Locked Out
Nov 11th, 2007 by Nut
Here is an instructive story by English Major on the perils of getting locked out of your apartment, calling a locksmith, getting in before the locksmith arrives, canceling said locksmith, and then getting charged a “cancellation fee” even though the guy never made it.
This stuff happens all the time (especially to me) because we don’t know what the proper protocol is and people take advantage of it.
I went to dinner the other way at a local Italian place and ordered two drinks from the bar (they were vodka and tonics and quite small). I pull out a $20 and say “How much?”
The guy just took the money and took off towards the register, “I’ll be right back.”
He comes back and gives me a dollar bill. Inside, I’m thinking “WHAT!!!!???? No way these little drinks cost $9.50!” So of course I gave him the dollar back as tip.
“Oh thanks,” he says.
Looking back, this was a big mistake. All it took was a simple “These drinks are $9?” to straighten things out. But I played it cool, like I knew what was going on and didn’t want to let on. He must have been confused and thought I gave him a $10 because there is no way those drinks were that expensive. But either way I got swindled (my own fault, really).
Then two weeks ago a knock at my door (I live in a high rise) and two 12-year-old girls are standing there with catalogs in their hands. They are selling stuff as a fund raiser for school or some such thing and would I like to buy something.
I’m totally surprised and try to stall, “What kind of stuff do you sell?”
“Ummm, chocolates, pancake mix, cookies…”
And I start flipping through a catalog, curious. But inside I’m going, “Oh hell no! You are going door to door in my building doing this? How rude!”
Next thing you know I’ve been standing there for five minutes and I feel I’ve taken so much time I just can’t say no. So M comes over and is giving me that look that says “Why didn’t you just say no?”
I bought $10 waffle mix that still hasn’t been delivered. I may have gotten scammed by 12 year olds.
Why do we do these things to ourselves instead of just being honest and rude (sometimes) when we feel that way?
Update! Coming home Christmas night we noticed something teetering on our doorknob: waffle mix! I did NOT get scammed by 12-year-old girls! Success!
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