(I no longer post on this site. But, given what has happened to me over the past two weeks, I feel as If I must share it with the board. Below is the Readers Digest version of a scenario that I found myself in the past few weeks. You may agree with it, disagree with it, flame me about it, etc. But that's not the purpose of my post. It's once again an attempt to open the hearts of those that want to and are willing to read it.)
My wife and I are pursuing the child adoption process at this time. We've been saving money as diligently as possible for about 1 year now and the time has come to begin the adoption process. My wife, being the overly caring individual that she is, has expressed some concern about our 2 year old dog and how the dog will handle the child that we chose to bring in to our home. Well, after discussing this with my wife, she and I have elected to buy another dog. Our goal in doing this is to give our existing dog an inhouse friend so that it will not grow jealous of the child that we chose to bring in to our lives in the not so distant future.
My wife pinpoints the specific dog that she'd like to have based upon the previous interactions that we've had with the neighborhood dogs around us. We locate the dog on a pet locater website and we then contact the owner with some questions. The owner and my wife exchange several e-mails over a few day period. We feel good about the owner and her dog so we chose to move forward with the purchase of the dog. We transfer $500.00 via Western Union to the owner so that she can arrange the logistics to get the dog to us (the owner is out of state). The $500.00 that we paid includes the dog, shipping, and the required documentation for the transaction. We received confirmation that the owner has in fact received our money transfer and the arrangements are made to have the dog shipped to us.
(Here's where things start to go south)
My wife and I receive an e-mail from the owner stating that the dog's vet certificate is expired and it will need to be renewed prior to shipping the dog to us. The renewal of this certificate will cost $100.00. Also, the cage that the owner plans to ship the dog in is not being accepted by the airline, so a new cage will be required to ship the dog. So my wife and I, being the warm hearted understanding people that we are, send the owner an additional $150.00 for the required accommodations. The original logistics would remain intact due to our quick turnaround of the money and we were scheduled to receive our dog on Saturday, January 20th.
Well, another bump in the road came about. The owner sent my wife and I an e-mail and said that some more problems had come about at the first airport hop that the dog was forced to make. She said that the documents that were required to ship the dog to DFW International Airport had not made it along with the dog (the dog was shipping from Washington, was then forced to make a hop to Kansas, and then Kansas to Dallas). The owner then asked for some more money from my wife and I, but did not give us a reason as to why she needed more money. Something did not make sense to me about what she was telling me so I called the airline to find out if what she was telling me was in fact true. I called American Airlines and they had NO record of any Yorkie dog flying from Washington to Kansas under the owners name. I then pulled up the flight information provided to us by the seller and come to find out, it came from an e-mail address that was falsely created for this transaction specifically. I knew at that very moment that I had been scammed and the owner really had NO dog to sell in the first place.
Was I angry? Sure I was. I was more angry at the fact that I knew that I would not get my $650.00 back than anything. Now you may be sitting there thinking to yourself, "David, what does this have to do with the title of your thread?". Well, here it comes. I wrote the seller the following e-mail after learning that the transaction was nothing more than fraud:
"I am fully aware of your intentions in this transaction that you have between yourself and my family. I must admit that I am a bit disappointed. However, I will not speak against you, nor do I wish for bad things to happen to you. I do find it a little unfortunate because my wife and I are in no position to be coughing up that kind of money right now. You see, my wife and I are in the process of adopting a child and we've been saving money for a long time to do so. My wife and I will unfortunately have to forget about our plans for purchasing another dog due to our losses. I will not ask for a refund from you. What I will do is pray that the money that I have sent to you will be multiplied in ways beyond your imagination to benefit you and your family through the works of the Lord. I completely forgive you. May God bless you and your heart."
You may all think that I'm crazy, and you know what, I may just be a little crazy. But the more that I thought about it, this person is no more than a criminal than I've been in my past. I probably got what I deserved because of some mistakes that I have made in my past. I allowed myself to forgive through God's grace and it has allowed me to find peace within this fiasco. And guess what? The seller found it within her heart to refund my money this morning. She also sent to me an e-mail this morning that said, "I could not allow myself to take advantage of someone so willing to pray for me. I sincerely apologize for my irresponsibility."
The point of this thread is to illustrate that "getting even" is not always the best approach. I cannot say that everyone will experience what I have in my story above. But what I can guarantee is a state of peace that you will experience by being the better person.
Grace and Peace,
Mavsluva
Originally Posted by SMAN12B
