Tuesday, September 4, 2007

craigslisters beware

Okay, I still can't believe what just happened. My husband I -- preparing to move-- are in the market for a washer and dryer. We don't need top of the line here, so I checked out craigslist.org and made a few phone calls. We wound up in a French Canadian couples' garage that I'd never met before looking at a decent washer and dryer set. I have to admit on my way over to their house I was worried they might be serial killers (you never know who you're dealing with). At that time it didn't occur to me the people were just shady, greedy, jerks disguised as nice folks who wanted three hundred dollars for a pair of appliances with plugs made for Canada. If I hadn't asked them where they had moved from I would've never picked up on the fact that they were selling us a washer and dryer that wouldn't work in this country. Yeah, I know you can go buy the stuff to swap out the plugs and all that but the point is that these people were perfectly content to sell us appliances that only an experienced electrician would be able to use. And they knew it. They'd first vaguely said they'd moved from "east coast." I had to specifically ask from where, and when the wife answered Canada I saw the husband toss her a look. They even wrapped the plugs with dish towels and shipping tape, so people wouldn't see. And as my husband was examining the plugs I'm looking at their kids bikes hanging on the rafters thinking that people like this shouldn't breed. What kind of example are they setting for the kids? Or worse, what kind of kids are they raising? I couldn't even imagine selling someone anything that I knew would never work for them. It wouldn't even be in my stream of consciousness. And the craziest part of all of it was that came off as very nice, trustworthy people. Frightening. I'm still thanking god that I had enough sense to put two and two together. But I sure feel sorry for the next person who goes over there and doesn't ask where they're from.