WWTBAM Bored

Got a message from a lady from an antique store in a small town about 20 minutes from my house.

She says, "Mr. Willingham, I hope this is the right one, the right Brad Willingham. Your the only one I could find a number for. This is Donna at Vintage Antiques in Tomball. A man named Brad Willingham purchased an item here a few weeks ago with a Visa and it only cleared for $4.28. The total purchase was for $80 so there is a balance of $75.72. I hope you will call and settle the rest." .

So I call her, ask what and where the store is. She tells me. I tell her I've never been there. Haven't been in Tomball for a couple of months that I can remember. Me "Maybe my wife...". Her, "No, it was a man." I apologized and she said no reason to. Then I said I was sorry. She said it was some sort of gift card or something with only $4.28 on it. I thought maybe the AT&T gift card I got for signing up for Uverse was found after I threw it away. But it had no money at all left on it.

Then it hit me. I know of another Brad Willingham. So I told her. It was the ex-husband of a friends niece. He's a real loser. They got divorced several years ago. (I know this because my friend and I were driving somewhere recently and I commented about her FB friend with my last name and she told me the story and I thought it a coincidence that he had the same name as me). So I told Donna I'd call my friend and see if I could get this other Brad Willingham's phone number.

So I called my friend but she told me she thinks he lives in Louisiana. Oh! Well maybe he was in town recently? She said she'd check. Anyway, she texts me about 15 minutes later..."He's in Tomball. I'll get the number for you but don't say where you got it."

There are only 115 Willingham's registered to vote in Harris County, a county with a population of 4.25 million people. I'm the only Brad of the 115. What are the odds that not only do I know of another Brad Willingham whom I've never met, but know people in his circle enough that I can track down his phone number?

A big coincidence, indeed.

But I still don't understand the transaction. If he was using a gift card, doesn't it say immediately if there's an insufficient balance? And if it was a credit card, either the transaction is accepted or it isn't.

MarleysGh0st wrote:A big coincidence, indeed.

But I still don't understand the transaction. If he was using a gift card, doesn't it say immediately if there's an insufficient balance? And if it was a credit card, either the transaction is accepted or it isn't.

She said it was their fault. The clerk, not her, did not notice the entire transaction balance wasn't cleared.

I know of another Robert Juch. He's a cousin of Roy Juch of Houston (and probably my distant cousin).

I went to a social media seminar a few months ago and they recommended doing a Google Search on your name every day. I've been doing that ever since then (you can set it up to alert you with the results once a day). There's actually a furniture company with my name and an English minor league soccer coach who gets mentioned every couple of weeks or so (plus the guy who founded the gay review in San Francisco).

BackInTex wrote:Got a message from a lady from an antique store in a small town about 20 minutes from my house.

She says, "Mr. Willingham, I hope this is the right one, the right Brad Willingham. Your the only one I could find a number for. This is Donna at Vintage Antiques in Tomball. A man named Brad Willingham purchased an item here a few weeks ago with a Visa and it only cleared for $4.28. The total purchase was for $80 so there is a balance of $75.72. I hope you will call and settle the rest." .

Are you sure this wasn't a scam?

silverscreenselect wrote:

BackInTex wrote:Got a message from a lady from an antique store in a small town about 20 minutes from my house.

She says, "Mr. Willingham, I hope this is the right one, the right Brad Willingham. Your the only one I could find a number for. This is Donna at Vintage Antiques in Tomball. A man named Brad Willingham purchased an item here a few weeks ago with a Visa and it only cleared for $4.28. The total purchase was for $80 so there is a balance of $75.72. I hope you will call and settle the rest." .

Are you sure this wasn't a scam?

Of course nothing is for sure but they aren't very good at it if it was. She never asked for any info or money when I called. She was more interested in if I was the right person.

I am a well known photographer somewhere. At least Google told me I was.

Then just the other day I 'met' another quilting grandmother with my name on a quilting message board. We are FB friends now and I sometimes look at her posts and say, 'Hey, I didn't post that'.

You still have an answering machine?

You still have a home phone line?

silverscreenselect wrote:I went to a social media seminar a few months ago and they recommended doing a Google Search on your name every day.

Yeah, that would do a lot of good for someone like me....

lb13

flockofseagulls104 wrote:You still have an answering machine?

Non-modern technology still works, and can't get hacked....

Bob Juch wrote:You still have a home phone line?

It's a cell based receiver conntected to our home phone system. $20/month.

flockofseagulls104 wrote:You still have an answering machine?

Yes, but the messages actually are the AT&T voicemail for the cell line. The answering machine/home phone base never answers.

littlebeast13 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:I went to a social media seminar a few months ago and they recommended doing a Google Search on your name every day.

Yeah, that would do a lot of good for someone like me....

lb13

Actually, I misspoke earlier and I meant to say that you can sign up for Google Alerts and get a daily update when your name appears.

And in your case, I would recommend it. Not for your personal name but for "Evil Squirrel" and any other characters that you are interested in marketing commercially. You've got some very distinctive imagery and characters and you sell merchandise with them. It would be a good idea to make sure no one else is using them (and if you haven't done so already, you might check with someone who can give you a better idea about what to do about protecting your intellectual property rights to your blog, characters, and merchandise).

I can't help myself. Had to respond to this.

If you google my name, you'll get about a million hits. Thing is, it's not me. It's a guy, with my exact name, who own's an art gallery in NYC. Although my wife and I have been to NYC many times over the years, we've never been to the gallery. However, we went to NYC with my twins last fall. We took the time to go to the gallery. Got pictures of me standing next to it with MY name on the window. Then walked inside.

There was a lady behind the counter surfing the net. We stood there for about 3 minutes without her even even acknowledging we were there when I finally said, "EXCUSE (FUCKING) ME !!!". She kinda looked over and I told her that my name is the same as the owner. I pulled out my driver's license to prove to her that I wasn't full of shit. I asked her if the owner was in. She said that he was in France and turned back around to do more surfing.

At that time another girl walked out and I went through the same story with her. I gave her my license and asked her to make a copy of it and give it to her boss and to tell him I said hello. (I know. I'm stupid for giving anyone, especially a New Yorker, a copy of my license, but I just wanted the guy to know that we share the same name.)

I haven't heard anything since. Haven't even been identify frauded (is that a word?).

Small world.

(I have ignorant, snobby New Yorkers)