Look, Carousell is genuinely an awesome online marketplace for buyers looking for a cheap deal and sellers looking to get rid of old possessions. Or rather, Carousell could be an awesome platform if not for the legion of difficult low ballers shamelessly asking for insulting offers way below a fair price.
One Carousell user looking to sell off his Nintendo 3DS XL handheld console set a pretty reasonable selling price of $180. It’s reasonable because (a) the deal came with a Pokemon game, (b) the console is modded so it can play games for free, and (c) they usually retail for about $300 in stores.
But low ballers be low ballin’, and Derrick Tan was sick of negotiating with them after a couple of days. In a Facebook post, he recounted how took out his frustrations by having a little fun with one particularly naive “dweeb”. It was a prank that sent the buyer all the way to Changi Prison.
According to screenshots of the conversation between Tan and the buyer (that have since been taken down), the selling price was first dramatically lowered to $50. Despite that, the buyer still remained hard to please, demanding to see pictures of the console and making it hard to arrange the time and place to make the deal.
By that point in time, Tan was already frustrated and decided to troll the low baller: it would be given out for free, but the only pick up point available would be at the reception desk of Changi Prison Complex.
Enticed by the freebie, the low baller indeed took a Grab ride all the way to the premises of the Singapore Prison Service. Feeling bad about the prank, Tan offered him another chance to purchase the console at a discounted price. Even so, the low baller refused. Eventually, Tan unveiled that it was all a ruse, calling him “Mr Loh Bor Ler” (you know, low baller), but at least he offered to pay for the needless Grab ride to Changi Prison.
On hindsight, Tan thought that it might have been a mean prank — thus why he took down most of the screenshots from the post.
“All I can say is this guy suay to have met me on a wrong day because before him, I dealt with a lot of worse Mr Loh’s. But let’s not forget that behind the account is also another human being’s feelings,” Tan wrote.
“It’s a bit on the line between going too far and justice served. Anyway, Mr Loh, I know you’re seeing this. If you still want your $17 back, PM me ok.”
