Every now and then… I come across something shopping, that captures my imagination… and usually I end up buying it. Most of the time these purchases work out. But a lot of the time they don’t. Case in point is a pair of athletic shoes. As I was surfing Ebay… looking for some Christmas bargains… I saw a pair of snow leopard shoes. The design was awesome and I could visualize myself wearing them. But because I was online… I couldn’t try them on, to see if they fit. But I was so enamored with them, I thought I’d take a chance. So I pressed the BUY button. It was an outlandish chunk of change... but I was sure they’d be worth it. I never had seen anything like them and I was tickled to get something so unique. However, a few days later, as I wandered into the shoe department at Walmart looking for socks… there were the snow leopard athletic shoes... in all their glory. At least 50 pairs were on display, in various sizes. And… they were substantially cheaper. I felt like a complete fool. I knew I couldn’t return the ones I bought online, so I had been sucker punched. But it was what it was. When the shoes arrived at the end of the week… via UPS… I was less than enthusiastic about opening the package. But reluctantly I did. The shoes really did look COOL up close and personal, so I decided I’d try them on, even if they weren’t fancy like I originally thought. However, adding insult to injury, I couldn’t get my feet into them because the tongues had been sewn shut. It was part of the design. At this point... I was really upset I had been taken by a seller who was a conman… who was sitting somewhere, with my money in his pocket, laughing. I started to cry. My husband asked what was the matter and I told him. He suggested since I couldn’t return the shoes, perhaps I could modify them. Since the tongues were making it impossible to put my foot inside, maybe I could take a pair of scissors and carefully snip along the sides of the tongues, opening them up just enough for my feet to slide into them. I didn’t want to destroy the integrity of the athletic shoes, but figured I was past the point of no return. Pardon the pun. The shoes were either going to be useful to me or they weren’t. So taking the utmost care, I did what my husband suggested and voila it worked… I could wear the shoes. I laced them up and now have them at my disposal. In life, you live and learn... and this was definitely a teaching moment. Have you ever had a similar situation arise from buying items online??
