William Oliver’s girlfriend, Alexandria, gave him 30 presents for his 30th birthday. He found that to be “innovative” and decided to try and do something even more innovative. He thought giving Alexandra a $15,000 engagement ring would be nice. He also thought it would be nice if other people chipped in to help him buy the ring.
On his GoFundMe page, Oliver wrote asking people for money would be a good way to “raise awareness about the difference between the love we share and the love people have for us.”
As noted on perezhilton.com, when someone buys an engagement ring it is supposed to be a sacrifice for someone you love. Getting other people to buy it for you defeats this purpose. And then there’s poor Alexandra. Unless she is totally unfamiliar with the Internet, which his highly unlikely, she now knows not only how much her ring will cost but how her boyfriend is trying to pay for it.
Oliver says he got the idea to raise the money from Talledega College that raised $40,000 to attend Inauguration Day in Washington. The 30-year-old is not asking for a few people to donate a lot of money but rather wants a lot of people to make small donations. For this reason, he said it was necessary for his GoFundMe page “to trend.”
He wrote his friends, family and colleagues would not mind donating the cost of a drink or a sandwich so he can purchase a ring “WE ALL can be proud of.” He noted while love is free, engagement rings and weddings are not.
The article about Oliver’s fundraising efforts appearing in U.K. Metro asked readers if this was an appropriate use of GoFundMe. Only three percent of respondents said yes because rings are expensive. Seventy-four percent of those who answered the question said what Oliver was doing was trashy while 23 per cent replied they did not know but thought the amount Oliver was asking for was ridiculous.
As Elite Daily noted, reaction on Twitter was far from positive. Many expressed surprise someone would do this while others complained about the high cost of the ring others were asked to pay for. One person wrote he would like to start a GoFundMe page to raise money to go to Atlanta and “mug” the guy.
Oliver noted several times on the page that it needs to trend. And trend it did. In the more than eight days the page has existed , it has been viewed thousands of times. But as of the time of this writing, Oliver has raised a grand total $604 dollars towards his goal of $15,000.
If Oliver is still planning to give Alexandria a $15,000 ring, she will not be getting it anytime soon.
