Face forward - even if not moving forward

Mistakes happen.

Most of the time, mistakes negatively impact your life.

On rare occasions, a mistake can positively impact your life.

I would like to tell about a mistake that is providential, or serendipitous, or perhaps miraculous. But it's not complete, as yet.

It all began about a month ago when I signed up for a purchaser rewards program at my favourite computer store. The assistant manager suggested I sign up since they have some decent items that can be redeemed with points collected through purchases. I have spent close to $1500 there over the past year. The company website says that 1 point is given for each dollar of a purchase, taxes excluded. She said to give her my receipt numbers and she would backdate the applied purchases, then let me know what the total points were. Fair enough, I thought.

A few days later the assistant manager sent an e-mail advising me my rewards account had over 125,000 points!

"Surely this is a mistake," I thought, and so I called her up.

Indeed, she thought it strange, but that's what the company software applied. After a bit of figuring, it seems a point was given for every penny of my purchases, not every dollar! Hence the additional zeros to the amount. At the same time, another customer had a similar error applied to his account, so the assistant manager told me. But we were the only two of her clients, it seems; yet she would ensure that the points would remain since we were both good customers and would certainly continue to buy at that store.

Then there was a flash of inspiration: why not take their top reward item and sell that to finance an engagement ring for Debbie? The top reward item is a 46" flat screen LED HDTV with a retail value of $1100. If I sell it for $800, everyone wins! I certainly don't need a TV like that! But if I were a sports fan, it would be awesome to watch games on that with a room full of friends. Or a really good Blu-Ray movie.

So I put in the request to get one and have anxiously awaited it's arrival for almost two weeks (extremely slow interstore transfer - especially after the other store's grand opening). Yesterday I had a van available for other errands and went to the store to see if it had arrived. It did! Just that morning! The staff on duty took it to the checkout and began processing the transaction. I kept checking over my shoulder fully expecting someone to jump out from an aisle and nab me for theft, or something like that. It was carefully put in the van and promptly taken home. Now to continue hocking this thing to prospective purchasers and get Debbie's engagement ring fully paid for. I did put a deposit on a lovely round-cut Canadian diamond solitaire just before picking up the TV.

Next week will be the official "pop the question" time - but I already know the answer.
A word of caution: Debbie does not have a Facebook account, but many of her friends do. Please don't say anything about this on that forum until after I ask her. You will know it's OK when the status of this post changes from "Friend Access" to "Public".