Ticked Off!

In a Kidcast episode of Average Joe Radio recently, my son and I talked about a failed attempt to buy him a trampoline that we had found listed in the classifieds. You'll have to listen to the episode to get that story, but I'll share a new one with you today.

Yesterday, my wife once again found a listing for a trampoline in the classifieds. She called and made arrangements to look at the trampoline (and was prepared to buy it) at 11:00 am. With just two hours to wait, she went to her mother's house to drop off our daughter and kill a little time.

When she pulled up at the house to look at the trampoline, it was still there, but the guy she was supposed to meet about it was not. Instead, someone claiming to be his sister came to the door and told my wife that the trampoline had already been sold. I wasn't there, so I don't know all of the details. I only know that my wife called me afterward in tears because my son had been so excited about finally getting a trampoline, only to have his heart broken once again.

So I called the people.

"Hello?" A back woods sounding woman answered the phone.

"I'm calling about the trampoline," I said.

WOMAN: "It's already been sold."

JOE: "It's still sitting in your yard."

WOMAN: "A man came and gave us a check and he's coming back with a truck to pick it up."

JOE: "That's funny, my wife came out there with cash to buy it because she was told to be there at eleven."

WOMAN: "I don't know anything about that, I just know that my brother sold it. The man gave him a check and he already cashed it."

This was a clear sign that they needed the money more than anything else, and didn't care who they got it from.

JOE: "You just broke my three-year-old little boy's heart."

WOMAN: "I'm sorry."

JOE: "No, I don't think you are sorry."

I hung up the phone, infuriated. Is this what our society has come to? I know that this isn't at all the worst thing about society, but it's pretty sad when someone commits to something like the sale of an item, then sells it out from under you. Could they really have needed the money that badly that they couldn't wait the hour or two until my wife got there to buy it? Maybe I'm the last one left with any self-respect, but having committed to sell something, I would tell any other callers that the item was already committed to someone. I would ask for a phone number and offer to call them back if for some reason the interested buyer fell through.

It just infuriates me that people (twice now) have such little respect for themselves that they do such things.

Which is why we're done looking for used trampolines. Tonight I will be setting up a brand new trampoline for son. My kids are far from spoiled, but I just can't stand to see thoughtless dregs breaking his little heart anymore.

Joe