Good morning, all!

I decided to start a new post so that you all would be sure to see it. Early last evening I wrote a second message to the seller, asking what gives. Within a few hours I had a message back, in which he graciously offered to make everything right. According to him, the polite message that I had sent last Saturday never arrived in his Inbox, despite the fact that i had checked my "Sent" messages to make sure it was in there, which it was. Who knows what happened, but it really doesn't matter. I have no reason to doubt the veracity of his claim.

So, I will have a Kauka W next week--I'm very happy.

I never identified the seller, and I think that I'll not do so now either. Some of you may have guessed correctly or incorrectly, but you should all know that my situation was resolved generously and graciously.

Here are the lessons I take from the situation as the buyer:

1) Exercise as much restraint as possible for as long as possible. Give the seller the benefit of the doubt until it's clear that s/he doesn't deserve it.

2) Specific to eBay, be suspicious of the message system on there. Sometimes messages do not go through, even though they may appear to have from your end. I have had this experience with other, non-plumeria sellers in the past.

3) Knowledge trumps assumption. When I wrote yesterday, I was not rude or nasty, but the tone of my second message was definitely more curt than the polite, respectful message I had sent last Sat. Upon hearing that the seller had evidently never received my first message, I was relieved that I hadn't been nastier than I was, and was still a bit mortified nevertheless.

Hope I don't sound preachy--don't mean to. I just believe that civility should reign as a general rule, especially when the subject matter is the world's most beautiful flowers.

Happy Friday, everyone. And my sincere thanks to all of you for expressing support for me. Y'all are a great group of people, and I hope the dialogue will have ended up being a constructive one for our community.

Best,

Greg