Hey Douchebag, Give Me My Money Back!
I had a fling with an artist I met on Bumble. Months later, I bought a painting from him. He took my money and ghosted me.
Want to hear a funny dating story? Like, HA HA funny but also ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME funny?
I was in Houston for a week last autumn to attend a conference. I decided to open Bumble to see if there were any non-fish-kissing men of interest. There was one that caught my eye. We matched, met and had an intense and lovely week-long fling.
I caught feelings and the months afterwards were challenging for me. I knew it wouldn’t amount to anything but he was willing to string me along through random messages on IG…just to keep me hoping.
In January, he put a post out that he wanted to sell a bunch of his smaller paintings for cheap to make space in his studio. I messaged him and he offered to sell me one I liked for $200. I sent him the money via PayPal and he said he’d ship it that week.
A couple of weeks later, I spotted a dirt cheap flight to NYC and decided to fly for a long weekend, also to see my longtime friend who was just about to relocate. I let artist dude know I’d be in town (he was living there now), he said he’d be into seeing me and asked the dates I would be there.
A week before my trip, I asked him about the painting he was supposed to ship me. He said he held it back knowing I’d be coming and he would give it to me in person.
So I flew to the US, reached out to him to meet up and retrieve the painting and, guess what?
That fucker ghosted me.
I sent him a message on IG when I got back to Amsterdam and asked him to refund the money. I didn’t want an explanation, I just wanted my money back.
He ignored it.
I waited a few more days and sent him an email and asked him to refund me the money again.
He ignored it.
As upset as I was that this dude ghosted me when I was I his own goddamn city, I was more upset about the fact that he thought it was acceptable to take $200 from a single mother going through a separation.
I learned some valuable lessons in this experience:
- Chemistry doesn’t mean shit.
- Artists? Fuck no.
- Guys who take money from a single mother are fucking scum.
- Never, ever send money to buy something using the “Send Money to Friends" option on PayPal (no recourse to reverse the transaction).
