Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Is eBay Broken?

So...

There is a big concert coming to town and as any good parent would do, I tried to purchase two $70 tickets so my daughter could go. As we all know, these concerts sell out in 15 minutes so I was left without any tickets. I spent the next week scanning the radio dial listening for contests to win some tickets. I found a radio station that played a three second montage of three song clips by the artist. You had to be the 15th caller and correctly identify all three songs. I figured that I had no chance in hell of being the 15th caller much less identifying all three songs.

Luckily for me, the radio station had teamed up with a local news station and if you watched the late night news, they would give you the answer to all three song titles that would be played for the next morning's contest. So, like any good parent, I stayed up and watched the news, wrote down the song titles, and set my alarm so I would not miss the contest. So I woke up the next morning and battled it out with 500,000 other people all trying to be the 15th caller. And wouldn't ya know it? I got through. So I'm on the phone with the DJ, I give him all three song titles, he tells me I've won, I do my happy parent dance and life is good. Woo hoo! That was in December. Fast forward to last night.

My home phone rings and check the caller ID. I don't recognize the number. I got an unlisted number 'cause there are just too many crazies in the world. So I'm thinking it's got be a friend of my daughter's. The guy on the other end asks if it's me and I say yes. He tells me his name and I can't quite make it out. Obviously, this guy knows who I am and I'm supposed to know who he is. Now I don't want to be a jerk or an ass and tell this guy that I can't remember who he is so I play along like a Hardy boy piecing together clues in a lame attempt not to hurt this guy's feelings. The first thing he asks is if I'm going to the concert. I say my daughter is and he goes on to tell me how he heard me on the radio three months ago winning the tickets. As he continues, he mentions his wife's name and some other info that sets off a light bulb in my head and I now know who I'm talking to.

The guy on the other end used to be a good friend but through starting families, moving and life we lost touch. I haven't seen or heard from this guy in literally five years. Now he calls me up out of the blue asking if I'm going to a concert. Then it happens. The reason he called. He wants to know if I would pick up some souvenir crap from the concert for his daughter and meet up with him sometime later so he could get the stuff and pay me back. In all of my excitement of figuring out who the hell was on the other end of the phone without sounding like a jackass, I said sure. Then it occurred to me that I had never given this guy my new unlisted number so I asked how he got it. He tells me he contacted his mother who contacted my mother-in-law who relayed the number to him. The guy went through some trouble to get my number. Obviously he really wants some souvenir crap. We hung up after I told him I'd call him later to set up a time to give him the stuff.

It got me to thinking about the concerts I've been to. I'll buy a t-shirt or whatever just because I'm there. But if I really want some souvenir crap I can always go to that person's website and buy it there. If not there, then on eBay. But not this guy. I've now got to send my family with extra money to buy his crap that they're expected to lug around through a crowed arena just so his daughter can have an 8x10 glossy because he didn't have the fortitude to watch the evening news, memorize the three songs, do the scavenger hunt, call up and sing the artist's songs in falsetto or whatever lame contest the radio stations run to crank up their ratings.

Don't get me wrong, I would have told him I would gotten the stuff anyway. It's for his daughter and this was his good parent act. I commend the man for that. But he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Resourceful, yes but not bright. If he figured out a way to get to me, how many of my other past friends might come out of the woodwork and try the same thing? Especially if they hear that I'm sending my family to this concert with a shopping list for this guy. What kind of friend would I be to deny their children some souvenir crap since I told this other guy I would?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you try to call me over the next couple of days... I'm not going to answer.

1 comment:

  1. Just be thankful you didn't win the lottery. Imagine all the good friends you didn't know you had that would call. Imagine THAT shopping list!

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