Tender Mercy Moments

With limited time squeezing quickly to a close for to take action on a warranty opportunity, circumstances were such that I was reluctant and questioned, “is it worth the risk?”  

Not long after I got a new pair of glasses before our family moved to a new area, while a helper loaded up our storage unit into a U-Haul, the metal spout end of a water hose they picked up, inadvertently whipped in front of me and left behind a scratch on one of my prescription transition eyeglass lenses.  

Once we were in our new home, it was a tender mercy that one of my children requested to go to an optometrist, as through reestablishing with this eye care professional in our new location, it came to my attention that within a few weeks the replacement lenses/frame warranty for my glasses would be up. 

After many of phone calls with a receptionist at our former optometry eye clinic and a couple conversations with our now current optometry vision center, it was almost a possibility that the replacement of the lenses could have been taken care of locally, as each optometry office used the same lab company, unfortunately, the designated lab for each office was located in different states and patient information was not interconnected between offices and the lab, therefore, my glasses had to go back to my former optometry office, then on to their lab, and back to their office before being returned back to me. 

With the local option unavailable, I debated, is it worth the risk to send my current prescription glasses back to my prior optometry office, no longer a feasible thirty minute drive away, rather, more than a day away, which meant, not only would I be without my glasses for weeks, but also, by some “what if” chance they become lost in transit and I never received them back entered my thoughts. Time was running out. Would I keep my lenses “as is” which also included where some of the coating on the lenses had bubbled or get them replaced before the warranty expired? 

I decided to exercise my faith and trust that my glasses with the new replacement lenses would make it back to me, fully acknowledging there was no guarantee, an accepted risk. It was a tender mercy that though I primarily wore my glasses on a daily basis, I had contact lenses I could wear in the interim and prescription glasses from three years prior that, surprisingly, I could see with just as well if not better than my current glasses.

What transpired over the course of the next several weeks was quite the rigmarole. As I no longer resided a half hour down the road from our former optometrist, the round trip shipment cost of $14.98 for the mailers and postage was on me, a small amount relative to the cost of the glasses, yet, a cost I considered, is it worth the risk to take action before the warranty expired if I were to never get my glasses back or do I not worry about sending them and settle with the scratch and bubbled coating until I get a new pair of glasses? I decided to take the risk. 

With the help of a kind mail carrier at our post office, I mailed my glasses that were in their case and included in the mailer a labeled return mailer for my glasses to be placed in and mailed back to me once the new lenses had been set inside my same frame. I paid for tracking for both mailers.

Within a few days, though one day beyond the estimated delivery date, it was a tender mercy my glasses arrived to the optometrist’s office mailbox. They arrived on a Friday and were picked up from the mailbox the following Monday, one week after I had mailed them. One leg down, three more to go. So far, so good. 

After the given timeframe for my glasses to be sent to the lab from the optometrist’s office and returned back to the optometrist’s office, just over a week and a half later, I followed up and learned that my glasses were being mailed back to me that day. Hooray! As I awaited and awaited for the arrival of my glasses with the new replacement lenses, for some unknown reason, when I checked the tracking (a tender mercy I had paid for the tracking), my glasses had traveled in a completely opposite direction of the country than where I live and showed no updated tracking information for ten days. As I contacted USPS seven days after the day the glasses were mailed to me to learn if they had a more updated status and reason for the standstill, I was told, “it was in transit to the next facility” and so I continued to wait. 

Then one day as I checked the tracking, day ten, it showed the mailer had arrived at its destination. Excited, I was ready to go to our mailbox and pick up my glasses, only to realize upon further review that my glasses arrived back at the optometrist’s office, even though the address I had penned on the return mailer was to my home, confirmed by a receptionist at the optometrist’s office. 

Confused as to why it was returned back to them, when I contacted their office, the receptionist read off numerous labels that had been attached to the mailer, such as, not safe to fly, lack of an appropriate customs slip attached, lack of proper postage per the weight and dimensions of the package, and could not travel with postage stamps. 

The receptionist also shared that the courier who had originally taken it to the post office noted that a postal worker, rather than scan the mailer in, they just dropped it in a bin. It made no sense to the courier, but they did not question the postal worker and shrugged off what they thought was too simple and walked away without a receipt with the tracking number and estimated delivery date. 

Hearing this, I was reminded of my sending a package from a neighboring city over a year prior that routed strangely and unfortunately did not arrive to the recipient before they left their temporary stay. To get it rerouted to their home address was quite the saga. 

Suffice it to say, long story short, my glasses that were inside a case with nothing else in the mailer was a supposed safety concern, a liability, tagged as a threat, and returned to the optometrist’s office. As the same courier as before again returned my mailer to the post office, labels removed, they made it a point to ensure it was scanned to return to my home address with no complications and obtained a receipt with the tracking information and estimated delivery date on it. 

A couple of days later, just over a month from when I decided to accept the risk and mailed my glasses, they arrived. Though quite a humorous rigmarole, of which I was not bitter for as much as I was hopeful all would go smoothly, I was also prepared if it did not, it was a tender mercy my glasses did make it back to me. 

After all that, to the question of whether it was worth the risk or not to mail my glasses to replace the lenses before the warranty expired, not knowing if I would get them back, yes, the risk to take action, exercising faith and trust, was worth it.

When have you questioned and debated whether or not to do something and asked, “is it worth the risk?” and the risk you accepted to take was worth it? 

tendermercym❤️ments~jld

“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”

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