A scam changed my perspective: Life Lessons part 2

 How it happened?

One Sunday morning, after an early morning mass, and breakfast, I was simply lying on bed and was just doom-scrolling in YouTube. Recently I was continuously seeing an ad for a cloth shopping site, which I ignored previously with a single glance. But this day, I don't know what happened.  Impulsively, I clicked on the link, and opened the website. It was a site for Churidar sets, readymade. Some nice pics were displayed, and the prices were somewhat affordable also (I just wrongly typed adaptable, and was wondering that was not what I wanted to enter; guess the continuous lecture taking had fatigued my brain.)

I checked many items, and finally decided on two sets for some 1200 Rs I think, and booked them. I truly don't know what made me order from the site. I took some screenshots of the page and waited for the delivery. May be after 2 weeks, I got the call  from the delivery guy, I gave him directions and gave a call to my mom to collect the parcel. I was at my workplace, so I entrusted this with my mother. About half an hour later, my mother called me back in an accusing exaggerated voice.

"What exactly did you order? They have send some random small pieces of cheap cloth! Why did you order these?"

I was already under some work pressure and I did not want to argue with her or justify myself. So I told her we'll discuss in evening and cut the call. Nonetheless, I was totally down for the rest of the day. Well I guess a middle class human would behave like this when they are scammed of their money.

 After reaching home, I saw the wretched parcel, and words were not enough to explain my disappointment. None of the cloth pieces matched what I had ordered. They were just random cheap fabrics. I had ordered readymade sets, not Churidar material. And even if they just send me the materials I would have been fine, but they simply put some waste cloth pieces, which cannot be used for anything.

I was totally frustrated. The kind of feeling, you get, when you realize you lost your hard earned money to a cheap scam, felt so raw, and weird. It felt like failure- A failure from my side to use common sense and a lose of trust in online shopping completely.

I told her that I will do something about this, clicked photos of the parcel and parcel contents.

That was when I noticed that- Only my address was printed on cover, with no mention of the sender. No way to contact them. They had mentioned free refund and returns within seven days.

I checked the website in my phone- it did not show any delivery for my product, no contact information except for an email. No phone number, no customer care service. I was taken aback. I felt darkness creeping into my eyes. How an I supposed to send them back?

 But still, as a rational person, I sent an email with the photos and my complaints with order id. But 2 days later I got some ridiculous reason "Their inbox is full, or it's getting too much mail right now."

I am 100 percent sure that their email is full because of complaints from their customers. 

I consoled myself that its just few of my hard earned money... I tried to forget this incident.

But YouTube never let me forget that. Like a thorn constantly prodding your flesh from inside, the very advertisement was dancing before my eyes again and again.

Two days back, I tried blocking the Ad, that was when I saw the option to report the Ad.

I thought, well, anyway I got scammed, but at least others can be protected, so I put a brief complaint against the ad there.

Today I saw the reply, that the Ad is not against the policies of the platform, so it will be kept.

It was disheartening. 

But this experience taught me something.

Image generated by Google AI

Lessons:

1. Always do online shopping from reputed apps or sources only.
2.  Don't let your heart waver just because you see something again and again.
3. If you want to order something from a new site or app, just make sure that the contact details are correct and if no contact number is given, no proper address is available, it's better to drop that order.
4.  Forget this bitter memory, and be satisfied with the message you are getting. 
5. The universe may not always work in your favor. Not all of your requests and needs will be full-filled. But try to do something regarding that, if its not working, and if its not a life or death situation, just leave it. It's not worth it to fret over these things. Life is so short to waste it away on negative emotions.

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