I posted a few things on our community’s Facebook page — a desk, some board games, and other odds and ends — and said they would be on my porch for pickup. I did not add my address because I didn’t want people randomly showing up. Almost immediately, a woman reached out.

Woman: “I’ll take it.”

Me: “All of it?”

Woman: “No, the desk. I don’t want all your s***.”

Me: “Okay, well, I posted a couple of things; that’s why I asked.”

Woman: “When can you deliver?”

Me: “Oh, sorry, I don’t have a car big enough to deliver. If you can pick it up, I’ll gladly help you load it.”

Woman: “Then you owe me $100.”

Me: “No, I don’t.”

Woman: “You do. It’s for taking it off your hands, you f****** idiot.”

Me: “As I’ve listed, the items are pick-up only.”

The woman commented on the post, saying I was a scammer and trying to rob people (though everything was FREE) and all kinds of other things. I replied with a screenshot of our conversation and she blocked me, which also deleted all of her comments.

CONTENT WARNING: Pet Death
I had the same dog for half of my life. When she finally passed away last year at almost sixteen, I was devastated as she was my best friend. My mom paid for the cremation as money was very tight right then, but I didn’t ask her to pay the extra to get her cremated separately — they return the dog’s ashes that way — as I already felt bad enough about the whole situation.

I posted on Facebook about a rosebush I had planted in her memory, and it came up that I hadn’t been able to bring her home because of the money. When people on the page I posted her plant on found out, they called the vet to pay the difference so I could bring her home.

Not only that, but a month later, I found a puppy that I wanted and made arrangements for the breeder to hold him for me until I could get the rest of the money for him. (Don’t judge; none of the shelters had a dog that would work for my needs.) A friend paid the deposit for me, but I still needed a few hundred to finish paying for him. I mentioned that on a breed-specific Facebook page that I was making payments, and a complete stranger sent me the rest of the money I needed to bring him home.

It took a crappy situation and made it better by reminding me that there are good people in the world and by giving me a new dog to love.

UPDATE FROM THE OP:

Update because of people being judgy in the comments.

I didn’t have the money to have my original dog cremated because she died on a Sunday and the emergency vet charged several hundred just to have you walk through the door plus over $100 for the medication to put her to sleep and over a hundred more for the cremation. My girl went from fine to needing her final vet trip in less than 12 hours and I wasn’t going to leave her suffering until Monday because it would be cheaper. THAT is why I didn’t have the full amount in my emergency fund.

As far as getting a new dog, I hadn’t intended on getting a new dog after my girl passed. But I fell into a deep depression as my girl had been my ESA. I checked the shelters in our immediate town as well as several others but they had no small dogs. I live in a small apartment with a small yard and didn’t feel like it was fair to cram a big dog into a space that they wouldn’t be comfortable in. I also was hesitant about getting a rescue because I had a rescue cat at the time and was worried that a second rescue animal would be harder to acclimate to a kitty that already had issues.

As far as handling the care of my new boy, he cropped up with kidney issues just after his first birthday. I took him to the vet and put him through 6 months of an intensive and specialized (and expensive) diet and he now has a clean bill of health. I paid for his vet bills and treatments myself as he is my responsibility and I know that. I am on temporary disability at the moment so that’s why money is tight but I will sacrifice so my pets don’t have to go without. Making payments was for the owner to hold him until I was able to get the paycheck to pay for him, I never once asked for or expected help and posted my story because I was blessed, not so others could judge me.

I was working on a project for a client who told me he wanted to market his services on Instagram and with Google Ads.

Me: “I’m open to it, but in my experience, you need to do more than just post on Instagram and run Google Ads. You need to update the website, work on your SEO [Search Engine Optimization], up your online presence, and more.”

Client: “I just need these two things.”

For the next few weeks, the client made me present plans in painstaking detail. He knew very little about digital marketing and wanted me to explain every little decision.

I was a bit curious to see if Instagram and Google Ads would be all that he needed, but I also assumed it wouldn’t be and that he’d see that eventually. 

During this time, the client left on two vacations while paying me a very low hourly rate. He was very busy with his work and hardly had time to respond to my emails. 

A month later, the Instagram marketing campaign wasn’t making much of an impact (as I had suspected). The very low budget for the paid online ads wasn’t making a difference, either. 

Me: “This is all in line with what I said before. I think to see results, you need to raise the budget for Google ads, update your business listings, and work on the SEO of your website. We should probably be trying other social media platforms, as well.”

At this point, he became upset and started arguing with me.

That’s when I realized I had spent weeks trying to educate and plan with the client, and it would be more months of hand-holding, which I just didn’t have the energy for anymore.

The client, who works in finance, wanted me to market his vacation rental home on Facebook. From my experience, I knew this wasn’t the only thing he needed to market his home. I proceeded to talk with him about the value of a quality website, updated photos, and more.

He barely listened to me.

Client: “Yeah, I don’t have time for that. I just need to make some money quickly by marketing this vacation home on Facebook. Also, I need you to help me market this diner I just bought.”

Me: “Okay…”

Client: “Oh, by the way, my credit card is maxed out since I am paying for the food for the restaurant out of pocket. I need to make more money off of my vacation rental and this diner. But don’t worry, I’ll still pay you.”

Me: “Okay. Well, this is a little concerning. By the way, the website for your restaurant needs a lot of work.”

Client: “I just had that created! I guess that’s what I get for being so cheap.”

Eject! Eject!

I order some small items online — a magnet and a sticker — with home delivery through our national postal service, assuming they’ll just drop it through the mail slot in my door if I’m not home.

After I’ve forgotten about the whole thing, I arrive home one evening to find a notification that a package that has arrived and is waiting for me to pick it up. The notification says the package is being held until… that very same day. It also has some helpful instructions on how to pay for them to hold it even longer. Well, all right, then.

Since I cannot time travel, and at the moment I am so irked that I refuse to pay, the package gets sent back. The next day, I contact their customer service.

The representative helpfully informs me that yes, sometimes the notifications get sent late. I question this, and they claim that they have no control over when the post gets sent out. Maybe I’m uneducated, but I can’t understand how the postal service does not have control over this. The way I figure it is, they receive a package, they check the next time they send out the post, and they then keep the package until maybe two or three days after the notification gets sent out.

I end up writing a complaint, to which I get a very generic answer. You know, the “Sorry about your experience” one? I reply again outlining just what the problem is, but I don’t hear anything about it for a while.

About a month later, I get another reply — this time from someone who actually recognizes the problem and apologizes for what happened. They also tell me they have put the package back to be picked up. The last pick-up date? Two weeks ago. Well, that would have been nice to know a month ago when they first replied.

During this time, the seller contacts me about the returned package and agrees to send it again when I explain the situation to them.

Today, just around two weeks later, I finally got the package. And yes, they put it through the mail slot. I haven’t gotten a reply from the postal service yet, and I probably will never know why they didn’t just drop it through the mail slot the first time.