I Got Scammed

Well boys and girls, the Shiester got Sheisted, the Master got Mastered, the Schemer got schemed, and the Karma Police are rounding up their troops as we speak. I never thought I would be scammed, as I pride myself in being able to read people, red flags pop up anytime anything too sketchy starts to occur, and the little siren in my head starts shrieking "Abort, Abort" and off I go. Not this time friends, Tim got rocked for $200 while the little voice in my head was taking a nappie-nap. Let me at least get this message out in case it happens to you.

So I am sitting at the drive-thru Wachovia the other day, still gathering my head from the weekend (this is a big disclaimer I am adding to alleviate the pissed-offness that followed), and these girls pull up to me in a Caddie Escalade with the biggest smiles (I know this sounds so stupid already) and scream, "Hey, do you want an entertainment system for your living room?" I reply , "uhhh, what? pull into the parking lot I'll see whats up". The scam ensues:

So these girls are all giddy and tell me that they deliver these entertainment systems to people's houses and for some reason, they looked at their inventory and saw they had two extra systems for delivery with no order. They showed me the warranty slips, the MSRP on the Paramax 6-Speaker 1000 Watt System ($2100), the delivery papers and the systems checked out. They made sure to tell me that they had to get back to work in 15 mins, but was trying to "spread good karma" and hook somebody up with them if they could get a little "Margarita Money." They also had Sound Advice shirts on, exchanged numbers, and I threw them $200. Let me pause for a second and let you know these girls were not even attractive, in case you thought Tim got Mind-fucked by a few lovely hustlers. To top it off, I told them I wanted the other system that was bigger, and they said "no, we are going to keep that one for ourselves, we are trying to make some real money!" Bitches...

I go off on my merry way, thinking I'll at LEAST be able to sell them for $500 and have a quick $300 come-up. As I start googling this set of brand new speakers, I see scam-alerts popping up, sob stories of befuddled maidens who spend $1,000 on bullshit plastic and wiring for their disapponted husbands. This doesnt feel good. I go on Craigslist to put them up and within 5 minutes it was flagged and the post taken down....Yep, Tim just got scammed. I tried the speakers out and they have about 200 watts instead of 1000 to run 6 speakers, which equates to sub-par audio quality at best.

Lessons Learned: Remember when your Mom told you if something seems too good to be true, then it usually is? Yeah, touche Mom, touche. It's not the money that pisses me off, it's the fact I let these stereo sluts scam me, without me even thinking it was sketch. I brush it off, as I just made $300 off of free furniture I acquired, but I hope the Karma Kings throw down the hammer on these "karma-spreading" snakes. This my friends is NOT the ideal way to make money on the road as it was very risky, yet made sense to my ego and entreprneurial spirit. Hey, we move on, and it only makes you smarter right? I'm glad I'm getting these lessons learned out of the way before I hit the road Sept. 9!!!! Stay tuned for Trip Itinerary