Sit Down In This Chair And Let Me Waste Your Time

I saw a chair for sale online, and it looked like a reasonable price depending on the condition. When I messaged the seller, it turned out to be a bit of a scam; the process had nothing to do with the chair and it was actually new and far more expensive.

I told him I wasn’t interested, but he tried to get me to buy it anyway. He then started to send me messages about other pieces of furniture. He wouldn’t stop until I blocked him. 

Then, someone else contacted me trying to sell the same type of furniture. I blocked them. Then, another. I don’t know if it was his family or just a bunch of people with so little to do with their lives that they live to be annoying.

One afternoon, I had several, one after the other, selling some big table and chairs set. They seemed ridiculously expensive, and the scammers claimed it was imported and of high quality. Yeah, right.

So, I thought, “Why not mess with them?”

Me: “Looks good. Do you have it in stock?”

Scammer: “Yes, good quality. You want?”

Me: “Sure, but I want to see it in person first.”

Scammer: “No good. You pay, we deliver.”

Me: “I can pay cash, but I want to see it first.”

Scammer: “No, no, no, you build it.”

I guess he meant that it was a flat pack.

Me: “You build it, make it look nice and shiny, and I will come and buy.”

Nothing for hours.

Scammer: “Okay, tomorrow.”

Tomorrow came and I was not sure what to say next; of course, I was not going to see it. He messaged me at lunchtime.

Scammer: “It’s ready.”

Me: “Did you polish it?”

Scammer: “Yes, it’s clean.”

Me: “I wanted it shiny. Polish it or I won’t come.”

After a bit of back and forth, I managed to convince him to do it. He messaged me at 9:00 pm that it was ready. But I told him it was too late and blocked him.

The next day, I got a condescending message from someone else telling me how terrible I was to waste people’s time. I asked him to check how many times I had told all of them to stop wasting mine. Somehow that was “completely different”.

At least the messages stopped.