The auger in the ice maker in my refrigerator broke a while ago. I spoke with some people who know this business and they said I needed to purchase an ice bucket and auger assembly replacement, remove the old assembly and install the new one. I checked around and found that these assemblies are fairly expensive, so I proceeded to fish ice cubes from the bucket with my hand for the better part of a year which, I’m told, is somewhat unsanitary. Recently, I received an email from the manufacturer of the refrigerator announcing a major sale on replacement parts along with free shipping. This made the replacement assembly very affordable, so I ordered it. Well, even though I followed the ordering directions exactly, I managed to order the wrong assembly—it was two inches too narrow. As I read the directions on how to return this assembly, I learned that I had to pay the return postage which was going to be quite expensive. So, I called the phone number of the replacement parts organization. The woman who answered turned out to be quite friendly, so we visited and had a few laughs before we got down to business. She told me that the last digit of the part number was wrong and that she would send the correct assembly to me. Then I asked, “Am going to have to pay the shipping to return the wrong assembly?” She answered, “No, I’ll email you a prepaid label and I’ll expedite the shipping of the correct assembly so that you’ll have it tomorrow. How’s that?” All I could say was, “Thank you so much!” The lesson here is that if you treat people on the phone with kindness and respect, they will go out of their way to help you which, in turn, will make your life much easier.

One Sentence Wisdom

• “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop
• “What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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