Too Good To Be True !?!

Everyone over the age of ten must have heard the age old saying of, "If it looks { or sounds } too good to be true then it probably is".

 

In life there always have, and always will, be times when you either notice something, or more likely are presented with something, that at face value seems to be just too good to be true.

 

Some of the time { more or less depending on your own personality } your paranoia sounds like an alarm bell and you switch off without a seconds hesitation and then the situation is safely avoided.

 

Equally some of the time { again depending ... } your curiosity gets the better of you and stop to try and get a better perspective on things and see if you can spot the catch. Sometimes you spot something fishy and sometimes it just doesn't add up and so again you let it go and do nothing more.

 

But ... every now and again, you allow yourself to buy into the whole "it really is this good" line of spiel, and as the other saying goes ... " things start to happen when you say yes".

 

And why am I bringing this up ... well it happened to me the other month and because I was bored and at work I thought, why the hell not.

 

Oh, the scene, right, I forgot ... let's me start at the beginning.

 

It was a boring Thursday at work, and I'm busy as usual paper pushing a few excel printouts around my desk and desperately trying to look busy without actually doing anything. Then my desk phone goes and on the other end is some yank, banging on about that he is only phoning back as requested and as it's now my lunchtime, do I have time to complete a quick survey about our companies land line and mobile phone facilities.

 

Now, normally I'd not bother to waste my time as no matter how bored I am I still have no burning desire to squander any of my precious life minutes on something so unless, but then today is an extra long and boring day, and itis not like the survey could do me any harm so why not.

 

And then of course there was also the 'too-good-to-be-true' element as the guy is offering me £50 as an incentive for answering the survey.

 

Well ... I decided, what the hell, there's not really much to lose and what if I really did get the £50 for just saying a few yes's no's and maybe's, it wasn't like I was agreeing to switch provider or anything.

 

So I didn't just hang up or fob him off yet again, instead I dutifully answered his questions about how many staff we have? how often we call the states? how many staff took their blackberries abroad? and so on and so forth for about half an hour, and all the time I was waiting for the "thanks for your time and goodbye now" followed by a quick click as he hangs up, except it didn't happen.

 

Instead he asked me to give him my particulars so that he could forward my cheque, which I did of course, and only then did he thank me for my time and disconnect.

 

Now this was a few weeks ago now, so you can imagine my amazement when in the post today at work was a cheque in the sum of $154.00 made payable to "Mr D Springate". Gobsmacked was not the word.

 

It's a pity that my office is such a small and open planned affair as all the others in the accounts dept spotted it, and then pretty shamefully made me agree to take them all out to lunch on the proceeds if it actually cleared.

 

But even so, ignoring the £15 foreign currency charge I will have to pay, $154 is still £154, and if the cheque does clear without any fallout or unexpected repercussion then it will be a right result and my curiosity will never be the same again.

 

It's bad enough when my lifestyle seems to be based around the Avril Lavigne song "Anything but Ordinary", so when added with things like this happening to me all the time, is is any wonder I can't help but want to travel and do crazy things? it's like I was born into it !!!