I (21F) have a small business, to help me pay for uni. I’m also a red belt in Taekwondo and have been in the same academy my whole life, i even considered my professors and the other students family.
4 months ago, my professors bought $130 worth of merch (shirts, bags, water bottles, ect) from me.
When i asked for the payment they told me they were reselling it and then they would pay me. The next week i was told they needed $150 worth of merch more.
When asked for the money they asked me for time. Before that, i saw on their social media that they claimed to be sold out and would announce restock, in that week they asked me to do three more shirts. Take into account that they were selling the merch under the name of the academy.
Because of my health i had to stop training temporarily, but that didn’t stop them from asking me for more. my parents began to get mad at me that i wasn’t pushing them enough with the money. i’m naturally a shy person, so it’s really hard. they asked me to call him at random times of the day, to sound angry and to even spread the rumor of the debt to the rest of the students, but i refused.
i was eventually paid the first $130, while they still owed me $200. When my parents found out that they hadn’t paid full they were furious, we got into a yelling argument where they threatened with going to the academy and making a scene in front of the class.
Next i got $60. Again, my parents are furious so i started to be more insistent with my professor and could tell he was getting annoyed, (take into account that i’m still sick). Last week he asked me for another shirt and i lied to him that i didn’t have the money to make more. Yesterday i went to the distributor to buy materials with my mom, and, the employee (a friend of mine) told us that my professor had bought 200k worth of machines, materials and merch.
we were livid, not only did he not pay me back, but he had basically cut the deal and stole my idea. My parents again yelled at me saying this was my fault for not pushing hard enough about the money. A few days later i found out they had texted the parents of some students and told them about the debt, making many people upset that they had overcharged them and lied about making it themselves.
Also, both of them started writing and sharing indirect posts on Facebook about the issue. I confronted them and said that it was childish and immature to fight on social media and gossip with the other parents, they called me a coward and unable to run my business and said that they were only defending me and trying to protect me, and they would make a scene in front of the class. I was left in tears, but at the end of the day they’re doing it for my own good and defending me.
Am i at fault for getting mad and yelling back?