Our 1st Successful Sale on Facebook

14 September 2020

This afternoon we sold an item (bicycle) on Facebook for the very 1st time.   We only agreed to see 2 people this afternoon.  1st person didn't come, called the meeting off last minute and said her neighbor was selling their bicycle to them.   I called the 2nd person.   He came, looked at it, liked it and paid.   It was quick and easy.

We posted the bicycle for sale yesterday on a few selling places on Facebook.  20 people enquired about the bicycle.  One person offered $120, another $100 and another $70.    One asked what was our best offer?   If nobody is willing to pay $125 for it, we intend to donate to our church's annual fundraising sale.   This year there was no sale because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We ordered the Schwinn Connection S5926WM Hybrid bicycle from walmart.com on the 21 August 2016.  We paid $216.52 (incl. of tax).

Disappointedly, Mike's 1st ride on the 27 August 2016, after only 2 miles,  on a paved path in a park, the hind tyre tube popped!

Had the tube changed, on the 2 September 2016, at a Walmart supercenter  but was not happy that we have to pay for the 700C tube, even though it is like $4.21 (incl. of $0.33 tax)

Emailed walmart.com and voiced our disappointment of what happened only after only 2 miles of riding.    So they refunded us $19.90 on the 5 October 2016.   They knew how to make their customers happy.

We have no problems after that.   It was a beautiful bicycle.  Sadly, Mike only rode it less than 5 times during these 4 years, probably just 3 times, if I remembered correctly.  He had hoped to get back to riding when his health conditions enable him to, but it didn't.  It was in the past month that he decided a tricycle would be safer for him and so he finally decided to sell it.  I would have ridden it long ago if I was tall enough for it.

Wrong Straight Talk Service Cards

It has been over 2 years since I made that costly mistake.   It was not like 100s of $, but $65.40 (inclusive of $5.40 tax) was a lot for us.  And to date, I am still hoping the Company would refund me or give me some kind of  compensation.  Maybe at least one free service plan.   I am now writing this to tell myself that this is a gone case.

Back on the 26 May 2018, my husband waited in his truck while I went into Walmart Electronics Department and looked for Straight Talk Service Cards.   I probably would have taken my time to look carefully at the 2 x $30 cards before I purchased them.   I was in a rush because I didn't want my husband to wait too long.  Back home, I only realised my mistake when I failed to reload them to our 2 cell phones.   The cards that I bought were for home phones.   What I needed was for cell phones.   My eyes must be blinded.  Both home phones and cell phones cards are green color.  However, the house phone cards have black colour on it while the cell phone cards have red colour on top of the green cards, respectively.

$30 Home Phone Cards

$30 Cell Phones Cards

Walmart couldn't take them back because I have scratched and revealed the PINs.  Straight Talk representative said they could not do anything.   I tried to sell , offering BOGO, to no avail.  The public most likely think I was a fraud.

So I decided to keep them.  I thought maybe we would change our local communication home phone to the Straight Talk home phone and then I could use those 2 home phone plans that I had wrongly bought.

2 years later, this year, around 17 June 2020, I tried to sell again, to no avail.   To throw away is a waste because the PINs have not been used yet.   So on the 24 June 2020, I wrote (snail mailed) to Straight Talk Company, suggesting that maybe their system could use the PINs for customers who were renewing the home phone subscriptions automatically.   I didn't ask for any compensation.   I did say we have been their loyal customers since 2011.

Less than a month after my letter to Straight Talk Company, 15 July 2020, a representative tried to reach us.   He tried to call me on my phone.  The call center, 800-353-1842, was listed as possible spam, on my phone.   I couldn't hear the message clearly.   Instead of touching the loudspeaker, I touched the delete.  I read somewhere later that I could recovered the deleted voice message but I didn't know how then.    An agent, by the name of Dominic, said he is available from 2-10 pm ET but I couldn't catch the number he indicated to call him back.

He then tried to call Mike, who couldn't talk to the agent, as he was on kidney dialysis and the place was noisy with all the machines here and there.

I tried to call the Call Center, 800-353-1842, who have no idea who had called us.   So I wrote another snail mail on the 16 July 2020, asking if they can contact me on my cell phone again, text me a message or email me.

No response from them and so I wrote my 3rd snail mail to them on the 31 August 2020, referring to my previous 2 snail mails and asking if there is anything they could do for us.

Maybe this is meant to be another lesson for me to slow down and not to take things for granted.    I hate throwing away money, especially through my own mistake and consequence.

28 November 2020

I am very pleased with their patience, response and professionalism in dealing with my case.   

On the 4 October 2020, a CSR called.  A refund ticket for $60 of the 2 Home Phone cards (that were apparently never been used) was issued and forwarded to the management for approval.

On the 6 October 2020, a CSR called.  Instead of monetary refund, one $30 plan was credited to our phone.

I had to call on the 20 October, 21 October and 16 November, with regards to some issue with the crediting of  the second $30 plan.

On the 17 November 2020, I had to talk to 4 persons before the situation was solved.   The 4th CSR successfully credited the second $30 plan to our phone.

It took almost 5 months, from the date of my 1st letter (24 June 2020) to the date when the case is finally closed (17 November 2020).  I didn't expect them to go any faster.   I am very glad they accepted my mistake and were kind to refund me.