Rick Rolled

I got rolled by a business owner who lived 3000 miles away.

Short version: I had lost my SCUBA certification card sometime back. This guy's website promised he could locate any certification for $50. It seemed like a legit business... so I bit. Turns out, my "particular certification" was beyond his purview, but instead of refunding my money, he claimed he had a right to keep it because he "had to spend time looking for it." 

You should know, I have a somewhat overdeveloped sense of justice. I cannot abide bullies, thieves, or liars. Wrong is wrong.

As you can imagine, I was consumed with anger... this guy did me dirty. It wasn't the $50, I didn't care about that. It was the principle. He was WRONG and I was RIGHT.

I went about making his life miserable. I wrote the BBB, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Attorney General's Office, Federal Commerce Commission... I wrote bad reviews on Yelp, Google, FB and anywhere else I could think of. I dragged his business's name through every mud puddle I could find.

My every waking moment was focussed on finding justice. I was consumed with this resentment.

Consumed.

It finally dawned on me that this guy was renting some MAJOR space in my head. The poison of my resentment was eating me up from the inside. At the end of the day, this was not his problem, it was mine.

I knew what I had to do - I had to make amends. 

Trust me when I say, I hated the idea... I was absolutely 100% in the right. I had been wronged. 

For my own peace of mind I had to do it.

Not for him, for me.

I sent him a note and apologized, without condition, for my vitriol. I took responsibility for my part. All of it. 

A funny thing happened... the hatred was gone. Instantly. 

Shortly thereafter, I received notification from my bank that they were reversing the charge and giving me my money back. 

The old me would have shot a note off to the offender to rub his nose in my victory. 

I didn't do that. 

My amends had brought me peace...

and I wanted to keep it.