Hi, Birdie here.
I did a dumb thing the other day. Exhausted after a weekend of pop-ups, I still had a bunch of work to do on Sunday: take product photos for our 12 Days of Deals campaign, create all the codes, program all the social content, etc. I used a few prop candles leftover from our photoshoot in the fall because I thought it would be easier and I could light them without having to damage out any sellable inventory.
So.
I took a bunch of photos and then worked on some content. Somewhere along the way, my tired brain said "You need to clean up this desk" and the prop candles - the completely unscented and sometimes lit prop candles - made their way onto the stock shelves we pick/pack/ship from. On Monday morning, we packed up orders as per usual.
At some point Monday afternoon, I realized what I'd done (after the mailman picked up everything for the day, of course. I ran upstairs unscrewed jars, and sniffed everything I'd taken a photo of the day before. Everything had a scent and was in sellable condition, which is USUALLY a great thing. But now? Now it meant that we'd shipped candles to customers that may not have any scent whatsoever. And, they might have been previously lit.
My anxious-on-a-good-day brain had flashes of families in matching Christmas jammies opening gifts and someone's loved one unwraps a beautifully-wrapped (for the purposes of this simulation, there's red plaid wrapping paper and a beautiful gold bow on top) candle. They unscrew the lid and find a charred wooden wick and a candle with no scent. Christmas is ruined, everyone hates, me, they write a bad review on every website you can review something on, Beyonce tweets about it, I am humiliated, and have to go live in a cave with my cat who is also ashamed of me but continues to tolerate my existence because I am warm and have thumbs.
After I pulled myself together, I looked at all the potential orders the unscented candles could be in based on order history, the time we packed orders, and the contents of every order places within that time window. Tail between my legs, I composed this email:
Hello!