No one likes getting swindled by a bad deal. Thats why you should always keep your eyes peeled for some of the sketchy tactics that companies use to to trick you.
Here, Reddit users share some of the questionable schemes that you should definitely be aware of.
In reality, they have a contract with the manufacturer to make the exact same model of bed, but with a model name specific to that store, so nobody can ever cash in on that deal.
hkgolging
Paying every month gets you 12 payments, every 4 weeks gets you 13. Something my dad taught me when I first got a debit card 🙂
access547
This means that some companies will actually reduce your hours to minimum your last month with them if they are going to lay you off. Happened to me wife. She worked for this company for 5 years, worked 35+ hours per week, suddenly she wasn’t getting shifts. BOOM, layoff notice. Happened to other folks too.
Mode1961
Just learned that the hard way.
pleachchapel
Set up an appointment but come in a few minutes early and say (don’t ask) you’d like to walk around for a quick look. The receptionist likely wont refuse you, and the sales person won’t be ready for you. These places like to show you only the stuff they want you to see when being led around by a sales person. Chat with a resident or a staff member, they’ll be the most honest with you.
conurecrazy
“Want to insure your DVD rental?” NO DUDE.
dogfish83
This is the epitome of any outlet store.
sambeano & PhilaBurt
I’ve actually said “then why do you need me?” in response to this a few times. Sometimes I get a stammering “uhh, well, y’see, I’m trying to help YOU” in response, but one time the dude just laughed and said “ok, ya got me…”
AnfrageUndNachgebot & WhoaMilkerson
When I was in the process of moving into my current home I transferred the title of my old home and land to my sister because she was buying it and moving in when I left. Within the next few weeks she started getting all the “welcome to the neighbourhood” coupons and flyers. She didn’t even change her address, so I assume companies track title changes with the register of deeds.
The sketchiest was a pest control company claiming to have an existing account on the property and recommending she continue to use their services. They detailed dates and changes; referenced termites. It was all lies. All the dates shown were while I owned the property and I never even heard of this company before she received that letter.
fathqua
Also ask the owner/landlord to do a walkthrough with you. Video the walk through. That way if they do not give you all your deposit back you have something to take to court VS a he said he said which you generally lose.
Qlanger
Scan this and e-mail to a couple different e-mail accounts. Comcast and others are bad about “losing” the equipment a couple years later, after you forget, and then billing you.
Qlanger
It’s just in closing down sale mode continuously.
I’m amazed shops are allowed to get away with this.
kochikame
One thing they did (maybe still do), to lure customers to them is offer 0% APR for the first year. People would jump on this and transfer all their debt onto their new Discover Card, and then the company would “conveniently” not send the first month’s bill. In the fine print of the agreement, it states that if you miss even one payment in that first year, your APR will jump to 29.95%.
Half of my calls were to these new customers who would then proceed to throw a fit, because they didn’t ever get the bill, and I had to explain to them that it was their job to know when the bill was due, and sending one was just a courtesy extended by the company. I hated hated hated that job. It ate away at my soul.
quietman85
It’s actually a spoofed caller ID using a legitimate agency’s fax number. The “detective” will threaten arrest and throw around names of local judges. The debt collector will claim to not know the “detective” who left the message, but will be willing to take care of your debt.
MattsWorldoWonders
They can use your donation to help them get a tax write off. Definitely not all stores, but some.
kukukele
This was some time ago so the van had a price tag of $.17. He sold that can of cream corn to everyone who bought anything there. If they realized they were paying to much he’d just say he thought that was their can of corn. Most people didn’t notice though and he sold that same can of cream corn maybe twenty times a day.
Kingtycoon
I worked for a startup that had a sleezy CEO and got most, if not all, of their business by fake Yelp, Google, Glassdoor and other review sites in our industry. CEO was a compulsive liar and had no morals.
minimalcollin
The contractor starts with a ridiculously high priced quote for way more stuff than you asked for, steps down to a more moderate quote of what you wanted with a few bells and whistles, then the third quote is for what you requested.
This gives you the illusion of choice and reduces sticker shock because although your requested “absolute minimum” service is really expensive, it’s only half the cost of their recommended repairs!
hobbes_shot_first
If bleached flour is listed at all, put it back.
Sara-Lee is notorious for this. Most of their Whole Wheat products are actually just molasses to make the bread darker.
patheticredditor
Whenever we had a supply of shirts that were really ugly, and weren’t selling well. We’d put the ugly item on the mannequin, and it would sell out very quickly.
This isn’t necessarily the dirtiest trick, but it worked pretty well for pushing really ugly clothes.
ThirdAmbiguousColor
They were able to require me to turn over all tips that I never saw again because they paid me over minimum wage. I think this is technically legal, but sleazy nonetheless. I made really great tips and it was hard turning the money over. It’s also pretty deceptive to the customer, who thinks their money is going to the wait staff, not the restaurant.
HoosierHasBeen
However, the company or agency is not obliged to tell you that.
After a certain period, if you haven’t claimed it, the agency gets to keep it so often they’ll ‘forget’ to tell you about it.
They are obliged to payout if you’ve requested it in writing, though.
AnyOLUsername
One day the price ‘may’ seem to go down, but if you checked the weight, it has also gone down. Snack foods do this constantly.
I like buying these breaded frozen chicken breast fillets at my local grocery store, been buying them for a long time. They were $11.99 for 908 grams (2 lbs). Last week they were $11.99, for 750 grams (1.65 lbs or 1 lb, 10 ozs).
That product just went up 21% in price!
airbreather02
One gigabit/megabit/kilobit is only equal to 0.125 gigabyte/megabyte/kilobytes. A lot of services advertise their data caps and data speeds in gigabits so as to confuse customers who don’t know the difference.
If your plan has a 8 gigabit data cap, then you can only really use 1 gigabyte of data. Likewise, your 100mbit/s internet speed only has a peak download of 12.5 megabytes per second.
I_TROLL_MORMONS
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