product

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I Got Sold An Inferior Product

Is it ever okay to stand behind an inferior product? Is there ever a time that it’s acceptable to sell a poor quality item?

The other day I found someone who thinks so.

I was doing a little project at our cottage, trying to close in the sides of our deck by building frames and then attaching vinyl siding to them. 

The project was going well, but then I ran out of wood for the frames. I needed more 1×3 strapping, so off I went to the closest lumber store to get some more.

I purchased the lumber at a service counter and then drove my vehicle out back to pick the pieces up from the yard. 

The employee who was assisting me began pulling the 1×3’s from the rack and laying them out for me. When I first saw the pieces he was pulling, I thought he was putting them in a reject pile. I soon learned that this was the lumber he was offering me.

I started to take a closer look at them and replied, “This is no good, and this one’s no good either.”

After I rejected several pieces, the attendant asked me what I was using them for. 

When he heard that I was building frames with the wood, his response was, “Maybe you should be buying pine; it’s a much nicer wood.”

“It’s also a lot more expensive and I’m covering my frames with siding. I don’t need them to look really nice,” I replied.

He went back to pulling planks out of the pile. I kept rejecting half of them.

And then he said this: “You know this is strapping, don’t you?” … The look on his face and his attitude was really saying, “You know this is cheap wood; it’s not that good. You really need to take what you get.”

I was a little ticked at this point, looked at him and said, “You have given me nothing but the pieces that have already been rejected by other people. I’m agreeing to take four of them. You’ve done well at getting rid of your junk, so keep at it.” 

I wasn’t in need of 50 pieces or even 25 or 10 pieces of wood. All I needed was 6, and that guy did nothing but go through all the crappy pieces that had already been picked over! 

I ended up taking 6 pieces home, but when I started to use them, some of them were so badly warped that I had to take 2 pieces back. 

I may go somewhere else to get those final two pieces of strapping.

I guess the thing that bugged me the most was his attitude. He seemed to think it was reasonable to sell wood that was pretty much unusable.

I just needed some straight wood. How do you build frames with wood that is wrapped like a Bobby Hull hockey stick? 

If I was buying a pallet of strapping, I would accept that there would be some pieces that were unusable. But for only 6 pieces, I needed all of them to be good ones.

Here’s the thing: The world is trying to sell us an inferior product. It’s selling us a lie that this is all there is; there is nothing beyond this life. God says there is an eternity, and the life we have now is only a fragment. So don’t put all your hopes, dreams, and ambitions into this world … you’re only buying a cheap life. Instead, establish a relationship with God and enjoy real, full, everlasting life. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What inferior set of goods have you been sold? Leave your comments below.

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We Need More Than Product Selection

I’m all for more product selection in Canada, but they should also be serviceable.

The United States has a plethora of products available for purchase. One of the painful things living in Canada is finding out that, “Oh, that product is not available in Canada”.

We get so much advertising from the States that it seems like everything is available to us, whether in stores or through the internet.

But there are many products we just can’t get. For instance, if by accident you get onto the amazon.com site and then you try to find the same thing on the amazon.ca site, sometimes it’s not there.

We are used to that up here in the north, and we don’t get too bent out of shape when it happens to us. That’s just the way it goes.

There are more people in the US than in Canada so they have more of a selection and cheaper prices.

The department store, Target, learned that lesson the hard way. So many Canadians went across the border to shop at Target that they thought they could move into Canada and clean up.

The problem was they forgot two things – two very important things – price and selection. Those two things didn’t make it across the border and now we have empty department stores with large red balls at the front entrances, right across our country.

We know the prices are better and selection is better south of the border.

But if a company decides to ship their products to Canada for sale, they need to support their products.

My wife bought me a very small drone for Christmas. It wasn’t something I had been looking for, not an item I thought I would ever own.

She just knew I liked gadgets and toys and so she got it.

I’ve had some fun with it. Though it’s really tiny, it takes video and pictures.

And I’ve had fun learning to fly the thing in my basement, crashing into a variety of obstacles: Christmas tree, pool table, TV, chairs, walls – you name it, I’ve run my drone into it.

Since it’s only January, I figure I will need some spare parts if the thing is going to make it to the spring when I can try it outside without the confines of walls and ceilings.

So I got on the website and found some replacement parts I could purchase, just in case. The cost of these things was next to nothing when I totalled them all up.

I was all set to key in my credit card to make the deal when I got a pop-up window saying, “We can’t ship this product to this address.”

I’m not sure why – the world doesn’t stop at the US border! Even the US postal system will work with Canada Post to get things delivered.

… So I have this great little product, sold in Canada, but I can’t get it serviced if I need parts. Man, that bugs me!

Here’s the thing: Not only has Christ died for your sins so that you can be forgiven and live forever with God in heaven, but He will also speak to you about how to get through the obstacles and things that have you stumped today. Christ does it all: saves you completely AND helps you along the way.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: You trust Christ for your salvation … what could you trust Him for today? Leave your comments below.