Hypothetically, if you bought something online as a “pre-order” that said it would ship the week of December 2nd, but actually arrived on January 8th, do you think the company should relax its 14-day money-back return policy? If they get to be a month late, should the customer also be given the grace to be a little late as well, and get money back instead of store credit?

Also, what if this isn’t actually hypothetical? 🤔🤣

I made the non-hypothetical return in person to avoid return shipping fees, and ideally to convince a real, live person that they should extend the return window by 10 days, given that they gave themselves 30 extra days to deliver. Lolz! Ha!

The salesperson I dealt with, in addition to being seriously snooty, peering at me imperiously over her achingly stylish glasses, told me with great conviction that not only could I not get money back, I couldn’t even return the item for store credit. I had to bring up her own employer’s return policy on my phone to convince her that yes, I was entitled to store credit, and no, she wasn’t “doing me a favor” by offering to “try” to get the store credit.

I had to step away and take a deep breath or two before I could deal with the situation. Living with ADHD means that missing return deadlines is probably more common for me than for a lot of people. The consequences of missed deadlines accumulate, both in unwanted store credits, and also in shame. It certainly doesn’t help when the sales person says, with disdain, “If you had really cared, 14 days should have been plenty.” Which 1,000% echoes my internal dialogue, making matters much worse.

Anyway. This isn’t meant to be a psychological deep dive. Not at all.

I wanted to show you this example to give you some extra context for 2 things I do here at Orta, both of which are meant to help people who sometimes forget things and / or have other, competing priorities in their lives, and both of which I was thinking about as I was taking some deep breaths in that shop.

1.

The first thing is the whole reason for Orta being a company: Self-watering pots. I killed a lot of seedlings by forgetting to water them. Seedlings are even more unforgiving than that snooty salesperson. (Except that they don’t really have a choice in the matter - vulnerable is a more appropriate word.) Forget to water for even one day and they die on you.

For many of us, self-watering pots are the difference between seedlings that make it to transplant, and dead seedlings sending you, yet again, to the nursery for starts.

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2.

The other thing I’ve always offered is our ridiculously good guarantee. Forget a 14 day window for returns. How about forever? If you don’t like your pot, even if you’ve used it, we’ll give you your money back forever (minus shipping, because USPS doesn’t do refunds, unfortunately.) If your pot fails to work properly, even if it’s years down the line, we’ll replace it for free.

I invented the pots and designed our return policy long before I knew I had ADHD.

I was just making things the way I thought they should be: Forgiving.

In product design, we often talk about The Extreme User. The classic example is the Oxo potato peeler, which was designed and tested with both professional chefs (extreme performance requirements) and people with arthritis (extreme comfort and ergonomic requirements). If a design worked for both groups, it would be likely to work for the rest of us in the middle ground. On the other hand, if you design for the “average,” someone with no expertise or dexterity problems, you end up with something “meh” for everyone.

Designing for ADHD turns out to be a kind of extreme user method as well. If I make the return window long enough to work for me (forever), it’s definitely going to be long enough for you. If I make the time between watering (1-2 weeks) long enough that even I’ll remember before the reservoir dries up, chances are it will feel forgiving and easy for you too.

I get why the company I was dealing with only has a 14-day window. They don’t want the liability of too many potential returns coming back unexpectedly. It also shows, along with their choice of unfriendly salespeople and a few other brand touchpoints, that they’re designing for someone who has it together. In a way it’s aspirational, and, again, I get it. We all want to be on top our mess. But when we don’t (and who does, really, have it altogether all the time?) we’re pushed away, made to feel less-than, excluded.

It’s taken me a lot of learning about branding, design, business, and ADHD to be able to decipher an experience like that. Years ago, it would have worked like it’s designed to: I would have felt like missing the return window was my fault for being a disorganized mess, and paradoxically, the brand would have become more desirable. If only I buy from them, I’ll be more together, more valuable as a human being.

Now I can see through it. Exclusion is the point, either intentionally or unintentionally. There may not be someone at the helm of the company saying, “How do we make our brand more desirable by making people feel left out?” But there also certainly isn’t anyone saying, “How do we make sure our customers feel welcome, and forgiven when they make normal, human mistakes?”

🌱🌱🌱

It’s February now, and definitely time to get a move-on if you want your own veggie seedlings this spring. You don’t need to have your seeds started yet, but you should be thinking about it. Or thinking about thinking about it. Consider this a gentle, forgiving, nudge. 🙂

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a very easy planner you can fill out to organize your timing.​

And here’s a brand-spanking new calculator I made for you to figure out what size grow lights you need to light your seedling space. You input how big the space is and it will tell you how many lumens of light you need to shop for.

Speaking of grow lights, newsletter reader Lori sent me a link to these lights from Home Depot (not an affiliate link - I’m not promoting them, just passing along the tip) that she found on sale last week. They’re 3000 Lumens, about $15* and will sufficiently light an area about 1 foot x 3 feet. Thank you Lori!

And if you need self-watering pots, you know where to get them! Click here to see what we’ve got. OR Click here to see the discounted factory seconds we have in stock.

Happy Seedurday (on Sunday this week!),

Anne

P.S. *Lori's price on the lights was about $5 cheaper than what showed when I looked at them at the same time. Perhaps it's regional, and perhaps it's an example of Surveillance Pricing, where companies change prices based on your browsing history. If your prices are different, perhaps let me know, and we can compare?

When you’re ready, here are some more ways I can help you grow a thriving garden from seed:

1. Plan your seed-starting schedule with our ​free printable planner.​

2. Download the free ​Orta Seed Starting Handbook with all the basics you need to succeed with seeds.​

3. Take the guesswork out of watering with Orta Self-Watering Pots. (Find discounted factory seconds here!)

4. Join the Orta Seed Club to have 5 hand-picked, unusual & high-yielding varieties delivered to you every season.

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