Category Archives: RipOff

Taking Advantage Of Large Corporation Retailers

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The following is a story of  someone I knew briefly in college.  I’m telling this story because it’s an interesting story, but it’s for entertainment value only, please don’t think about mimicking his technique!

Today, with all of the camera and security mechanism attached to merchandise, I’m willing to bet that theft from stores is at an all time low.  I’m sure it’s lower than it was in the past before such theft deterrents devices and cameras existed.  But if you are a clever person with little scruples you can still get away with theft, even with big-ticket items.

A while ago, I had a friend that unfortunately had a problem with his shower, in particular with a certain part.  Unfortunately, when he went to order the part, it wasn’t possible to get the piece individually.  Angry and smart, he came up with a way around having to purchase a $400 dollar replacement system.  Not to mention the additional cost of installation of an entire new shower door.

To get around the exorbitant expense, here is what he did:

  • He went into a local hardware store and bought the entire kit.
  • He then called the support line and complained that the kit was missing certain parts.
  • He then identified the part that he needed, and a few extra parts too.
  • The company then shipped him the supposedly missing pieces.
  • Once he receive the additional pieces, he then proceeded to return the original kit to the store saying something along the lines that it was the incorrect model.
  • Next he used the piece that the company shipped him, effectively getting a free shower part for free (obviously).
  • He then sold he other pieces to a friend that he knew needed such pieces for his shower (at a greatly reduced price of course).
  • He joked that he could have sold the pieces via other means for more money, but I won’t go there…

He justified his actions by saying that they should have provided the piece individually for sale.  Had they done that, he said he wouldn’t have done what he did, etc.  He seemed to feel pretty guilty about it, and I don’t think he will do that again, but who knows.

I’m guessing that less than 1% of the population uses techniques like my friend and that’s why he was able to trick them, saving himself a bundle.  That said, I’m sure if this become a regular occurrence, large corporation would have to come up with a deterrent to counter this sneaky method of theft.

What do you think, and what should be done? 

Pretty clever, but wrong of my old college acquaintance, huh.  I think this is a riskier move these days, especially with the advanced computer system applications and databases.  I don’t think I would want to try such a bold move…

I hope he doesn’t still do this!

MR

The Reasons I Like Money Over Gift Cards

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First, let me say that the rules around gift cards has improved as seen in the Denver Post article: Feds overhaul gift-card rules!

Prior to this change being implemented by the Feds, I was a Gift Card policy victim!  You see, at work I rewarded an Amazon Gift Card which I firmly held onto it for more than a year, waiting for that something perfect that I wanted, so as to reward myself for doing a great job at work.  When I found that perfect something, lo and behold it expired!

Back then, $100 meant a lot more than it does today (don’t get me wrong, I still respect the purchasing power of $100!).  So I was upset… But what really pushed me over the edge was that fact that if I lived in California, they would still have to honor the value of the card!!!  HUH?  Yep, Cali realizing that the principal of having the card expire was somewhat underhanded and created a law that made it illegal to be so in Cali (2 points for them!).

Since I don’t come from Cali, I was very livid.  The side effect of me getting basically screwed was that I vowed not to purchase anything from www.Amazon.com… and I haven’t since!  So yeah, they may have made a pure $100 on me the day my card expired, but I’m sure they lost much more than that on profit they could have had from me…

But there are more reasons that I like cash over gift cards:

  1. If you invest the money, you make money off of your money gift!
  2. Invested money can be a hedge against Inflation.
  3. Cash money doesn’t comes with a “no-usage” fee or any fees.
  4. There is no need to go to an exchange gift card site, and thus accept less value for the card.
  5. Cash Money doesn’t have a magnetic stripe that can go bad.
  6. Paper Cash weights less than a gift card.
  7. Cash can be rolled up and put behind my ear!  (Why?, good question???).
  8. Cash is King, it can be used for anything, not just at Starbucks or Best Buy 😉

So, you may be wondering if I have other gift cards?  Yes, I do!  But I made sure they don’t expire nor that they had fees associated with them!

Reader have you ever gotten burned by not using your gift card in time? 

If so, perhaps the new laws will benefit you too.  Or even better ask for cash only instead of gift cards!

-MR

Disclaimer:  I’m not entirely sure that Amazon really screwed me, it could have been the Gift card company that runs their gift card option.  But, either way it was painful for me at the time!

Charging People For Accidents, Kicking A Person While They Are Down

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Some cities are proposing to charge people fees that get in accidents! 

How stupid, so a person has an accident (let’s say slipping on ice while driving responsibly), and now the city comes back and charges them fees for the accident?

So let’s think this through, you are driving with the kids in the car, and the roads aren’t salted well, your car slides through an intersection and your car gets totaled, because of the accident you and your kids need to go to the hospital, so now you have a car repair and a hospital bill.  And to add insult to injury, now you are going to have to pay money for the accident too?

In winter, if the roads are salted well, accidents could happen because of it!  Does this mean that we should sue the city since the are going to charge us for accidents?  Personally, Idon’t like to sue the city because indirectly it means that we are suing each one of the residents…

When I was carpooling a few years ago, my buddy was driving and he slowly eased up to the stop sign, but since the road was a sheet of ice, we slowly slide across the road and into the ditch on the other side.  Luckily, no damage was done to this car.  A police officer came and realize it wasn’t his fault and parked his car and put on the flashing lights to protect his car from being hit.  The officer could have technically charged my buddy, but the officer realized that the road wasn’t salted.  I wonder if the city could charge him for the accident if he would have gotten a ticket for the accident.  My buddy isn’t stupid, I’m sure he would have sue the city for life endangerment or something similar if he got a ticket.

I think that city official are forgetting why we pay them taxes!

Do you thinks it’s a good idea to charge people for accidents?  Doesn’t that seem unfair…  after all if they were drinking or acting reckless, they’ll get punished for their activity anyway?

If you disagree with me, please present your case below…

-Mr

Money Drain – Beware of Small Town Dentists

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My family thought we found the perfect dentist! 

His office was really a Victorian home that was converted into a dentist office.  It was a clean office with new equipment that looked great!  During the visits, he was nice and would always talk to his assistant and me talking about his trip to other countries or other fun vacations like Disney.  The dentists hygienists all were friendly and attractive.

Sound like the perfect dentist?  Well he wasn’t, and here’s why:

  • My city (it’s just a little bigger than a town) is small, much to small to afford the lifestyle of this dentist.
  • He was taking way to many vacations for a small city dentist.
  • Every checkup it seemed that I needed to scheduled to have some type of work done for the next visit.
  • He kept trying to convince me to get crowns for some of my teeth.
  • He tried to get my wife to do crowns too, and her were molars.
  • He wanted to do major work on our kids, while they had their baby teeth still in.

My wife took the kids to a different dentist, and he said they didn’t need the work, and especially now at such a young age.  The new dentist also said that my wife didn’t really need a crown.  I stayed with my this dentist…  big mistake!

The turning point for me was when my dentist removed all of my old filling in a tooth, but not actually fixing the slow cavity on the side of the tooth.  The way in which he fixed my tooth was brutual, I actually saw pieces flying out of my mouth!  The integrity of the tooth is now very poor, I have problems eating peanuts and many food now…

Learn from my mistakes, and don’t be afraid to ask your dentist questions!  Since my experience, I’ve talked to other people that have had similar experiences with the dentist that I previously went to.  I have one buddy at work that went to him and my old dentist was pushing for him to get a crown for a molar too.

If you suspect a dentist is using you as a cash cow, ask him to show you why he wants to do what he claims!  After all, it’s your teeth in addition to your money!

-MR