Last year, I was cleaning the marketing closet at my office and came across about 50 perfectly good certificate frames that were taking up valuable space. After my company moved to fully remote work post-COVID, we realized our employees did not want framed certificates to hang in their home offices. Hence, the surplus.
In an attempt to find a use for the frames, I posted the whole lot on the Buy Nothing Facebook site in my area. And almost immediately, I got a taker - someone who could use all of them for a volunteer organization with which she was involved. Perfect!
She agreed to meet me at 2:00pm to pick them up at my office, which is just a few miles from our neighborhood. As an added service, I told her I'd meet her curbside and help her load the frames into her car.
She replied, "I'll message you when I'm on my way. That sounds great. We'll head over shortly. My kids can help, too."
With the help of my daughter who was assisting me in the office that day, we piled the 50 frames onto a cart, rode the elevator down 11 floors, and navigated the unwieldy cart to the loading area in front of the building.
And then, we waited. And waited. At 2:33, I texted the woman again and asked, "Do you know what time you'll be here? We're waiting outside." She replied, "I'm on my way. The kids ended up going to the pool. I'll be there in a few."
At 2:54 pm, I texted her for the third and final time, stating, "I had to get to an appointment and left the frames in front of the building. Please let me know that you got them." Which she did, about ten minutes later.
So, yes, she KNEW I WAS WAITING OUTSIDE for almost an hour and by way of explanation, told me she had taken her kids to the pool, and she certainly did not apologize. What I should have done was take the frames back upstairs and not answer any subsequent texts from her. However, I did not want her volunteer organization to suffer for her boorishness.
I shared my frustration with a friend who is part of the same Buy Nothing site. Both she and I occasionally post items on the site and remind each other not to give them to this woman when she shows interest. (Everyone needs a Solidarity Sister.)
Oh, do you think that's petty?
Well, buckle up, daffodils...
'Frame Boor' emerged again recently, posting items she was giving away on the site in the past few days. (She turns up every now and then to taunt me. I'm already on edge about the election this year and am seemingly ready to rant about the most mundane things. This being the latest of them.) I texted my friend, who replied to me a few moments later with, "Go back and look at her post." My friend had replied very politely to the woman's post asking for very specific, detailed measurements about the items the woman had posted.
Frame Boor took the time to provide my friend a rather meticulous list of every possible specification for her items. To which my friend sweetly replied, "Sorry, that won't work for me."
We plan to continue this operation until we have made up the hour the woman cost me last year. It may take a couple of years, but the long game is somehow more satisfying.
(Also? Harris. Obviously.)
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