned out to be the same experience as the one before. Okay, you could smell it a bit better, but to say that this was the smell of a costly perfume ... no. The other people around me still did not smell anything. So I took the phone and called the same salesman. This time his reaction was far from pleasant. It turned out that it was actually all my fault, in the shop we had agreed that the smell was good, and if I insisted, I could return it. So I went to the store once again, and asked him to contact the manufacturer, as I really like the smell so much that I hoped that there would have been some kind of production error. I gave him my phone number, and waited, the lab would analyze both bottles.

Now according to the remains of my personality there were two possibilities: I would look incredibly foolish when it would be "proven" that there was nothing wrong with the perfume after all, as that would mean that the salesman was right after all and I would be the one to blame and the one who would not be able to show her face in this store ever again. Or I would be proven right, and would be able to graciously receive a new bottle, which would be a role much more preferred by my personality than the first one, especially when looking back on the treatment the salesman gave me the second time. During the rest of the day the remains of my personality did his usual stuff: ... I do smell it a little, maybe you are wrong after all .... but Joep and the others told me that they could not smell it either .... yeah, but it is a very soft and sweet perfume .... but the other bottle I have from Joop! I do smell during the whole day ....

Now was there anything right or wrong here? No. In both situations I myself went to the store with the intention based on my inner Self, one that leaves me as well as the salesman completely free. What you saw here are two variations on the same theme: what kind of reactions are there to a perceived problem. Assuming that you are neutral is far less difficult in a situation that is gentle for the remains of your personality than it is in a situation that is unpleasant to him. Stating that "being right" does not mean anything in itself is much harder to practice when someone does not want to give it to you while your personality believes he has a right to it. So this salesman gave me the gift to practice and strengthen my belief that I can function through the inspiration of my inner Self, regardless of the circumstances, and that there is no guaranteed connection between the one reaction and the next one. Working on an increased awareness does make your life a growing experience, not necessarily a nice one.

How it ended? They gave me a new bottle, one that really was perfume-like. I went to get it with again a neutral reaction on a day where the salesman turned out to be not present in the store.