My Amazing Note from China

What a valuable lesson I learnt from a stranger through a loss making transaction

There are those that buy things and sell them at a profit. Most of the world does business this way. They just handle inventory and make sure that they get rewarded for the changing of hands. But then there are those very few beautiful souls who have turned business into an art form. I came across someone like that two days ago.

My pen from China - with Cindy's note

All my friends know that I’m inordinately fond of fountain pens. Essentially I have only used fountain pens since I was 15 years old. And as it goes with life long passions, one always seems to be after the perfect instrument. In this case, the perfect pen. It so happened that I chanced to come across a nice-looking fountain pen on Ebay a while ago.

It was seconds before closing time and nobody had made a bid yet. I took a chance and entered my bid – mostly out of curiosity, I suppose. And so it came that I bought myself a nice new fountain pen for – all of one US cent. Yes – US$0.01 – or less than ZAR8c in our own money. When shipping cost of US$4.98 was added, the total came to US$4.99. What could I have bought for that kind of money in South Africa? A hamburger, if I was lucky. Or a dozen free range eggs maybe.

I could not believe my luck. This, for a heavy, exceedingly well-crafted pen with a suction cartridge and a nice golden nib? Too good to be true, you might think. Well so did I. But on Ebay a gentleman’s word is his bond, plus my curiosity had to be satisfied. And more than anything else – a deal is a deal. Accordingly, I paid the money and waited.

Mail from China normally takes about three weeks. But in this case we had a postal strike so I knew it was going to be long – if the package arrived at all. Yet, sure enough, two months later it was in the mail. South African Customs made me pay R15,00 for it.  We all know the feeling – when you must pay US1.88 tax for an item that cost US0.01 then there is only one way to put it – you have just been raped by your own government.

But what can you do? Caesar must also live, even if by means of immoral gain. I therefore paid the ransom and curiously opened the package. And there it was – not quite a Mont Blanc, to be sure. But still – I was exceedingly satisfied. It felt like real quality and wrote beautifully. Now, in the world of fountain pens, each pen has a soul and a character. Like a woman. Each one is unique in the way it handles and writes. I thought about my new pen and decided, if this one was a woman, it would have been Marlene Dietrich. Smooth and sophisticated right to the tip.

The next morning I woke up in a foul mood. I was in a hurry to tidy up before leaving for work, but just before I threw away the box that the pen had shipped in, something caught my eye. Inside the package was a small note – intricately folded in origami style. When I carefully unfolded it, I saw that it was a hand written message. And there – in the neatest Western handwriting, were the following words:

“Hello dear friend. Thank you very much for your purchase!

I’m so glad that the item reached you finally. Hope it did not keep you waiting tooo long. Your purchase really a big support on me and give motivation to make me keep offering best products and service. Thank you very much again!

If there is any problem make you unsatisfy with the transaction please contact me and give me chance to solve it. And if you satisfy with it please leave me positive feedback.

Thank you very much!

Best regards

Cindy

Share. Enjoy”

In neat Western handwriting, her words were written

Now I really must say – I had been in such an annoyed mood right up to then. But at that very moment, it felt as if the sun was shining into Africa all the way from China. I realized something very important then. For one US cent, this surely must have been a loss making transaction for a Chinese small business. There was no way they could have shipped that product economically. Surely most businessmen around the world would have sent the product with sour reluctance. Some would even have looked for justification not to send it at all. And yet, here was one who honoured a commitment not only with dignity, but with joyful pleasure.

How often would you encounter that in life?

In life, there are so many things we do simply because we have to. We have to buy something and sell it at a profit in order to make a living. We think nothing of the process, but rather treated as the necessary protocol that we have to hurriedly follow in order to collect our money so we can spend it.

But we forget that sometimes the little things we do can have a big effect on the lives of others. In my case, it was an event that gave me a smile that lasted all day long. I told all my colleagues this story at work – and showed them the note. I and then I decided to tell the world.

So every time I use this pen, I will remember among the 1 billion people who live in China – there is one person whose name is Cindy – who has taught me something about business, and caused the sun to break through on the other side of the world when it was just another cloudy day.

Yes, I will remember Cindy – and I will remember her business at http://stores.ebay.com/shareenjoy . Business is about business for the most part. Yet most of all, business is about people. We must never, ever forget that.