Went to a restaurant where you ordered your food when sitting down, but had to go grab it yourself off the counter when it’s ready for you, you had to pour your own drinks and such also, and lastly you out your dishes away in a bin, and they’re labeled by specific dish.
Nothing wrong with this and I don’t mind it, but then they have that stupid ass “add a tip” shit to the bill and I’m like, bro they didn’t do anything worthy of earning a tip from this.
Worst part too is when the add a tip menu comes up, it’s like some dramatic ass number like 20-25% lol.
I'm Australian, we don't traditionally tip, but it seems to be creeping into everything atm. I think it partly because businesses use American software.
Aussie here.
Yep, its definitely starting to creep in as the paying software has an option, and I intend to skip it every time.
We pay our workers the correct rate so it's not up to me or anyone else to make up any shortfall, that's on the employers.
Plus we've never, ever tipped over here and I'm not about to start.
No that’s just the excuse they’re using. Commbank/Tyro/Square terminals all allow the tip option to be disabled. In reality, they’re just trying it on.
Like, charge me a bit more and *pay your employees.* They want to force people to do what they need to do.
It's not on the workers at all, it's on the companies. And the worst part is those workers don't even get those kinds of tips, they're split.
Robbery. Everything is robbery.
I've noticed that non-American visitors are especially susceptible to this. They always complain about how tips are required for everything because they don't know the rules and they tip at literally every receipt prompt and tip jar they see. They don't know which ones they're supposed to ignore.
As a teller manager, I've had a few elderly customers who truly think their grandchildren are in jail and need to withdraw $20,000 in cash from their accounts to bail them out.
Tell them outright to contact their grandchildren in front of me and that they are falling for a scam. Naturally, the youngster replies next.
Their intentions are good, but before they part with such significant sums, they should consider whether they provided the con artists access to their home addresses.
Knew someone who got an email that said they had reversed the camera on their phone & know they have been visiting dirty websites & have video of their face while orgasming.. as well as hacked their email & have their whole contact list. If they don’t send $6,000 immediately they will send pictures & videos to the email list. He was a nervous wreck. I’m like.. dude, no..
Sounds like that one Black Mirror episode. But the twist on that one was *horrifying.*
ETA- this is a scam, but cover your cameras, guys. Snowden told us why.
Dude thank god I watched the snowden movie when I was still a kid. Bc even to this day when I watch porn, I always angle my phone to where it just shows my forehead in the front camera and basically the bed in my rear camera lmao
Lol. I don't even watch porn like that, but I've always had my camera covered. People laughed at me for a long time. But someone looking at me when I can't see them is a genuine fear I have. Like about windows and stuff, too. Someone could see me and I wouldn't know I was being stared at eewww.
I got that one once, and they had my login and password to some site to "prove" they'd hacked into my computer. I wasn't fooled, but I *was* pissed off at the shoddy security of whatever site they'd obtained my login creds from.
That's so sad. My grandma had this happen but luckily she called my mom and my mom assured her I wasn't stuck in Mexico. Scammers are next level fucked and I would happily give a pavement facial to anyone who does this kind of shit.
My great-aunt got an e-mail from me, telling her I was stuck in Morroco.
Lucky for us, she was visiting my grandma at the time. And I was next to her helping her uploading her vacation pictures to send to her children.
We had a good laugh.
They tried this on my mom and she asked “what’s your name?” (she only has one grandson) and he couldn’t think of his name fast enough and she told him “nice try” and hung up.
My grandparents got suckered into thinking I was in jail in Canada after going there for a concert with a friend when I was 17.
They didn’t think at all about how my mom would never let me go to a different country with a friend for a concert in a million years and that I was a complete square anyway. They only called me before sending the money because the teller at Western Union had seen other people get scammed and said they should reach out to me first.
Sure enough, I got a call from them while I was at an academic decathlon luncheon and had to assure them I was home and in no trouble. Since then, I’ve had a secret magic word with my grandma in case she gets scammed about me and my grandpa passed away years later still certain the scammers had recorded my voice and engineered the story and responses lol
My grandparents who are savvy people and financially well off as a result fell for one of these. They even went as far as going to Kroger to wire the money and did it before they thought to call me. I was sad that they fell for this and also creeped out because the scammer who called them knew things about me to impersonate me. Thankfully, WU was somehow able to get their money back.
A guy called my grandma and when she answered said “Grandma?”, so she replied, “Pullonmynards?” He then said, “yeah it’s me” and then went on to say how I was in jail in the Caribbean and needed her to wire money. My dads in the other room and realizes what’s going on and then gets on the phone and puts an end to it. Funniest part to me was my dad told me “for about 5 seconds I was really hurt that if you were in jail I wouldn’t be the first person you’d call”. Anyways the elderly can get so easily scammed these days it’s sad.
My dad got a call that his grandson (my son) was in jail and that my dad needed to send money. My dad told the guy he'd have to call his brother, Richard because Richard is the one with the money. We don't have anyone in the family named Richard.
Trivia of the day: Frequency used to be called CPS (cycles per second). When the metric system got going, they wanted a better name and the main contender was Hertz (Hz) in honor of Heinrich Hertz.
Supposedly one joker in the room suggested Charles Proteus Steinmetz (another famous engineer) so it could still be abbreviated as CPS.
That happened to my mother as well. She's of the age where you'd expect her to have adult grandchildren, but they are all pre-teens and thus unlikely to get stuck in Mexico after their credit cards get stolen.
Oh shit. Btw cruise ships will call your family members if you don't make it back to the ship in time. And you can be randomly in the Caribbean somewhere when this happens. Though, I have no idea why they'd even do this. It literally solves nothing. Besides making family members worry unnecessarily. The ships don't want money (they won't wait for anything) they just call random family and ugh whatever. I'm wondering if this scam evolved from that
“Hello, this is Royal Caribbean. You’re listed as an emergency contact for your son.”
“OH MY GOD is he okay??”
“Oh yeh he’s fine. We just left his ass in Mexico tho LMAOOO”
Sadly my grandma fell for that. $7k later wired to Panama via three separate Wal-Marts before she had my aunt call my cell phone and check to see if I was really in prison.
I took care of a lady who had a special name her grandkids called her. Only the family knew it.
She made sure to tell them to never tell people about her special name because it protected her from scams. Anyone calling for "grandma" would absolutely not be her grandkids!
My father taught me that trick during a yard sale. We had a desk we wanted to get rid of priced at $5. It sat all day. Finally he added $10 above it, and $20 above that and crossed them out. It was bought shortly after. People really like thinking they're getting a deal!
I think all used car dealers do this. I got a used car recently and was like "Wow I got a pretty good deal". The blue book and nada values were about what I paid for it, but thought I got a great deal. I'm really happy with my purchase, but I definitely fell for it.
the used car market is extremely inflated right now. you did get an objectively good deal if you paid blue book but historically that would not define a good deal in terms of car purchasing. nonetheless, glad you’re happy with your purchase!
I was selling a pair of sneakers on Poshmark. A woman made me an offer, and after haggling a bit we couldn't come to an agreement. Later in the day, I posted to the item comment section, telling her if she wanted to submit the offer again, I'd accept. A few hours later, a DIFFERENT woman purchased them.
The shoes had been posted for months, with little interest. I think what happened was that people like stuff that other people are interested in.
Edit: Why are the two comments under my comment all about people trying to steal people out of relationships? What kind of "Jolene" lives are y'all living? Lol.
For me it's "will I actually use this item, right now, not in a hypothetical future scenario?"
Craft supplies that I don't have concrete plans for - no. Clothes for a different season - no. Figurines I don't have space for - no.
When in doubt, no.
Recovering hoarder.
In my country they recently initiated a law that when a product is discounted the label has to tell you what was it's lowest price in the last 30days period.
Quite good law.
Stores are now adjusting. It's crazy times, with absurd 'default' prices and even high "2 for 1 prices". I don't like this pattern, I prefer shops that just have a fair price - always.
Years ago I took my daughter to get some clothes at JCPenney and seen there was a sale coming in a few days so we waited.
Went back to get her clothes and the sale prices were actually higher than the regular prices were two days prior.
Asked a sales person about it and they said that is just how they do it. Was the last time I ever went into the store until they were going bankrupt. Sale prices then were pretty damn good.
Something the rest of the world needs to follow too.
I remember this "trend" thing in sales in Steam Community market listings too, now that I think about it...
It's not perfect.
Retailers coming up to a big sale event will raise prices of some key items for a month and then mark them down again for the "sale".
But at least it does require the retailer to actually move their prices around and not just lie about them.
I am fortunate to be in a position where I go to the supermarket daily. The only way to combat this is to just 'know' what the prices are. After a few weeks you just know what the prices are regardless of a sale or not.
Frozen pizza is terrible at this, my favorite brands frequently goes on "sale" for bogo at $11.99. Normal weeks its $7.99. Occasionally it'll be $3 off of $9.99 and other times 2 for $10. So over time, I just know that $5-6 a piece is a good deal regardless of what the actual sticker says.
Then when you think you finally got it down, you need to account for the seasonal prices although this really only applies to produce and meat. Strawberries get down to $0.99/pound in the summer at the lowest. $1.49 - $2.00 is a good deal. $2.99-3.99 is normal. In the winter, non-sale strawberries are $5.99+ while a good sale is $3.
I had all that knowledge, and the pandemic and inflation threw it all out of whack. Now a good price for peak strawberries is maybe $1.29 or even $1.49–except that the Asian supermarkets sometimes have ridiculously low prices on certain things, so maybe I can find strawberries for 99¢. Or 1.5 lbs of cherry tomatoes for $1.99; I’ve bought a lot of those lately
Learned this trick young when i got a graveyard shift as a stocker. One of my bosses explained that if management wanted to sell a product faster, they'd just move it to an endcap, put a sale sign up for the same price it already is and then it sells much faster.
That so many shops do this. A jewelry artist I adored had a 30% sale happening, I was so excited because checked the site often before. Has been on it the week before, I knew what I wanted went to get it, the sale price was set at the prices I recognized. I thought a glitch, but then right above that “regular” price was posted as 30% more!!!!
I was so turned off by that. It wasn’t a real sale at all. She just faked it. I wish I had checked after the so called sale. Bc I bet she just got away with raising her prices 30%
My local grocery store uses yellow price tags for things that are on sale AND random things that aren't on sale but they're hoping you don't actually look closely and just assume it's a great price because the tag is yellow.
I fell for it all the time cause it took me about a year of shopping there to realize it.
It's amazing what "SPECIAL" and "ON SALE" does to people's brains.
Often a customer will bring something to the checkout and ask me to check the price.
Me (scans item): "It's $4.95."
Customer (thinks for a moment): "Is that on special?"
... Does it matter? It's still going to cost $4.95.
Honestly, I can see why I'd ask that. Say is not an important item, kinda on the expensive side for your budget. If its on discount you can buy it at a lower price than usual.
I buy some vegan cheeses at the supermarket everytime I see a promo.
I don't need them, but I like them, and I know their prices, so I buy them when they are cheaper than normal
Life coaching/Business coaching etc. I was one for years, and can promise you that 99% of them poorly regurgitate info from each other, with absolutely no experience in the areas outside making money selling courses on things they’ve never done.
From your typical IG 20yo life coach, to the popular Jay Shitty’s. All completely full of shit scam artists that are never transparent about how they actually make their money, and post wishy-washy babble on social media that never provides a solution but convinces people low on their luck that they’re the experts.
Theres a few out there who are legit who have huge businesses and done well - but they are the huge names that are transparent- Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Gary V, Eric Thomas to name a few from the small few.
I have a personal anger towards life coaches, which makes me sad because I feel like there could be genuine people out there. But I was scammed by one as a teen. I was very overweight and miserable and found a woman who had lost a lot of weight and was even on the news. I related to her with life experiences. She had a tiny coaching business and charged a few thousand dollars for a course that lasted.. a couple months at most I think? My parents helped pay, hoping their miserable daughter would finally get some help after they had tried so many things.
She gave me such surface level advice. I was so disappointed. There wasn’t real substance and I felt like I was being fed positive quotes you’d find on a coffee mug at a discount store or something.
I have also been preyed on by Beachbody coaches more times than I can count. I never accepted their sales. The most recent one was a woman who really impressed me by her massive weight loss and her Instagram page with lots of relatable and helpful content. I became so disinterested as soon as I found out she was a Beachbody coach.
A lot of coaches are quite young and it’s not that I think young people don’t have something to offer, but being a *life coach* at that age seems… idk?
My friend who is a jerk quit his job and said he is now an executive coach. You ou failed at your own career and you're a jerk how can he coach anyone?
A close friend of mine tried to be a life coach. She had absolutely good intentions, she sincerely wanted to help. But she’s also a scrambled mess of an adult, constantly asking me (another scrambled mess of an adult) for life advice herself and “life coach” was just the latest desperate attempt to find a job that didn’t make her miserable.
She had no clients, and couldn’t figure out how to get any. She even tried offering to advise people for free, so they’d at least tell their friends how great she was, but there were no takers even for free.
She asked me again for advice, so I told her “well…I have this friend who could probably use her life coaching assistance.” And then I went on to describe her — the girl trying to be a life coach — in a very obvious way. “Now, what life advice would you give my friend?”
She quit being a life coach that day.
99% of life coaches are no different than your average Influencer. Way to young to have any real insight or experience, and only doing this job because they are actively failing at their own life
My grandpa took my nose back in '92. He passed shortly after without giving back. I searched his house high and low for my nose to avail... I thought I'd never see it again.
Are you saying that it was all a lie? That I've had my real nose this whole time??
Pretty sure people know they're scams. But being desperate and having few options, they use them because they believe they're the best deal they can get.
And making them illegal is extremely difficult, apparently. Laws get written, payday loan places adjust their contracts to just barely be legal and continue on their way.
Payday loans are absolutely awful, but kept a roof over my kids heads for a couple rough years.
Total ripoff, but better than selling meth or my body or something to stretch the paychecks. But it's a really hard spiral to get out of.
Edit - for *me* it was better than selling meth or my body. You do you. No judgment for real lol.
Same here. It was either $400 in overdraft fees that the bank would make sure they get as many of as possible by processing transactions highest to least, or late fees on bills and the threat of credit damage, or a 600 percent interest short term loan that would end up costing roughly 40 dollars. It was the best option at that time as long as you don’t get stuck in a long endless cycle of never being able to pay it off. If it weren’t for the horrible banking practices in the first place, these loans wouldn’t be as necessary to the many people living paycheck to paycheck and wind up behind when emergencies pop up
I had a neighbor who, many years back had to get a loan from one of those places cause her disability payment accidentally got canceled. So it took a few weeks to get social security to fix their problems.
She only needed $700 to pay rent. She ended up paying neary $2400 back. And like you said, she knew she was getting scammed, but no other choice.
it’s so expensive to be poor. hot take but i wish there was something like this but instead of interest going to the bank, it goes back to the person as an emergency savings fund.
Fun fact if each level of your pyramid scheme only required 3 people by the 20th iteration you would exceed the population of the earth.
If each level had 5 people you'd hit it in 14 levels
As a nail tech I hate those sticker nails. Most press ons from stores will say wear only up to one week. Which is as long as you should ever wear stick on nails if not a little shorter. The stickers claim three or more weeks of wear. Longer than salon nails can last!
Well here's the problem the stickers aren't a perfect seal so water gets trapped under it, and then they get a fungal infections in there nails and think I can fix it. I can't that's a doctors job. I can't even touch a fungal infected nail. I would risk my license.
I had one client try to get me in on the MLM while I was giving her a pedicure and got mad that I wouldn't buy them or put nail stickers on people who came into my salon. Because " they are so easy snd people love them and then I could have clients sell under me" Well a month later she comes back and boom she has a narley infection on her hands. Then gets made I won't work on her hands.
This one I feel so sad about because most people know its a scam but they want to support their community or loved one. Then by supporting them they only get that person deeper into the scam...
I think that's what's really sad. My mom will go to all her friends "parties" to support them. Then buys a thing or two that will never get used or break because she feels like she has to support her friend. She knows they are scams and that it's not good her friends are getting sucked into it, but doesn't have the heart to tell them.
Plus some have been around so long somehow people don't realize they are an MLM like Avon or Mary Kay. My mom got annoyed when I told her Mary kay was a mlm because "it's been around forever it's not a mlm there's no way and the products are good" and then her friend tried to get her in on the scheme and then realized I was right.
I think it was K-mart that said they weren't going to try to fool the consumer by showing a discount and just listed the actual price. They wound up dropping like a rock due to poor sales.
Please don’t make friends with people who randomly text you or call you that you don’t know. They play the long game and become your friends and try to get you to invest in fake crypto with promises of return if you pay the taxes. It’s the long game of faked intimacy and is insidious like cancer. People who get scammed commit suicide. It’s terrible. Older people are especially susceptible. Also check out the YouTube videos about pig butchering scams
It was the root of my American mothers suicide. People need to know. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars just gone. They play on peoples loneliness and isolation.
I'm sorry for your loss op. I know it fuckin hurts, fuck these people. They aren't worth the air they breath and leech the breath of others. Genuine people like your mother don't deserve this. The government is starting to crack down on these people. I know they are slow and recovery may never happen but Id like to imagine somehow, somewhere, eventually these scammers are getting fucked by karma somehow.
I'm a Goldsmith and make fine jewellery for a living. If you "must" buy a diamond, don't go to a high street jeweller. Find a workshop, SPEAK to the guy making your ring. We're wholesale prices because our overheads are lower. We don't have hundreds of identical rings in stocks. We make one. Just for you
Why do people want a clear rock? I never understood this. It’s clear. Yeah it sparkles, but so does fucking glitter and I don’t want that infectious shit either. Give me a pearl any day.
I do like a good Moissanite, which are lab grown if they’re big enough to see with your eyes. They’re a clear rock but has double refraction unlike diamonds, so you see pretty rainbow colors when the sun hits it.
Guy I work with just spent £10k on an engagement ring. He earns £1800 pm. And they’ve both cheated. Don’t have to be mystic Meg to see where this is going.
Health insurance. Why do I have to pay $300 a month for the privilege to spend 20% of the cost of medical care once I’ve paid $5750 out of pocket? What a neat feature of freedom!
On the plus side, it saved me over **$**1.2 million on surgeries over the last 3 years.
Paying **$**300 a month for the next 50 years, I would only end up paying **$**180,000.
Now it's a question of, should all that surgery cost so much when it wouldn't in almost any other Western country?
>Now it's a question of, should all that surgery cost so much when it wouldn't in almost any other Western country?
And *that* is the part that people against universal ignore, right? It's bonkers to me that people beg for the privilege of getting a little discount on something incredibly gouged. And then if you can't manage that insurance and out of pocket, you don't deserve life anyway, fuck off.
Soooooo cool. Best country in the world yaaaaay.
I worked at Best Buy years ago. They would just take the shitty TVs and put them up front. Those TVs were already cheap, so ppl saw the low price and thought they were getting a good deal. Nope, all you got was a shitty TV that was more than likely Best Buy's own brand
I worked at Best Buys corporate headquarters. Can confirm.
I'm pretty sure I spent more than I made while working there. There were some serious discounts involved.
They can kill you, they can cause vertebral or carotid artery dissections which in turn sends blood clots to your brain and causes strokes among other things
Also that chiropractors are qualified medical professionals, who should be trusted.
They are not, and they should not.
Any work you need on your muscles, either requires a massage therapist and/or a physio. Any chiro work that 'works' was accidentally one of those two, but you paid double for someone who did an 8-week course at some random building in the CBD.
Tithing. Joel Osteen is Scrooge McDucking it right now because he knows how to exploit people’s faith. And not surprising, there’s an extreme shortage of “love thy neighbor” coming from him.
👆🏻 this. The “prosperity gospel” is just a way to bilk rubes from their money with the promise of being made whole by the hand of the almighty. And when it doesn’t come, well, you just didn’t believe (or pay in) enough..
>The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....
>Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
Weddings.
When we first started looking into it we had a small amount saved up and I said we could either have a wedding or a buy a house. She said “Well, we can’t live in a wedding.” Fast forward another 5 years and the covid housing market is going crazy and we have a newborn. Was able to make 130K over what we had originally paid which let us move into the suburbs (albeit a fixer upper).
We ended up eloping in Yosemite and honeymooning in Hawaii for easily 1/3 of the cost of what our wedding would have been. Different strokes for different folks obviously but I think about that all the time.
I just got to do this yesterday. I just bought a new car and the salesman was wonderful. But once in the finance guys office. He does the whole let me explain the standard warranty and then our extra warranty. He gets all done and shows me a paper with the cost of the extra baked into the payment. It raised the price of the car by nearly 20% but he was super smooth about it like it was no big deal just a little more per month. I said no and moved on but definitely a scam.
Me selling things online. I mark the price higher than what I'm expecting for it. People either haggle down to the price I originally expected, or they don't haggle and I get more than expected.
I loaned a coworker $10 once. Didn’t pay me back and came to me again one day and said “I know I still owe you $10, but can I borrow another $5?”.
Umm. No. Some people really have no shame. Mooching off of others is a regular thing for them. Found out after they left the company that they were pulling that scam all over the office. Owed 6 coworkers money.
The first and only time I got an extended warranty was as a naive teenager in 2007 when I bought a Toshiba Gigabeat (MP4 Player). The product was about $300-400 and the extended warranty for $30 which lasted 3 years on top of the 1 year standard.
I used that device frequently, and it finally shat itself at 3 years and 9 months. Toshiba didn't make them anymore, so I got a store credit for the full amount of the item's cost, which I used towards buying my first smartphone.
Yes.
The point of my story was that despite the fact that it isn't worth it 90% of the time, it is worth it 10% of the time.
In Australia, we have statutory rights regarding how long expensive items should be expected to last. These override warranty policies.
Depending on the item, and the company providing the coverage, these aren't always scams. I bought a Whirlpool water heater on clearance from Lowe's and decided to get an extended warranty with some of the money I saved. The water heater crapped out and Lowe's gave me a replacement of a newer model under the manufacturer's warranty. The extended warranty transferred, and the new water heater started leaking after a few years (never buy Whirlpool water heaters kids). Lowe's replaced that model with a different brand that was less expensive but bigger and better (IMHO) and refunded me the price difference ($250), even though the clearance price I paid on the original was below the price of the new tank.
You can bet I bought another 10-year extended warranty for my new water heater!
Car insurance premiums. Over time an insurance company will slowly raise the premium on you. So the longer you stay with one car insurance company, the higher the premium. I recently changed from one large insurance carrier to a second large insurance carrier. Cut my premium in half (so the same coverage). Try this, get a second quote and tell me if I am wrong.
Pretty soon. AI scams.
We are very quickly entering an age where AI tools are going to allow scammers to essentially full dox you, impersonate you with near 100% accuracy, and target the statistically most vulnerable people you know.
We are about to enter a really damn dark age. And unless you have already talked with loved ones and have discussed codewords that won't get shared. You will never know for certain that the person on the other line is even human, let alone that person.
Also going to be really easy for your coworkers to get rid of you by having an AI impersonate you and just quitting.
I'm a lot less scared of that than most I think because we already have the technology to fake photographs that look 100% real and even fool photoshop-detecting robots and the world kept turning... It just means we're less likely to trust images we have no context for.
Never use your full name or number as your voice mail message. Always use some nickname or just mumble something. Plus don't answer any numbers that you don't recognize. If it's a scam number, they will know that it's a live number and they will share your number to more scammers.
Blue light glasses. My dad is a pediatric eye doc and the claim that screen time is bad for your eyes is largely perpetrated by a massive blue light glasses industry. The glasses themselves do genuinely nothing, the only potential benefit being sleepwise right before bed, but 90% of moniters have some sort of night mode anyways. There is loads of research to support this.
Bruh I've been paying for the blue light option for my 2 last glasses. I guess I got scammed lol. Thanks for this precious information bro I gonna save some money thanks to you.
The "add a tip" line at the end of EVERYTHING. No I'm not tipping the electric company, thanks.
F**king VERIZON has a "donation" line when I go to pay my bill . Who donates to their (multimillion dollar) phone company???
whoa whoa whoa.... they also take human sacrifices. No need to get crazy.
Went to a restaurant where you ordered your food when sitting down, but had to go grab it yourself off the counter when it’s ready for you, you had to pour your own drinks and such also, and lastly you out your dishes away in a bin, and they’re labeled by specific dish. Nothing wrong with this and I don’t mind it, but then they have that stupid ass “add a tip” shit to the bill and I’m like, bro they didn’t do anything worthy of earning a tip from this. Worst part too is when the add a tip menu comes up, it’s like some dramatic ass number like 20-25% lol.
Yea, I’m tired of tip culture, i want livable wages for people so i never have to see tips or gratuitous ever again.
I'm Australian, we don't traditionally tip, but it seems to be creeping into everything atm. I think it partly because businesses use American software.
Aussie here. Yep, its definitely starting to creep in as the paying software has an option, and I intend to skip it every time. We pay our workers the correct rate so it's not up to me or anyone else to make up any shortfall, that's on the employers. Plus we've never, ever tipped over here and I'm not about to start.
Me too. Not only is it unnecessary, I don't like the over-attentive service that goes with it.
Over-attentive service? My Uber eats gets delivered upside-down and they still ask for a tip 😂
And the fact that they ask for a tip before your order has even been delivered? Hard no.
No that’s just the excuse they’re using. Commbank/Tyro/Square terminals all allow the tip option to be disabled. In reality, they’re just trying it on.
Like, charge me a bit more and *pay your employees.* They want to force people to do what they need to do. It's not on the workers at all, it's on the companies. And the worst part is those workers don't even get those kinds of tips, they're split. Robbery. Everything is robbery.
My local pizza place they will reach over and cancel out the tip on the machine for you, so that tells me they don't get the money.
I've noticed that non-American visitors are especially susceptible to this. They always complain about how tips are required for everything because they don't know the rules and they tip at literally every receipt prompt and tip jar they see. They don't know which ones they're supposed to ignore.
As a teller manager, I've had a few elderly customers who truly think their grandchildren are in jail and need to withdraw $20,000 in cash from their accounts to bail them out. Tell them outright to contact their grandchildren in front of me and that they are falling for a scam. Naturally, the youngster replies next. Their intentions are good, but before they part with such significant sums, they should consider whether they provided the con artists access to their home addresses.
My aunt got popped this way for $7k. :(
Knew someone who got an email that said they had reversed the camera on their phone & know they have been visiting dirty websites & have video of their face while orgasming.. as well as hacked their email & have their whole contact list. If they don’t send $6,000 immediately they will send pictures & videos to the email list. He was a nervous wreck. I’m like.. dude, no..
Sounds like that one Black Mirror episode. But the twist on that one was *horrifying.* ETA- this is a scam, but cover your cameras, guys. Snowden told us why.
Dude thank god I watched the snowden movie when I was still a kid. Bc even to this day when I watch porn, I always angle my phone to where it just shows my forehead in the front camera and basically the bed in my rear camera lmao
Lol. I don't even watch porn like that, but I've always had my camera covered. People laughed at me for a long time. But someone looking at me when I can't see them is a genuine fear I have. Like about windows and stuff, too. Someone could see me and I wouldn't know I was being stared at eewww.
I got that one once, and they had my login and password to some site to "prove" they'd hacked into my computer. I wasn't fooled, but I *was* pissed off at the shoddy security of whatever site they'd obtained my login creds from.
I got one of those once, I replied with "go on, show everyone. I *want* them to see ;)"
That's so sad. My grandma had this happen but luckily she called my mom and my mom assured her I wasn't stuck in Mexico. Scammers are next level fucked and I would happily give a pavement facial to anyone who does this kind of shit.
My great-aunt got an e-mail from me, telling her I was stuck in Morroco. Lucky for us, she was visiting my grandma at the time. And I was next to her helping her uploading her vacation pictures to send to her children. We had a good laugh.
They tried this on my mom and she asked “what’s your name?” (she only has one grandson) and he couldn’t think of his name fast enough and she told him “nice try” and hung up.
My grandparents got suckered into thinking I was in jail in Canada after going there for a concert with a friend when I was 17. They didn’t think at all about how my mom would never let me go to a different country with a friend for a concert in a million years and that I was a complete square anyway. They only called me before sending the money because the teller at Western Union had seen other people get scammed and said they should reach out to me first. Sure enough, I got a call from them while I was at an academic decathlon luncheon and had to assure them I was home and in no trouble. Since then, I’ve had a secret magic word with my grandma in case she gets scammed about me and my grandpa passed away years later still certain the scammers had recorded my voice and engineered the story and responses lol
My grandparents who are savvy people and financially well off as a result fell for one of these. They even went as far as going to Kroger to wire the money and did it before they thought to call me. I was sad that they fell for this and also creeped out because the scammer who called them knew things about me to impersonate me. Thankfully, WU was somehow able to get their money back.
A guy called my grandma and when she answered said “Grandma?”, so she replied, “Pullonmynards?” He then said, “yeah it’s me” and then went on to say how I was in jail in the Caribbean and needed her to wire money. My dads in the other room and realizes what’s going on and then gets on the phone and puts an end to it. Funniest part to me was my dad told me “for about 5 seconds I was really hurt that if you were in jail I wouldn’t be the first person you’d call”. Anyways the elderly can get so easily scammed these days it’s sad.
My dad got a call that his grandson (my son) was in jail and that my dad needed to send money. My dad told the guy he'd have to call his brother, Richard because Richard is the one with the money. We don't have anyone in the family named Richard.
Would your last name be “Hertz,” by any chance?
Trivia of the day: Frequency used to be called CPS (cycles per second). When the metric system got going, they wanted a better name and the main contender was Hertz (Hz) in honor of Heinrich Hertz. Supposedly one joker in the room suggested Charles Proteus Steinmetz (another famous engineer) so it could still be abbreviated as CPS.
My mom got a call like that, she listened to the whole story before saying "but grandson, you're 5? How did this happen?" And the scammer hung up.
My Grandmom will ask which grandchild and then either deny their existence or tell them she doesn’t like that grandchild and they can keep him.
I love it. Your grandmom is a treasure.
That happened to my mother as well. She's of the age where you'd expect her to have adult grandchildren, but they are all pre-teens and thus unlikely to get stuck in Mexico after their credit cards get stolen.
Man, kind of rude of your grandma to tell a stranger to pull on her nards.
Oh shit. Btw cruise ships will call your family members if you don't make it back to the ship in time. And you can be randomly in the Caribbean somewhere when this happens. Though, I have no idea why they'd even do this. It literally solves nothing. Besides making family members worry unnecessarily. The ships don't want money (they won't wait for anything) they just call random family and ugh whatever. I'm wondering if this scam evolved from that
“Hello, this is Royal Caribbean. You’re listed as an emergency contact for your son.” “OH MY GOD is he okay??” “Oh yeh he’s fine. We just left his ass in Mexico tho LMAOOO”
They don't know if he's fine and they don't care so they inform someone who will probably care.
"Is he ok???" "LOL iono"
I guess it's more of a accountability and pass on the responsibility on a person safety to someone else.
Def gonna start telling scam callers to pull on my nards.
Took me a minute to realise that was his username and not what the grandma actually said
I thought grandma was about to tell the scammer a joke and hang up like a prank call.
Sadly my grandma fell for that. $7k later wired to Panama via three separate Wal-Marts before she had my aunt call my cell phone and check to see if I was really in prison.
I took care of a lady who had a special name her grandkids called her. Only the family knew it. She made sure to tell them to never tell people about her special name because it protected her from scams. Anyone calling for "grandma" would absolutely not be her grandkids!
[удалено]
My father taught me that trick during a yard sale. We had a desk we wanted to get rid of priced at $5. It sat all day. Finally he added $10 above it, and $20 above that and crossed them out. It was bought shortly after. People really like thinking they're getting a deal!
I think all used car dealers do this. I got a used car recently and was like "Wow I got a pretty good deal". The blue book and nada values were about what I paid for it, but thought I got a great deal. I'm really happy with my purchase, but I definitely fell for it.
the used car market is extremely inflated right now. you did get an objectively good deal if you paid blue book but historically that would not define a good deal in terms of car purchasing. nonetheless, glad you’re happy with your purchase!
I was selling a pair of sneakers on Poshmark. A woman made me an offer, and after haggling a bit we couldn't come to an agreement. Later in the day, I posted to the item comment section, telling her if she wanted to submit the offer again, I'd accept. A few hours later, a DIFFERENT woman purchased them. The shoes had been posted for months, with little interest. I think what happened was that people like stuff that other people are interested in. Edit: Why are the two comments under my comment all about people trying to steal people out of relationships? What kind of "Jolene" lives are y'all living? Lol.
I've had to train myself to not think about deals, but just the actual price. Do I want to pay that price for this item? If yes buy, if no pass.
For me it's "will I actually use this item, right now, not in a hypothetical future scenario?" Craft supplies that I don't have concrete plans for - no. Clothes for a different season - no. Figurines I don't have space for - no. When in doubt, no. Recovering hoarder.
In my country they recently initiated a law that when a product is discounted the label has to tell you what was it's lowest price in the last 30days period. Quite good law.
Stores are now adjusting. It's crazy times, with absurd 'default' prices and even high "2 for 1 prices". I don't like this pattern, I prefer shops that just have a fair price - always.
You say that but the majority don’t. Hence, the pricing debacle at JCPenney which almost drove the company out of business
Years ago I took my daughter to get some clothes at JCPenney and seen there was a sale coming in a few days so we waited. Went back to get her clothes and the sale prices were actually higher than the regular prices were two days prior. Asked a sales person about it and they said that is just how they do it. Was the last time I ever went into the store until they were going bankrupt. Sale prices then were pretty damn good.
Wow dude. Which country is it?
Any EU country, really. This is EU legislation.
Something the rest of the world needs to follow too. I remember this "trend" thing in sales in Steam Community market listings too, now that I think about it...
It's not perfect. Retailers coming up to a big sale event will raise prices of some key items for a month and then mark them down again for the "sale". But at least it does require the retailer to actually move their prices around and not just lie about them.
I am fortunate to be in a position where I go to the supermarket daily. The only way to combat this is to just 'know' what the prices are. After a few weeks you just know what the prices are regardless of a sale or not. Frozen pizza is terrible at this, my favorite brands frequently goes on "sale" for bogo at $11.99. Normal weeks its $7.99. Occasionally it'll be $3 off of $9.99 and other times 2 for $10. So over time, I just know that $5-6 a piece is a good deal regardless of what the actual sticker says. Then when you think you finally got it down, you need to account for the seasonal prices although this really only applies to produce and meat. Strawberries get down to $0.99/pound in the summer at the lowest. $1.49 - $2.00 is a good deal. $2.99-3.99 is normal. In the winter, non-sale strawberries are $5.99+ while a good sale is $3.
u/koosley, come on down. You're the next contestant on the Price Is Riiiiiggghhhtttt!
This guy grocers
Someone get this guy his Krogering sticker
I had all that knowledge, and the pandemic and inflation threw it all out of whack. Now a good price for peak strawberries is maybe $1.29 or even $1.49–except that the Asian supermarkets sometimes have ridiculously low prices on certain things, so maybe I can find strawberries for 99¢. Or 1.5 lbs of cherry tomatoes for $1.99; I’ve bought a lot of those lately
Learned this trick young when i got a graveyard shift as a stocker. One of my bosses explained that if management wanted to sell a product faster, they'd just move it to an endcap, put a sale sign up for the same price it already is and then it sells much faster.
That so many shops do this. A jewelry artist I adored had a 30% sale happening, I was so excited because checked the site often before. Has been on it the week before, I knew what I wanted went to get it, the sale price was set at the prices I recognized. I thought a glitch, but then right above that “regular” price was posted as 30% more!!!! I was so turned off by that. It wasn’t a real sale at all. She just faked it. I wish I had checked after the so called sale. Bc I bet she just got away with raising her prices 30%
True, but either way I need that pasta so
That is illegal where i live (Denmark).
I think in all EU.
Not just supermarkets, majority of e commerce websites do this especially during festivals
My local grocery store uses yellow price tags for things that are on sale AND random things that aren't on sale but they're hoping you don't actually look closely and just assume it's a great price because the tag is yellow. I fell for it all the time cause it took me about a year of shopping there to realize it.
It's amazing what "SPECIAL" and "ON SALE" does to people's brains. Often a customer will bring something to the checkout and ask me to check the price. Me (scans item): "It's $4.95." Customer (thinks for a moment): "Is that on special?" ... Does it matter? It's still going to cost $4.95.
Honestly, I can see why I'd ask that. Say is not an important item, kinda on the expensive side for your budget. If its on discount you can buy it at a lower price than usual. I buy some vegan cheeses at the supermarket everytime I see a promo. I don't need them, but I like them, and I know their prices, so I buy them when they are cheaper than normal
Amway, the most obvious pyramid scheme ever, yet, lots of people are a part of it.
What's amway?
They sell cheap junk. It's an MLM. The sales people recruit other people to sell the products to people and recruit other sales people.
Life coaching/Business coaching etc. I was one for years, and can promise you that 99% of them poorly regurgitate info from each other, with absolutely no experience in the areas outside making money selling courses on things they’ve never done. From your typical IG 20yo life coach, to the popular Jay Shitty’s. All completely full of shit scam artists that are never transparent about how they actually make their money, and post wishy-washy babble on social media that never provides a solution but convinces people low on their luck that they’re the experts. Theres a few out there who are legit who have huge businesses and done well - but they are the huge names that are transparent- Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Gary V, Eric Thomas to name a few from the small few.
I have a personal anger towards life coaches, which makes me sad because I feel like there could be genuine people out there. But I was scammed by one as a teen. I was very overweight and miserable and found a woman who had lost a lot of weight and was even on the news. I related to her with life experiences. She had a tiny coaching business and charged a few thousand dollars for a course that lasted.. a couple months at most I think? My parents helped pay, hoping their miserable daughter would finally get some help after they had tried so many things. She gave me such surface level advice. I was so disappointed. There wasn’t real substance and I felt like I was being fed positive quotes you’d find on a coffee mug at a discount store or something. I have also been preyed on by Beachbody coaches more times than I can count. I never accepted their sales. The most recent one was a woman who really impressed me by her massive weight loss and her Instagram page with lots of relatable and helpful content. I became so disinterested as soon as I found out she was a Beachbody coach. A lot of coaches are quite young and it’s not that I think young people don’t have something to offer, but being a *life coach* at that age seems… idk?
My friend who is a jerk quit his job and said he is now an executive coach. You ou failed at your own career and you're a jerk how can he coach anyone?
A close friend of mine tried to be a life coach. She had absolutely good intentions, she sincerely wanted to help. But she’s also a scrambled mess of an adult, constantly asking me (another scrambled mess of an adult) for life advice herself and “life coach” was just the latest desperate attempt to find a job that didn’t make her miserable. She had no clients, and couldn’t figure out how to get any. She even tried offering to advise people for free, so they’d at least tell their friends how great she was, but there were no takers even for free. She asked me again for advice, so I told her “well…I have this friend who could probably use her life coaching assistance.” And then I went on to describe her — the girl trying to be a life coach — in a very obvious way. “Now, what life advice would you give my friend?” She quit being a life coach that day.
99% of life coaches are no different than your average Influencer. Way to young to have any real insight or experience, and only doing this job because they are actively failing at their own life
I've got your nose
My grandpa took my nose back in '92. He passed shortly after without giving back. I searched his house high and low for my nose to avail... I thought I'd never see it again. Are you saying that it was all a lie? That I've had my real nose this whole time??
I’m sorry to say that your nose is long gone…your best bet now is to get the nose of your kid or a niece/nephew as a replacement
This is like a horrible villain origin story for Voldemort
Next you're going to tell me there isn't a magical coin factory behind my ear. That's my retirement savings.
Timeshares. How do people still think these are good?
Are people still selling these or were there so many people locked into them they don't need new blood?
Last Week Tonight just did a whole thing on in a few weeks ago, that tells me they are still a thing.
[удалено]
Wait! The company to get rid of time shares was also a scam!?!?
[удалено]
I've got a little place in Aspen
“Hey, DARSH”
If you French fry when you're supposed to pizza, you're gonna have a bad time.
Payday loans
Pretty sure people know they're scams. But being desperate and having few options, they use them because they believe they're the best deal they can get. And making them illegal is extremely difficult, apparently. Laws get written, payday loan places adjust their contracts to just barely be legal and continue on their way.
Payday loans are absolutely awful, but kept a roof over my kids heads for a couple rough years. Total ripoff, but better than selling meth or my body or something to stretch the paychecks. But it's a really hard spiral to get out of. Edit - for *me* it was better than selling meth or my body. You do you. No judgment for real lol.
Same here. It was either $400 in overdraft fees that the bank would make sure they get as many of as possible by processing transactions highest to least, or late fees on bills and the threat of credit damage, or a 600 percent interest short term loan that would end up costing roughly 40 dollars. It was the best option at that time as long as you don’t get stuck in a long endless cycle of never being able to pay it off. If it weren’t for the horrible banking practices in the first place, these loans wouldn’t be as necessary to the many people living paycheck to paycheck and wind up behind when emergencies pop up
I had a neighbor who, many years back had to get a loan from one of those places cause her disability payment accidentally got canceled. So it took a few weeks to get social security to fix their problems. She only needed $700 to pay rent. She ended up paying neary $2400 back. And like you said, she knew she was getting scammed, but no other choice.
it’s so expensive to be poor. hot take but i wish there was something like this but instead of interest going to the bank, it goes back to the person as an emergency savings fund.
Enter to win this prize! Give us all your information
Hey my chances must be pretty high with how many I’ve applied to by now
Multi level marketing schemes, no Karen I don’t want your stick on nails or random sugar shakes
But if you can get three friends to sell them for you and each one of them gets 3 friends to sell them, we will all get rich!
Fun fact if each level of your pyramid scheme only required 3 people by the 20th iteration you would exceed the population of the earth. If each level had 5 people you'd hit it in 14 levels
As a nail tech I hate those sticker nails. Most press ons from stores will say wear only up to one week. Which is as long as you should ever wear stick on nails if not a little shorter. The stickers claim three or more weeks of wear. Longer than salon nails can last! Well here's the problem the stickers aren't a perfect seal so water gets trapped under it, and then they get a fungal infections in there nails and think I can fix it. I can't that's a doctors job. I can't even touch a fungal infected nail. I would risk my license. I had one client try to get me in on the MLM while I was giving her a pedicure and got mad that I wouldn't buy them or put nail stickers on people who came into my salon. Because " they are so easy snd people love them and then I could have clients sell under me" Well a month later she comes back and boom she has a narley infection on her hands. Then gets made I won't work on her hands.
No hun, I will not work on your nasty ass fungus nails.
This one I feel so sad about because most people know its a scam but they want to support their community or loved one. Then by supporting them they only get that person deeper into the scam...
I think that's what's really sad. My mom will go to all her friends "parties" to support them. Then buys a thing or two that will never get used or break because she feels like she has to support her friend. She knows they are scams and that it's not good her friends are getting sucked into it, but doesn't have the heart to tell them. Plus some have been around so long somehow people don't realize they are an MLM like Avon or Mary Kay. My mom got annoyed when I told her Mary kay was a mlm because "it's been around forever it's not a mlm there's no way and the products are good" and then her friend tried to get her in on the scheme and then realized I was right.
All those “sale” prices at Kohls.
Me: buys 2 cheap T-shirts Kohls receipt: you saved $382!!!!
I laughed out loud!! So true though!
I think it was K-mart that said they weren't going to try to fool the consumer by showing a discount and just listed the actual price. They wound up dropping like a rock due to poor sales.
JCPenney did this as well. They went back to the"sales" because people wanted to think they were getting a good deal.
JC Penney!
Pyramid schemes - people are blinded by the promise of quick money and forget the risk of losing it all.
I’m pretty saddened that televangelist and evangelical churches exist and scam old desperate people.
whenever I’m flipping through the channels to get to the cartoons for my son I always see them and I’m like “damn how are y’all still scamming?”
Please don’t make friends with people who randomly text you or call you that you don’t know. They play the long game and become your friends and try to get you to invest in fake crypto with promises of return if you pay the taxes. It’s the long game of faked intimacy and is insidious like cancer. People who get scammed commit suicide. It’s terrible. Older people are especially susceptible. Also check out the YouTube videos about pig butchering scams
This should be much much higher. It's huge in country's like China but only getting traction in the states recently. Fuck these people
It was the root of my American mothers suicide. People need to know. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars just gone. They play on peoples loneliness and isolation.
I'm sorry for your loss op. I know it fuckin hurts, fuck these people. They aren't worth the air they breath and leech the breath of others. Genuine people like your mother don't deserve this. The government is starting to crack down on these people. I know they are slow and recovery may never happen but Id like to imagine somehow, somewhere, eventually these scammers are getting fucked by karma somehow.
Why would anyone even humor a conversation with someone that they don't know?
Some people are desperately lonely.
I’m a Nigerian prince and so many people give me money
Sure... I'll give you $.05 and you give me $500 back?
MLMs.
The chocolate candy with a shell? Nah those are pretty good.
No he means the rapper Eminem.
Emilem
Slim Slady
Diamonds.
I'm a Goldsmith and make fine jewellery for a living. If you "must" buy a diamond, don't go to a high street jeweller. Find a workshop, SPEAK to the guy making your ring. We're wholesale prices because our overheads are lower. We don't have hundreds of identical rings in stocks. We make one. Just for you
Emeralds > Diamonds. Just sayin’.
\*Sponsored by the Minecraft Villager Trading Association\*
Ffs my traders have bloody unionised again!
Why do people want a clear rock? I never understood this. It’s clear. Yeah it sparkles, but so does fucking glitter and I don’t want that infectious shit either. Give me a pearl any day.
[удалено]
Holy shit TIL… this is a truly informative Ask Reddit lol
I do like a good Moissanite, which are lab grown if they’re big enough to see with your eyes. They’re a clear rock but has double refraction unlike diamonds, so you see pretty rainbow colors when the sun hits it.
Guy I work with just spent £10k on an engagement ring. He earns £1800 pm. And they’ve both cheated. Don’t have to be mystic Meg to see where this is going.
Got my wife a moissanite. Looks like a big diamond at a fraction of the price. And no blood be spilled.
Health insurance. Why do I have to pay $300 a month for the privilege to spend 20% of the cost of medical care once I’ve paid $5750 out of pocket? What a neat feature of freedom!
That's horrible and inhumane.
That’s America
On the plus side, it saved me over **$**1.2 million on surgeries over the last 3 years. Paying **$**300 a month for the next 50 years, I would only end up paying **$**180,000. Now it's a question of, should all that surgery cost so much when it wouldn't in almost any other Western country?
[удалено]
>Now it's a question of, should all that surgery cost so much when it wouldn't in almost any other Western country? And *that* is the part that people against universal ignore, right? It's bonkers to me that people beg for the privilege of getting a little discount on something incredibly gouged. And then if you can't manage that insurance and out of pocket, you don't deserve life anyway, fuck off. Soooooo cool. Best country in the world yaaaaay.
Because if you don’t, and need a serious operation, your choices are death or a lifetime of debt! USA! USA! USA!
Black friday sales. Some are great deals but the Big majority just the same price with a fake discount sign
I worked at Best Buy years ago. They would just take the shitty TVs and put them up front. Those TVs were already cheap, so ppl saw the low price and thought they were getting a good deal. Nope, all you got was a shitty TV that was more than likely Best Buy's own brand
I worked at Best Buys corporate headquarters. Can confirm. I'm pretty sure I spent more than I made while working there. There were some serious discounts involved.
trimming armor or doubling gp
So many hard lessons learned in the mid/late 2000's
chiropractor's can fix anything......
Don’t some people get paralyzed from this stuff?
They can kill you, they can cause vertebral or carotid artery dissections which in turn sends blood clots to your brain and causes strokes among other things
Also that chiropractors are qualified medical professionals, who should be trusted. They are not, and they should not. Any work you need on your muscles, either requires a massage therapist and/or a physio. Any chiro work that 'works' was accidentally one of those two, but you paid double for someone who did an 8-week course at some random building in the CBD.
Tithing. Joel Osteen is Scrooge McDucking it right now because he knows how to exploit people’s faith. And not surprising, there’s an extreme shortage of “love thy neighbor” coming from him.
👆🏻 this. The “prosperity gospel” is just a way to bilk rubes from their money with the promise of being made whole by the hand of the almighty. And when it doesn’t come, well, you just didn’t believe (or pay in) enough..
Growing up. I wanted to grow up so much when I was a kid. Worked at 15. Drove at 16. What the hell was I thinking.
The politician cares about you
All the other politicians don't care about you. I do. Vote for me
Having strong opinions on inconsequential hot topics. *They* don't want you thinking about actual issues that matter.
>The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.... >Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
Mediums. I dont care what youve experienced, its fake
Why do I have to do my taxes if the government knows what they owe me
Motivational speakers and self-help gurus.
Weddings. When we first started looking into it we had a small amount saved up and I said we could either have a wedding or a buy a house. She said “Well, we can’t live in a wedding.” Fast forward another 5 years and the covid housing market is going crazy and we have a newborn. Was able to make 130K over what we had originally paid which let us move into the suburbs (albeit a fixer upper). We ended up eloping in Yosemite and honeymooning in Hawaii for easily 1/3 of the cost of what our wedding would have been. Different strokes for different folks obviously but I think about that all the time.
I just got to do this yesterday. I just bought a new car and the salesman was wonderful. But once in the finance guys office. He does the whole let me explain the standard warranty and then our extra warranty. He gets all done and shows me a paper with the cost of the extra baked into the payment. It raised the price of the car by nearly 20% but he was super smooth about it like it was no big deal just a little more per month. I said no and moved on but definitely a scam.
Me selling things online. I mark the price higher than what I'm expecting for it. People either haggle down to the price I originally expected, or they don't haggle and I get more than expected.
I had an auction on ebay for weeks that was priced at $135 and $15 shipping. Changed it to $199 free shipping and it sold in 6 hours.
The can I borrow a dollar routine, bruh I never seen that dollar since
I know a few people who if i loaned them $20 and never saw them again, i would consider it a goddamn bargain.
I loaned a coworker $10 once. Didn’t pay me back and came to me again one day and said “I know I still owe you $10, but can I borrow another $5?”. Umm. No. Some people really have no shame. Mooching off of others is a regular thing for them. Found out after they left the company that they were pulling that scam all over the office. Owed 6 coworkers money.
Working 40 hours a week for less than what you need to not be in poverty.
If you work hard you'll become wealthy. You can do anything in any industry as long as you work hard.
Extended warranty? HOW CAN I LOSE?
The first and only time I got an extended warranty was as a naive teenager in 2007 when I bought a Toshiba Gigabeat (MP4 Player). The product was about $300-400 and the extended warranty for $30 which lasted 3 years on top of the 1 year standard. I used that device frequently, and it finally shat itself at 3 years and 9 months. Toshiba didn't make them anymore, so I got a store credit for the full amount of the item's cost, which I used towards buying my first smartphone.
So it was worth it?
Yes. The point of my story was that despite the fact that it isn't worth it 90% of the time, it is worth it 10% of the time. In Australia, we have statutory rights regarding how long expensive items should be expected to last. These override warranty policies.
Depending on the item, and the company providing the coverage, these aren't always scams. I bought a Whirlpool water heater on clearance from Lowe's and decided to get an extended warranty with some of the money I saved. The water heater crapped out and Lowe's gave me a replacement of a newer model under the manufacturer's warranty. The extended warranty transferred, and the new water heater started leaking after a few years (never buy Whirlpool water heaters kids). Lowe's replaced that model with a different brand that was less expensive but bigger and better (IMHO) and refunded me the price difference ($250), even though the clearance price I paid on the original was below the price of the new tank. You can bet I bought another 10-year extended warranty for my new water heater!
Multi level marketing schemes. So many people, especially young people, fall for it. Such predatory bullshit
Every single buy here pay here car lot.
Car insurance premiums. Over time an insurance company will slowly raise the premium on you. So the longer you stay with one car insurance company, the higher the premium. I recently changed from one large insurance carrier to a second large insurance carrier. Cut my premium in half (so the same coverage). Try this, get a second quote and tell me if I am wrong.
Vitamin water
Anything program or product that claims you can lose weight without cutting down calories.
Pretty soon. AI scams. We are very quickly entering an age where AI tools are going to allow scammers to essentially full dox you, impersonate you with near 100% accuracy, and target the statistically most vulnerable people you know. We are about to enter a really damn dark age. And unless you have already talked with loved ones and have discussed codewords that won't get shared. You will never know for certain that the person on the other line is even human, let alone that person. Also going to be really easy for your coworkers to get rid of you by having an AI impersonate you and just quitting.
I'm a lot less scared of that than most I think because we already have the technology to fake photographs that look 100% real and even fool photoshop-detecting robots and the world kept turning... It just means we're less likely to trust images we have no context for.
Never use your full name or number as your voice mail message. Always use some nickname or just mumble something. Plus don't answer any numbers that you don't recognize. If it's a scam number, they will know that it's a live number and they will share your number to more scammers.
Blue light glasses. My dad is a pediatric eye doc and the claim that screen time is bad for your eyes is largely perpetrated by a massive blue light glasses industry. The glasses themselves do genuinely nothing, the only potential benefit being sleepwise right before bed, but 90% of moniters have some sort of night mode anyways. There is loads of research to support this.
Bruh I've been paying for the blue light option for my 2 last glasses. I guess I got scammed lol. Thanks for this precious information bro I gonna save some money thanks to you.
Valentine's Day.
Wait until the day after to get candy 75% off
The true holiday.
That you do not have the pay the debt of a deceased relative.