Customers can be very funny. I am a student at the university of Ilorin. However, I run a fashion business by the side. When things are less tedious at school, I’m able to take a few jobs here and there but when school Wahala hits with full force, I have to take a break and focus on school.
Not only do I love fashion, I’ve also had to fend for myself for as long as I can remember. My mom is the only one sustaining our family and I don’t know much about my dad, who he is or where he is right now as well.
My business has been going well, few setbacks and all but none hit like this one. A customer who was also a member of my church sent me a message that she wanted to get goods for herself and her family worth 100k. They wanted customized caps, jackets, tracksuits and so on.
I agreed and we finalized the discussion. However, no payment was made. The truth is that without payment being made, I couldn’t go and start shopping for the items. Payment validates order when it comes to my business and I had informed her about that.
I was on break from school when we had the discussion and I told her it would be best if she paid during that time because in 2 weeks I’d be back to school. But I didn’t hear back from her.
Four weeks later, she messaged me and then sent part payment. At this point, I stated to her that I won’t be able to run around for what was needed to make the delivery possible because school had resumed but she said no problem she would wait for a good time.
The next week, she started calling my phones and texting me nonstop. She started massaging my friends, calling them and telling them it was an urgent matter and that I could be arrested. She even went as far as sending a message to my mentor…
At some point, she called and both she and her mom were threatening me over the phone, calling me names, insulting me and promising to arrest me if they didn’t get their goods the next day.
I didn’t even know what to do. At this point, my mind was no longer focused on school work anymore. The next morning, I woke up to see that she had started dragging my business page on Twitter. It was getting worse so I took an excuse from school and went to the market.
That was probably the worst period of my life. My iPhone fell from my hand while I was on a bike to Lagos market and I didn’t even know. It was on getting there that I realized my phone wasn’t with me any longer.
I bought the goods and then had to trace my steps back and then realized that all these street boys had picked up my phone and I had to pay them 30k for them to release it to me.
After all of that, I had to speed up the people customizing it and pay them extra for the stress. It wasn’t funny at all.
I sent the goods to her finally and asked for the rest of my payment. She was so rude. It was obvious she had no plans of completing the payment and as if that wasn’t enough, she blocked me.
I was so down throughout that time, I cried and cried. All I’ve tried to do is make ends meet for myself. All this embarrassment from someone I felt should know better because she was a part of my local church was unbearable.
My mentor bore the cost and paid me back what the lady had refused to pay completely and even added a bit extra for my troubles. I’m just happy I didn’t get arrested cause I don’t know how I would have survived that.
