My mother passed away, and as an only child with very little other family, it fell on my wife and me to deal with her estate. After everything was settled, we took a getaway trip to unwind and decompress. While on the trip, we were offered a chance to go to a sales pitch meeting one morning. We would be given some really good gifts if we listen to their one hour presentation. We went in with the firm understanding that we were going to say “NO“ to everything, get our free gifts, and leave.
It was a pitch for a Hotel club. You were supposed to get great deals on any hotel anywhere in the world. Just call up, give them the company name and member number, and collect your discounts. They even offered us enough extra memberships that we could give one to each of our kids. It was quite pricey, but we actually had some money from my mother‘s estate, and what they offered was a great deal. We would have eventually over time gotten back in savings the money we spent.
When we got home and began researching it, it turns out that we had been lied to (shocker I know). They just said yes to any question I asked even if it was a bold faced lie. The discounts were only on exotic resorts in places like Key West, Cabo, etc., and for weeks long to months long stays. That’s definitely not us, which made this a complete waste of money. Luckily I kept the contract and followed the cancellation policy to a T. I stopped payment on the check I wrote them, and interestingly, they sent me a check in the mail for the same amount a couple weeks later. Had I not had any morals, I could’ve doubled my money by cashing it, but, while it would have served them right, I didn’t want to be a scammer like they were.
On the upside, we got the “gifts”, so there’s that.
Lucky escape! It shows how good these con-artists are at what they do, when you went in fully expecting it would be a huge scam, and still got talked into it!
My strategy these days is to never commit to any significant purchase on the spot. Car, sofa, whatever it is, they will always try to lay on the pressure and make it seem like it’s urgent and if you don’t get it now you’ll miss the limited deal, or someone else will buy it or whatever the trick is, but you have to stay firm.
My go to line is “I’ll take that away and think about it”- which gets me out of loads of trouble.
Slimy sales people have plenty of psychological tricks they weave into conversations to get you invested and ready to buy. They want you yourself even to be saying “Yeah that seems like a good deal!” because once you say that, they’ve basically got you - you can’t back out because you’d be disagreeing with yourself, and it’s human nature and pride almost that we ‘stick’ with our decisions.
That’s why never making a decision on the day is the strongest defence. It means you don’t have to be a skilled conversationalist who can spot all the sweet talk and see through the tricks. You’re totally free to get suckered and say “That sounds great!” but not have that become a commitment.
If it sounds great now it will still sound great after you go home and think about it, after all.
Capitalism and the American dream.
My dad used an education savings account to funnel my bar mitzvah money and birthday money in “for college”. Kept telling me I’m so lucky because my college will be paid off. Cheats on my mom, buys a Lincoln MKX, and flees to Russia instead.
I found that pretty deceptive ngl.
What’s up with fathers and stealing children’s investments? Same thing happened to me
the last Presidential election that Elon hacked for the wealthy fucks that need their asses handed to them 50+yo here
I was cleaning my roof gutters, grapped a handfull of leaves, turned out to be a frog.
SURPRISE - Gutter Frog
HostGator. They raised their prices by quite a bit last time I renewed. So I contacted them and complained. After a while they came back with a “special” offer to renew at the old price but I had to accept it right then. I felt like I wasn’t gonna get a better deal and it wasn’t my money anyway, so I accepted.
Got the price they offered but they renewed it two months ahead of when it was due, so it ended up costing the same anyway, because now it will be up for renewal sooner. I will be moving away from them before the next renewal.
TL;DR: HostGator can fuck right off
I cleared out an old desk at work and found 3k in cash in an envelope. Turned in all the papers I found to accounting but that one. Nothing ever came back to bite me and I gave it all to my brother, he paid rent with it for two months.
When I was young there was this dude constantly hitting on my (now fiance) girlfriend. He hopped in my truck one night cause he was friends with my buddy. They all went into McDonalds and I stayed in my truck and smoked. He was a dealer. I went in his backpack and took his weed stash, hid it in the new speakers I just bought. Dropped them off when we got home and he didnt know until a day later.
Wait did we have to be the deceivers?
If I just say my ex, do I need a whole backstory?
Banks reordering transactions to maximize fees. That is closely contending with the nondeterministic fees that US contract cellular companies charged in the past (and may still). I got on prepaid in 2007 and never looked back. I view both industries as extortionist criminals.
My ex wife.
I also choose this man’s ex wife.
Sometimes I choose this man’s ex-wife, but sometimes I have standards.
Nobody’s standards should be that low. You may need some help my friend.
Financing offers through the car dealership.
My parents
Many “government” entities in the US are private for-profit companies: Postal Service, vehicle licensing, electric companies, water companies, which control the very infrastructure of everyday life.
Capitalism.
The USPS is not a private for-profit company, despite the Republican party’s efforts to make it so for decades. It used to not even be for-profit, until the Republican party passed legislation to forcing it to be run in the black. Actually it’s still not for-profit; it just has to break even.
That’s about to change sooner or later with the circus we have in now.
the DMV is a private profit corporation? huh?
