Olx con (manager technique)

WARNING!

These are REAL incidents that have happened to people. We choose to place you as the main character so as to show you how easy it is to fall prey to such circumstances. Remember ROLES CHANGE, SKILLS EVOLVE but SCRIPT remains the SAME. So IGNORANCE of the probability of such occurrences ever happening to you is entirely at your own DISCRETION!!!

No regret! No remorse! No backtracking! It’s now or never! Engulfed in an aura of guilty consciousness emanating from  a fortnight of fierce mental dilemma regarding your current predicament, and the ultimate conclusive decision undertaken to quench the looming disaster that hung overhead, you have finally decided to get rid of it. Armed with a gallery-load of still photos professionally captured from various angles like a newbie model’s portfolio, you are anxious to devour the ‘hard-earned’ fruits of your labor.

You gently flick through your phone’s applications and tap on one of the brightly colored icons. In the blink of an eye, the app majestically springs to ‘life’ displaying an array of purple and orange interfaces hypnotically appealing to the eyeballs.

Being a first time user of the app, you reminiscence and religiously follow the procedures outlined in the advert that ran concurrently on the airwaves for almost a week signifying how easy and fun it is to profitably ‘dispose’ off an item with a few simple clicks.

You tap on a text box and type in:

Apple iPhone 6 for sale

and upload the previously taken snapshots in to the image sections.

You scroll down to the description text box and type in:

[2 weeks old, in perfect working conditions, white in color, accessories included & slightly negotiable]

Finally in the price text box you fill in

[Kshs.35000]

In your mind, you know you have tremendously underpriced such a ‘worshipped’ gadget in contrast to the current market price which retails at almost double the amount.

Had it not been for the current financial desperation you are undergoing, you would have asked for a more reasonable amount.

You conclude by filling in your phone number in the last empty text box section and then click the POST icon. Almost immediately, a new window pops up with a congratulatory message stating:

Congratulations! You have successfully posted your advert on OLX.

Half the quest already conquered, you are now faced with a more formidable obstacle otherwise known as the ‘waiting game’.

All through your entire life, patience has never been a virtue. In fact, if wealth would have been distributed proportionately to one’s patience ethics, you would have emerged the dirt poorest of the lot.

However, today seems like the universe is in total collaboration with you. After only 45 minutes into the posting of your advert, you receive your first caller.

Caller: Hi, I found your advert on OLX that you are selling an iphone 6

You: yes, I am selling

Caller: is it an original iphone 6?

You: (Sensing the caller’s skepticism) yes, its indeed an original iphone 6. I personally bought it 2 weeks ago.

Caller: If I may ask, is there anything wrong with it? Why are you selling it so soon?

You: (Obviously lying) I could not relate to its operating system and I need a much more simpler OS like the android

Caller: Ooooooooh! That’s fine, do you have the receipt?

You: yes, I have it. In fact I will sell it to you fully boxed as I bought it.

Caller: Ok great! Where are you? How can I see it?

You: I can bring it to you at ……………. So you can personally inspect its status before buying it but I assure you that there is nothing wrong with it.

Caller: ok, lets meet at……… by 4.00pm

You: (excited) yes I will see you there, thanks for calling.

Excited at your very first ‘successful’ sales pitch, you can’t wait to meet the buyer. You glance at the wall clock and sigh.

The hour hand sits gently at 11, the minute hand hangs mockingly between 1 and 2 while the seconds hand rotates merrily around the mounted digits.

Not being the kind of person to disappoint in regards to the impatience brand, you are out of the house 20 minutes later.

Having arrived at your rendezvous point 3 hours early, you decide to ‘kill’ off some time in a nearby cyber café.

You would have sworn that you had slid into a time warp portal the very moment you entered through the doors of the cyber café because what seemed like eternity 3 hours ago, instantly vanishes when you are abruptly shaken off your trance-like state that had you glued to the screen monitor like a mummified zombie.

The sudden vibration in your pocket accompanied by a familiar tune instinctively drives you to glance at your wrist watch. Its 4.05pm. You reach for your phone. It displays a very familiar caller ID. Outside, you clumsily weave through the traffic of people like a misplaced oriental ninja to your proposed meeting point with your client.

Even through the sea of strangers synonymous with the bustling Nairobi streets, you catch sight of an expensively dressed gentleman standing next to the entrance of a very swanky restaurant.

You confidently approach him with optimal assurance that he is indeed your desired target owing to his detailed description of himself over the phone while at the cyber.

You shake hands and he ushers you into the building. He directs you to one of the available vacant tables as he signals to a waiter to bring you a hot cup of coffee with a slice of toast.

He takes a seat opposite you at the table and smiles

“Welcome to my restaurant, I am a Manager here”, he says.

Visibly impressed you reply, “Wow! It’s a really nice restaurant”

“Did you bring the iphone?” he asks

“Yes I have, here it is”, you reply as reach for your bag, carefully remove the boxed device and hand it to him.

Portraying the confidence of handling such luxurious items on a daily basis, he unboxes it, inspects it while nodding affirmatively. He boots it up, flicks through the applications, tries on the earphones and smiles,

“This is very wonderful”, he says,” I will definitely buy it” “To tell you the truth, I was not expecting it to be in such excellent condition and for that I will add you a little something extra, how does shs45,000 sound?” he asks

Overly excited you reply, “Yes! That’s marvelous “

Ok wait for me here while I go to my office and bring you the amount. In the meantime please help yourself to anything in the restaurant, I will settle for you the bill” he says as he rises from his seat and heads towards a backdoor of the restaurant.

You sip through 3 cups of coffee when an unsettling feeling overwhelms you. You check your watch, it reads 4.45pm and the so called manager is nowhere in sight.

You try to call him and you hear the dreaded voicemail message,

“The mobile number you are trying to call is currently switched off, please try again later”

After several futile attempts you decide to talk to one of the waiters.

“Excuse me have you seen the manager?” you ask.

With a puzzled look he replies, “Which manager?”

“The one I was talking to a while ago, he left for his office to bring me something from his office at the back” you reply as you point towards the door he had disappeared into.

“Am sorry there’s no office at the back, that door leads to the back exit of the restaurant” he replies