Getting Ripped-Off
I hate it. To combat it, I've been known to search out a bargain. Although, some might think I toe the line of stealing or that I'm more than toeing the line of being cheap. To me, it's just my own form of self-justice. Let me give an example.
Picking apples: One orchard charges every individual who goes into the orchard. If you don't buy a bag for apples, you pay $2 for the "hayride" that takes you 100 feet into the trees and dumps you off. Now I planned on buying apples, so it didn't matter to me, but 4 of the party of 6 (the other 2 being me and my wife) didn't seem like they really wanted to spend any money. So the simple solution is to just walk (or sneak) in. I don't want to take the hayride, so I'll just skip it, and walk out there for free. If I think we might get in trouble, then I consider the punishment. If they caught us, they would just send us back out, or worse yet, tell us to leave, and we'd just go to another orchard. So the "punishment" tells you that the crime isn't that bad, and it's not even bad, it's just against their wishes. Well we got caught. So we bought 2 more bags and took the darned hayride to find out that the apples sucked. I don't even know why I was so nervous, but after a half hour of debating whether or not to pay for the crapples like all the other spineless or easily-pleased customers, I decided to go back in and get our money back, and it worked. This might be a bad example because it's not like we cheated our way in or something. Although we did get a few bellies-full of apples.
My willingness to try to get what I think I deserve, or at least what I paid for, is what (I think) largely contributes to the fact that many people think I'm cheap or even a scoundrel. Just kidding, that's pretty extreme. (Well my wife doesn't think I'm cheap, so that's all that really counts. She wants me to get a deal, but not in front of her.) What I do is really no different than downloading movies or music illegally. Usually, when people do that, even though they know it's wrong on some level, have several ways to justify it. It's just that a lot of people who download don't do more out-in-the-open stuff like I have. This post is kind of annoying me too, partly because I don't do THAT much cheap stuff anymore like I did in high school/college, but I'm writing about it because I hate the reputation I have, when I don't think I've done any more wrong or been any cheaper than anyone else.
The whole point is that I abhor being ripped off, and I'm done with it. But what sucks is you can't get around it, or at least it's inefficient. Here are a few examples.
*A $60 pair of nice black express pants, a tad bit shiny, go dull and shrink more than any other pair of pants I've ever had. Now they're short and fading, after just a few washes. Haven't warn them in a year.
*20% off on some house decoration stuff from Meijer. Didn't get the discount, paid $2 more than I though. No big deal but annoying.
*$6 off when you buy 4 boxes of chex, the sign's in front of frosted chex, but doesn't apply. Have to go back to the store, return the old and buy the new to get my dang $6.
*Broken patio table from Kroger. Thought it was a good deal. Warranty? don't know yet.
*$75 hair dye job for Amy. Light brown comes out darker brown than her natural color. BS. Said they would call back when I called to complain.
*$60 Up-do for Amy. She gave the lady a picture and the outcome was nothing even close.
*Several more hair stories. Not a penny back.
*Bought Oakland Press for $28 to help some kid out and got a "free" Entertainment coupon book 2 months before expiration. Move out of apartment 3 weeks later, cancel paper, get $4 refund b/c of the dang book, which at that time was being given away at my work.
*$90 electric bill for apartment for the month when we weren't even there and everything unplugged.
*Manager at salvation army can't lower price on 20 year old TV cabinet, buy it anyway, go pick it up the next day and furniture is 25% off. (that's not so bad since they're nonprofit)
*buy a car for $2500, head gasket goes 2 months later, could be coincidental, could be that the guy who sold the car and his brother who rebuilt it are both jack-idiots. (Brother-in-law on phone says, "You might be able to make it home." Fails to mention, "You might melt the engine off." Result=$1000 rather than $300)
*buy two "working" vacuum cleaners for $50. Neither works. Fixing ended up being possible, but still a little annoying. Why can't you ever just get what you were promised!
*Orthodontists office said "no payments or interest for a year" when it was actually just "no interest." Hundreds of extra dollars later...
How much money do we throw away being ripped off by this kind of crap. What pisses me off is that it takes so much energy and time to deal with it. And is it worth it to call the hair place, drive out there, get it redone, or get products to compensate, or anything. If you screw up my hair, don't just offer to fix it. I've already wasted $75 and 2 hours, now I'm going to waste an hour on the phone and 2 hours getting there and getting it redone--more time to have you fix what you'll probably mess up again. No, I want my money back. And if you really want to redo my hair to save your reputation, then I want my money back and I'll LET you redo my hair!
Cow-peesh?
But if you do that, and say it in that tone, they'll think you're a jerk, and you'll be one of those 50 year olds who sit on the phone all day at work complaining to the company they bought their 30 inch LCD from. But I guess they're completely justified, they've been dealing with this for a couple decades more than me.
Picking apples: One orchard charges every individual who goes into the orchard. If you don't buy a bag for apples, you pay $2 for the "hayride" that takes you 100 feet into the trees and dumps you off. Now I planned on buying apples, so it didn't matter to me, but 4 of the party of 6 (the other 2 being me and my wife) didn't seem like they really wanted to spend any money. So the simple solution is to just walk (or sneak) in. I don't want to take the hayride, so I'll just skip it, and walk out there for free. If I think we might get in trouble, then I consider the punishment. If they caught us, they would just send us back out, or worse yet, tell us to leave, and we'd just go to another orchard. So the "punishment" tells you that the crime isn't that bad, and it's not even bad, it's just against their wishes. Well we got caught. So we bought 2 more bags and took the darned hayride to find out that the apples sucked. I don't even know why I was so nervous, but after a half hour of debating whether or not to pay for the crapples like all the other spineless or easily-pleased customers, I decided to go back in and get our money back, and it worked. This might be a bad example because it's not like we cheated our way in or something. Although we did get a few bellies-full of apples.
My willingness to try to get what I think I deserve, or at least what I paid for, is what (I think) largely contributes to the fact that many people think I'm cheap or even a scoundrel. Just kidding, that's pretty extreme. (Well my wife doesn't think I'm cheap, so that's all that really counts. She wants me to get a deal, but not in front of her.) What I do is really no different than downloading movies or music illegally. Usually, when people do that, even though they know it's wrong on some level, have several ways to justify it. It's just that a lot of people who download don't do more out-in-the-open stuff like I have. This post is kind of annoying me too, partly because I don't do THAT much cheap stuff anymore like I did in high school/college, but I'm writing about it because I hate the reputation I have, when I don't think I've done any more wrong or been any cheaper than anyone else.
The whole point is that I abhor being ripped off, and I'm done with it. But what sucks is you can't get around it, or at least it's inefficient. Here are a few examples.
*A $60 pair of nice black express pants, a tad bit shiny, go dull and shrink more than any other pair of pants I've ever had. Now they're short and fading, after just a few washes. Haven't warn them in a year.
*20% off on some house decoration stuff from Meijer. Didn't get the discount, paid $2 more than I though. No big deal but annoying.
*$6 off when you buy 4 boxes of chex, the sign's in front of frosted chex, but doesn't apply. Have to go back to the store, return the old and buy the new to get my dang $6.
*Broken patio table from Kroger. Thought it was a good deal. Warranty? don't know yet.
*$75 hair dye job for Amy. Light brown comes out darker brown than her natural color. BS. Said they would call back when I called to complain.
*$60 Up-do for Amy. She gave the lady a picture and the outcome was nothing even close.
*Several more hair stories. Not a penny back.
*Bought Oakland Press for $28 to help some kid out and got a "free" Entertainment coupon book 2 months before expiration. Move out of apartment 3 weeks later, cancel paper, get $4 refund b/c of the dang book, which at that time was being given away at my work.
*$90 electric bill for apartment for the month when we weren't even there and everything unplugged.
*Manager at salvation army can't lower price on 20 year old TV cabinet, buy it anyway, go pick it up the next day and furniture is 25% off. (that's not so bad since they're nonprofit)
*buy a car for $2500, head gasket goes 2 months later, could be coincidental, could be that the guy who sold the car and his brother who rebuilt it are both jack-idiots. (Brother-in-law on phone says, "You might be able to make it home." Fails to mention, "You might melt the engine off." Result=$1000 rather than $300)
*buy two "working" vacuum cleaners for $50. Neither works. Fixing ended up being possible, but still a little annoying. Why can't you ever just get what you were promised!
*Orthodontists office said "no payments or interest for a year" when it was actually just "no interest." Hundreds of extra dollars later...
How much money do we throw away being ripped off by this kind of crap. What pisses me off is that it takes so much energy and time to deal with it. And is it worth it to call the hair place, drive out there, get it redone, or get products to compensate, or anything. If you screw up my hair, don't just offer to fix it. I've already wasted $75 and 2 hours, now I'm going to waste an hour on the phone and 2 hours getting there and getting it redone--more time to have you fix what you'll probably mess up again. No, I want my money back. And if you really want to redo my hair to save your reputation, then I want my money back and I'll LET you redo my hair!
Cow-peesh?
But if you do that, and say it in that tone, they'll think you're a jerk, and you'll be one of those 50 year olds who sit on the phone all day at work complaining to the company they bought their 30 inch LCD from. But I guess they're completely justified, they've been dealing with this for a couple decades more than me.
posted by shawn @ 7:56 AM
4 Comments:
At 9:45 AM,
Chris Trumble said…
AMEN SISTER. I am quite a deal hunter myself, and if you ask my wife, she would say it's usually not worth it. Funny thing is, I bought a computer last night because it was 37% off. Hopefully that works out. Do you know what the biggest rip off is? Rebates. It's like companies are playing to the laziness of Americans like me. The worst part about it? We never turn them in. I dont even bother with them anymore, because i know there is some sort of barrier that prevents my UPC from being copies or the rebate form from getting into the mailbox. I usually like to remember that I have some free (not really) money waiting for me to claim it about a month after the rebate expires.
At 6:22 AM,
shawn said…
It probably often isn't worth it, like if it takes you a few hours to compare deals and eventually save $20. But it's just so hard to accept a price when you're not sure it's the best.
At 9:16 AM,
Anonymous said…
The whole apple orchard hayride thing annoys me. I can understand charging for a ride that is impressive in some way, but the quality of a ride should justify the cost to the consumer (a ride at a carnival should cost money because it, in itself, is entertaining).
A good hayride, as an end in itself, has some value, and probably about $2 worth (a decent cost for nostalgic enjoyment of farm equipment, farm experience, scenery, etc). But it is pretty clear that a short hayride at an apple orchard is a means to an end. It is not an end in itself, though they would probably like us to believe otherwise.
My reasoning is this: if it was an end in itself, shouldnt an identical <5 minute hayride, without any other incentive, be offered somewhere else on this GODFORSAKEN PLANET? That is not the case because of the fact that a rational person probably wouldn't go on that short, stupid hayride for $2 unless they would end up at a worthwhile destination, e.g., apple trees.
I can almost understand wrapping a small charge up in the price of a bag of apples for vehicle maintainance or to pay the driver. But for someone who is clearly not gaining apples from the situation, we should not live under the fantasy that such a mediocre hayride is in any way enjoyable except to small children whose parents should hardly be charged for their child's ignorance of what "fun" is.
How do ya like THEM apples? On a hayride? DIDNT THINK SO!
At 2:35 PM,
shawn said…
Exactly...errrr...
So by eating a bunch of apples and getting all of our money back, that's just our form of justice. You wasted my time, now I'm eating your apples, even though there's only one wormy bite to get from each.
I guess we have to be somewhat content knowing that somehow, things sort of even out. Sometimes we get stuff free, sometimes we lose stuff. Actors and movie producers make way too much, so file sharing is a way of evening it all out.
This whole realization is just making getting free stuff not as satisfying. Although, I guess it does help to justify some things like file sharing. So if you have moral qualms about it, I say keep sticking it to the man in a moderate way.
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