judecatmad
6th August 2007, 13:29
I guess I should also be cross at myself for trying to do a stranger a favour.
A guy bought my old laptop off trademe last week. Paid a price we were happy with - but this isn't about the price he paid for the laptop.
He was in Nelson and wanted to know the cost of shipping. Said it was for his son, who was a student and didn't have a lot of money, so could I please keep the cost as low as possible. Told me his son was going to have to borrow the cost of the postage.
I checked with the Post Shop and their courier postage cost would be around $60 due to it being inter-island and over 5kgs. So I checked with my company and they could send it for about half that (I would reimburse them of course, no dodgies here).
I went back to the guy and offered to help his son out with the cost of postage, so I would only charge him $25 instead of the $32 it actually cost me. That would then make sure the laptop was sent with insurance and signature required, rather than being thrown in the regular parcel post with nothing but its wrapping for protection.
I also didn't charge him for all the bubble wrap I used, nor the brown tape or the box. There's a sucker born every minute, isn't there?
Anyhoo, I see today that the laptop is relisted and the docking station and extra power cable it came with are also listed under separate auctions.
Now, I know he can do whatever he likes with whatever he buys - it's a free market after all. And good on him if he gets more for the items than we did.
What yanks my chain is that he got goodwill through lies. Why aren't people honest anymore? And why do people like me even bother trying to do good things?
:angry2:
A guy bought my old laptop off trademe last week. Paid a price we were happy with - but this isn't about the price he paid for the laptop.
He was in Nelson and wanted to know the cost of shipping. Said it was for his son, who was a student and didn't have a lot of money, so could I please keep the cost as low as possible. Told me his son was going to have to borrow the cost of the postage.
I checked with the Post Shop and their courier postage cost would be around $60 due to it being inter-island and over 5kgs. So I checked with my company and they could send it for about half that (I would reimburse them of course, no dodgies here).
I went back to the guy and offered to help his son out with the cost of postage, so I would only charge him $25 instead of the $32 it actually cost me. That would then make sure the laptop was sent with insurance and signature required, rather than being thrown in the regular parcel post with nothing but its wrapping for protection.
I also didn't charge him for all the bubble wrap I used, nor the brown tape or the box. There's a sucker born every minute, isn't there?
Anyhoo, I see today that the laptop is relisted and the docking station and extra power cable it came with are also listed under separate auctions.
Now, I know he can do whatever he likes with whatever he buys - it's a free market after all. And good on him if he gets more for the items than we did.
What yanks my chain is that he got goodwill through lies. Why aren't people honest anymore? And why do people like me even bother trying to do good things?
:angry2: