Open letter to person on Multiply

The Internet is such a wonderful place. You have all kinds of information at the tip of your fingers. With the rising technology, it is so easy for everyone to exchange information and data with people around the world. This has made communication so much easier and cheaper for everyone. This is the reason why I started selling a myriad of goods online 6 years ago. It was so much to easier to transact online as you would not need to get out of the comfort of your four walls and just use courier services to send out the items. But then as you would not be seeing the buyer/seller, there is always that risk of not having a completed transaction. In the first four years wherein I was selling goods online, most of the transactions went very smoothly, as I had good suppliers and good buyers. Like many other cases, there were instances where in there were delays due to problems with suppliers or emergencies. However none of them were ever left unresolved as they were all sorted out amicably. 

 Recently, during the long holiday due to Typhoon Ondoy, I did a thorough cleaning of my house and came across many items hardly used which I decided to dispose of online instead of a garage sale. I was able to get buyers for them. However due to the floods, deliveries of items (4 packages to be exact) got quite delayed due to some reasons. First of all, many areas, including my area, was rather affected, making pickup of deliveries extremely difficult.Telephone lines and electricity lines were affected as well. To top it all off, some of the people around me got quite sick due to the exposure to the floods. This is definitely not an excuse for being incognito, but when circumstances do pile up, there are times when focus cannot be given to other things. And for this, I deeply apologize. When my focus was diverted to other things related to the floods, I should have been more accessible. I did send out a couple of text messages. However due to the instability of phone lines, apparently some people did not receive the messages, making them rather annoyed. 

I was not aware of this situation until earlier when I received a great number of calls, private messages and text messages. Due to certain circumstances, I was unable to go online for approximately a week and a half already so I could not update anything or reply to anything. I had no idea that someone was going around sending messages to all my contacts. The first instinct was to ignore, as I knew that I did text the people I needed to and I was not running away with anything. However after further thinking, I realized that my silence meant that I was hiding from the people talking about me and that I had something to hide. Upon reading the entries, I found out that many things were being written already. Many people who were not involved started talking and were already passing judgment when they knew only one side of the entire situation. Having said this, I extend my deepest thanks to some people who gave me the benefit of the doubt even without hearing my side yet.

Since a lot of details were already given, I might as well add some more details to add more color to the story and give it clarity.

• A dual sim phone was supposed to be sold to a certain buyer from Cavite. As mentioned above, due to the storm and many days of floods that would not subside, the delivery was quite delayed. Along the way, the phone got damaged due to handling of the item. As I did not want the buyer to get a spoiled item, I refunded the amount paid which was 1,000php. According to the buyer’s update, I was apparently “frightened” into sending her a refund. Just to clarify, I had no idea that there was something being posted online. So when I did send the refund, it was when I found out that the item garnered some problems en route to the customer. If I wanted to scam the customer, I would not have bothered to inform her that there were some defects to the phone. If I wanted to scam the customer, I would have just let the item reach her, I would have kept the money and that would have been the end of the transaction. My failure to answer all her calls and text messages immediately only aggravated the matter. I should have been more available as I was selling something online and there is a tendency for buyers to get uncomfortable when they do not receive confirmation at the soonest. And for this I am deeply sorry.

To the writer of the Multiply ID (galitsascammer), first of all I do apologize for the delay. As mentioned above, certain circumstances came my way making me unable to reply at the soonest. Nonetheless I understand your sentiments and your reasons for acting in accordance to what you probably believed was me running away with your goods worth 200+ pesos. I understand your having to go to through all the trouble of creating an entirely different account just to be able to talk about these things. However I really did think you got my messages, which turned out to be wrong as you did not receive anything. This most probably made you further believe that I was out to scam you. I really do hope that this can  be sorted out amicably as this is rather blown out of proportion already. Many speculations have been made and many things have been, WITHOUT even hearing the other side of the coin. Many pictures of other people not involved are posted indirectly involving them, which is rather uncalled for. They are entitled to their privacy and their pictures posted online in that way is being very unfair to them. I would have ignored this and just let this matter slide by. After all I did NOT know that you were not getting my messages. And I have nothing to hide so I was going to let this pass. However involving other people and posting private photos of other people without getting full knowledge of the situation is wrong. Kindly do take them down as their privacy is being compromised. 

Having said all this, I would like to thank friends and business contacts for the concern. I received a barrage of text messages, private messages and calls today. Many thanks for taking the time to ask me for my side and for informing me of such an occurrence. Otherwise I would not even have known that such a problem was already occurring. I would also like to apologize to friends, family and business contacts who were inconvenienced. I am terribly sorry for your involvement in this misunderstanding. Lastly I would like to request that people are not involved please do STAY OUT of this. It DOES NOT HELP if you know neither head nor tail of the situation to be able to comment and make snide remarks. Kindly do not add more comments and snide remarks that do not help the matter, but rather add salt to the injury. This has been settled in private so please allow this matter to rest. 

On a final note, I would like to use this matter as a reminder to people that we need to be responsible Internet users. When posting something, do take into consideration other things before publishing your post as it might harm other people. Furthermore also do your research. Please do verify things clearly before jumping on a bandwagon. It is easy to condemn someone on the Internet as confrontations are rather difficult given the logistics of the entire thing. Lastly, be very careful with the information you share with other people lest this information be used as fodder against you. 

Once again, I deeply apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced. Also I extend my deepest thanks to friends, family and business contacts who have shown great concern and have taken the time to inquire and ask.

With that, I will end this entry. This is will be the first and the last time I will entertain this matter. Many people are getting affected and I will not allow this matter to go even bigger as many people who know nuts about the matter are having a field day. Also will be disabling the comments to this post to avoid another word war. Lastly despite the many smooth transactions completed in the past, will be deleting my seller account at Multiply as I am not very comfortable and disconcerted with the whole concept of online selling anymore.