The story of buying a bike from a crazy person
07.01.2014
1. My beautiful bike was stolen outside of Metro supermarket, while I was shopping on the day before Christmas Eve. I had bought this bike from someone on the expat Facebook group, so I thought I'd try again to get my new bike there.
2. I posted on the Changsha Facebook group, looking for anyone selling their bike in the near future.
3. An Egyptian guy offers me his green foldable bike. We talk about it and he agrees to sell it for 400 yuan
4. When I go to pick it up he actually charges me 530 yuan "because there are lots of attachments"... OK whatever... he also says "I don't really want to sell this bike, I'm doing you a favour".... OK also whatever.
5. As I was riding the bike home, I found I couldn't get up the hills because the bottom gears were crazily slipping
6. The next day (Christmas Day) the Egyptian guy asks "How's the bike?" 7. I'm at work and busy, so I quickly send him a message back. I'm not going to lie about it so he feels like he did me a favour, because he didn't. I say, "It kinda sucks, it's not worth 530 yuan"
8. His wife starts emailing me, telling me her husband will come over and fix it. I think this is strange and am abrupt with her, telling her that won't be necessary. It's kind of weird that she feels like she has to get involved, isn't it?
9. Christmas Day night: Guy drops off all the money, not to me, but to the guard at the apartment: all 530 yuan. There is a three page rambling letter about nothing and it's pretty creepy and weird.
10. I am freaked out, ignore it, maybe it'll go away. Not sure what to do with the money or the bike. I thought he meant for me to keep it until I leave Changsha. Which would have been really unnecessarily nice.
11. Yesterday he called me "IS THIS A NORMAL THING TO DO? JUST KEEP MY MONEY LIKE THIS?" "Honestly, you're scaring me. I don't know what to do with this money and the three page letter you wrote" "I GAVE YOU TWO WEEKS TO BUY A NEW BIKE!" "uh... i just didn't think it was worth 500, I don't want a new bike..." "SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY MONEY?" "uh... i'm not sure, you gave it back to me" "WELL I WANT EITHER THE BIKE OR THE MONEY BACK" "OK... I don't want to see you again, so I'll put the money in an envelope with the guard at the front gate" "FINE GOOD!" Ohhhhhhhhkayyyyyyyyy
12. So I put what i think the bike is worth... 400 yuan and then block him from Facebook but I forgot about his wife
13. Just now i got a message from his wife:
You still owe us 130 yuan. If you believed in God,if you had faith,you wouldn't have done this. For sure, God is not happy about your actions...He is the only one who can see REAL good and REAL bad people. Now we knew who you are...In case if you know what remorse is,this is our bank account in the Bank of China: 4563 5175 0002 2811 812 We will never contact you anymore because remembering you brings us sadness.
And that would be the end of the story hopefully.
