Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Cultural misunderstanding or pure stupidity?

In attempts to lessen the amount of questions I have about my apartment situation, I decided to put an update of what's going on.

Well... after the whole apartment situation occurred on Thursday, I went to work and wrote the lady who rented me the apartment an email. I had NEVER expected a response back. Low and behold, though, on Friday night I received an email from her... . Granted it was vague, but an email none-the-less. She said she just found out that Mar went out of town earlier in the week unexpectedly, and she'd give me more info later. She also apologized for the situation. Shocked and confused, I sent her another email asking for further clarification.

Sunday she sent me another email explaining that Mar found out early last week that his mom was sick and may have to undergo surgery. So he left to go visit her, and in his haste forgot that a) I was arriving, b) to inform her (the lady I rented the apartment from) of the situation, and c) to leave a key somewhere for me to pick up. -- that sounds valid enough --

So, I sent another email requesting his email and/or phone number. Apparently, however, he doesn't have a phone since he doesn't hear very well after an accident. And I never received an email address. I also asked her for her phone number... but have yet to receive that either. She did ask for my number though, so Mar can contact me once he comes back to Amsterdam... ... ... I'm still waiting for that call.

Yet again, I sent another email, asking for his email address or her phone number to get this all resolved. In her response she didn't answer my questions at all, but said "rest assured, the apartment is yours, and Mar should be returning to Amsterdam shortly" then went on to ask me to send more money for the following months rent since they're trying to open a charity home in Nigeria. Of course I said I'm sorry, but I can't. Does she actually think I'd send her more money when I don't even know if it's 100% valid??

So, I ask you... is this a cultural misunderstanding, or pure stupidity on my part?

That is yet to be determined!

3 comments:

jkribbit said...

Hi Claire, this is Jana's sister. We're all praying for you and hope things work out soon with an apartment! We're also all jealous that you're actually in Holland!! Good luck and keep us posted...

Christa said...

Hey Claire, it's Christa. I stumbled on your blog from Kelley's. At my last job all I did was catch fraud. I wanted to let you know that anytime we saw Nigeria we said it was fraud, no questions asked. The scams are to say things exactly like what you wrote...starting charity, going to the country to do some good thing and but then something goes wrong...such as an illness, a death, etc.
I'm sure you're being careful but I just wanted to let you know that what this woman is saying to you follows major fraud patterns.
Now that I've been a total doomsayer....I hope it is actually legit and you have this great apartment. Sounds like you're having a great time! I hope you love it!

ReL said...

This lady still sounds shady, I mean evading the request for a phone number and email twice in a row is rediculous. I hope things work out for the best but if I were you and it did work out, I'd start looking for a new place to move into after the first three months you already paid is up. I don't think I'd trust this lady much more. Good Luck and I'll keep you in my prayers.