A lesson learned!

I am big fan of Masai Markets, an open bazaar where hundreds of items are sold by locals. Masai Markets can be located different part of town in specific days. Negotiations are expected, with never ending talks between the buyer and seller. You can refer to my blog for more info.

Whenever I get a chance, I go to Junction and just enjoy walking around, watching dancers and checking the new items. Last week, I went there to buy animal graved glass set. There are only few vendors that sell it, so after some talk I have decided to buy 8 sets of glasses. We negotiated and talked. She said she does not have the number (4 pieces of beer glass was missing) I wanted but she would call the shop and they would bring it right away. After I checked my watch to see how much time I have, I took her words and said ok (I pick up my children from school at 3:30. It was 12pm when she called. And I patiently started to wait, each half hour passed she said the guy is in the traffic, parking lot, stairs and on on. By that time, trusting her words, I was already paid the cash. She gave me whatever she had and was waiting on my last items. It was three a clock I asked again where the person is, and again mentioned her I am going to be late for my children. She gave me the same reasons, there I started to be suspicious (sometimes being too patient is not a good thing!!!). This time I asked her where this person is, and she said he is downstairs and waiting for elevator and I told her, lets go down, thinking I can go from there to my children's school quickly. We went down, there was nobody! And I asked her to call, she said she left her phone upstairs. Finally I got it! I have been fooled! That made me not only angry also dissappointed personally....So instead of dealing with her, I went to the security straight. After many many discussions and explanations (Not sure how many times I explained what have happened!!!) and long waits (because they also discussed between each other!!!) finally the items I paid for arrived and it was 5:30pm!!!

Luckily, one of my friend picked up my kids from school and when I told her what have happened, she said it was also happened to her, and later on she learned from her friends, even though you are physically there you should never pay up front! This is something some sellers do, take the money from buyer, but never deliver and until buyer just gives up on waiting for only few items!!!!

So lessons learned: be open minded, do not be too naive, DO NOT PAY UPFRONT, make sure you have everything in front of you before you PAY! If there is any issue at all, DO NOT DEAL with the seller, CALL the SECURITY!

I was there yesterday:) but this time I was more experienced! It is never too late to learn, right? :)