Saturday, July 14, 2007

Crazy Lady of the Glass Doors

When you no longer post regularly, it becomes difficult to figure out what is worth posting about. I used to be able to just tell charming (?) little (?) anecdotes about spiders and tea kettles and what not. Now, there's all this pressure to tell only really interesting stories.

I'll try to remedy that.

In the meantime, I do have a little anecdote for today. It involves the Crazy Freecycle Lady. My first experience with Freecycle went well; a lady offered little girl clothes, I responded, we met, I took the clothes, we said thanks and went our separate ways. If only all these little rendez-vous(es?) went so smoothly.

First off, in case you don't know how Freecycle works, you simply send out an email to your Freecycle group either wanting something or offering something. Then people respond. And it's always free. It's as easy as that.

So we've had this bookcase collecting dust for several years now, and I decided it was time to go. I offered it on Freecycle, giving a description of the bookcase along with exact measurements, and that same day received a message from someone saying they'd like it. After a few failed emails that got booted back to me undelivered, I finally got one through to her with my mobile number, and she called me back this morning, still interested. So we arranged for her to come pick it up at 1.00.

She arrived at 1.00, but upon seeing it, thought it might be too big for her car afterall. She asked if she could come back around 2 or 2.30 with a van. I, of course, said that was no problem, we'd be in all afternoon. I then offered to let her go ahead and take the sliding glass doors that go along with it just so she wouldn't have to worry about it later. She took the glass doors and headed off.

By 4.00 she still hadn't returned. So I texted her to see if she was held up and when she'd be here. No response.

About two hours later, I decided to just call her. It was then that I realised she hadn't responded because the phone number I'd texted wasn't a mobile but a landline, so she never would've received the text. A child answered the phone. I asked if I could speak to the lady. 'No,' the little darling said. 'Um...' I sheepishly replied. 'She's asleep,' she told me. 'Oh okay, well can you tell her Lori with the bookcase called?'

An hour or two later, I was becoming really annoyed. I wasn't bothered that she didn't want the bookcase, but I at least wanted the glass doors back because they are kind of essential to the bookcase. Scott called this time and asked for the woman. He identified himself... and she hung up. Scott promptly redialed, and it rang out. So I called back and left a very nice, somewhat confused message, saying it was fine if she'd reconsidered, but we'd be really grateful if we could get the doors back so we can give it to someone else. Of course, we've had no response. I emailed her too, but she of course has not responded to that either.

What's the deal? I mean, this woman basically stole something that's for free! And she's hiding from us! She didn't like the bookcase, so she stole the doors and went into hiding! Crazy person! Why didn't she make up a lie like, 'Oh, I must've misread the dimensions, it won't fit in my house' or 'Oh no, I'll get the doors when I return' or 'I just remembered, I'm allergic to wood'? Crazy person!

So now I've got this bookcase taking up space in my kitchen, sans doors. Who's going to take a bookcase that clearly is supposed to have doors that doesn't have doors? What the heck is Crazy Lady gonna do with two pieces of glass? I'm half hoping she'll arrive in the middle of the night and leave the doors somewhere we'll find them in the morning, since clearly she has confrontation issues. Crazy person!

That's my story for today.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Leave your comments here.