Getting ripped off by companies and sales people

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Does anyone else have this problem too?

In the past I would sign up for things and then I would find out about hidden fees and all. I would end up canceling. Especially if you read the announcements and you think you understand what you have read but obviously you didn't.

Just recently I learned that ebay is doing free listings and I read the headline and the announcement and it didn't say anything about what is excluded, they did list what is excluded but they didn't have "10 day auction" listed. So I do some listings and the rank went to $3.46 total, one of them was from an auction I did a long time ago and that game didn't sell. Also it did read you only pay when your item sells and then I saw I got charged for my other auctions where my item didn't sell and where my items haven't sold yet because no bids had been placed.

Oh yeah I did sell my first item and mailed it off today and am about to ship off another item when that one sells. It's already been packed up to be ready to be shipped.


So does anyone else get ripped off by companies or have a hard time understanding what they are reading? I don't always know I am not understanding what I am reading because I think I am understanding what I am reading. Now I bet the people in the ebay community think I am dumb now and one of them assumed I didn't read the announcement but I told him I did read it, maybe I just didn't understand it and I thought I did. I thought it was a glitch at first even though I was skeptical but I figured they wouldn't rip people off and I am sure it wasn't their intent to rip me off because maybe just maybe when lot of people read the announcement, they know on their own what is excluded. The list wasn't written for people who are literal thinkers and take things literally or else they would have put down specifics like "Buy it now" "10 day auction listings" for exclusions. But they did show the charge after I did my listing before I was about to post it and I thought it was the charge I'd be paying when the item sells. Well good thing I only did a few listings because it does add up when you list a bunch of auctions. So three dollars is no biggie. I did find out Buy it Now was excluded when I was seeing the ad saying "Use buy it Now for free until Nov. 29th" so I knew then that was not included with the free listings.


These days I don't sign up for things anymore and I am always jaded to do it. I have trust issues because I am afraid of hidden fees and surprises. Sometimes I think they do it intentionally to trick people so they put things between the lines and you have to be good at it to see it. They hope anyone be that dumb to not see it and sadly it's us and for anyone with learning disabilities who can't comprehend what they are reading. And if you cancel, they still got their money from you and there are other suckers out there they can get money from, even if it lasts a few months or a month.

promotional offers are always lures to make money from you.
NO company is in business to save you money or give you things for "free"

Banks, credit cards, cable tv, magazine subscriptions, credit monitoring services etc etc

Plans and promotions will offer things for free (w restrictions or w limited time frames or wost of all with an expiration date on the "free" stuff at which point the rates go to a higher rate or you are automatically enorlled in a subscription type service that will cost you $$ to cancel once you find out)

Unless you read the fine print of every offer and keep track of when free expires and each and every term of the agreement it will end up costing you $$.

I USED to take advantage of free offers and rebates ** and the hassle of keeping on top of the terms and the time spent trying to cancel etc far outweighed the "free" benefits.

(** rebates are another one. they make the instructions to claim your rebate so aggravating or difficult to follow they hope you screw up or don't bother and then they don't have to pay you!)

KEEP THINGS SIMPLE.
Most important for everyone (especially US).

They DO put hidden fees in intentionally to rip you off. It's not only you. Credit cards are especially infamous for this type of behavior. Also banks. Ebay is fairly well-known for it too. But practically any business will do this. It isn't just you misunderstanding. If you polled all of the customers, you'd find that the majority of them were caught off-guard by hidden fees and were outraged also. You are correct to be jaded and not to sign up for any deals until you check them over extremely carefully. You practically have to be a lawyer anymore to read those agreements and contracts.

I have control issues, so I never accept any offers or promotions, try to collect any rebates, or sign any but the simplest of contracts. I decide what I want from a company and then try to buy it from them, rather than let them decide what they want to sell me. I want to stay in control by being the one who initiates and sustains the relationship. "No" is my favorite word. I'm certain I've missed out on some good deals and I know I've exasperated more than a few salemen, but at least this attitude allows me sleep at night.

A clerk in a 7/11 tried to charge me for a straw.

It is important to read the terms of service and things like that. I usually give them to my mom to read since I cant understand legalese.

Some deals work well like shopping only the loss leaders, which are great deals intended to lure you into a store. Be on the look out for by 2 get 1 free scams cause sometimes they mark up the cost of the two so that they will cost more per unit then if you bought it indivually.

Banks do it too.
Not gonna name my bank, but "GREAT INTRODUCTORY INTEREST RATE: 5%! !!"
after 6 weeks the rate dropped 2%

on the positive side, it was still better than what i was getting elsewhere

What pisses me off is my bank told me I qualify for a credit card but instead they made me fill out a application and I get denied. Do not tell me I qualify for something and then I am required to apply for it and I get denied. But these bankers were going by their bank policy and they don't control the company and who gets approved and who doesn't. It's just their jobs to tell you about things and it's up for you to decide if you want to apply or not.

And what's ironic is I sometimes get a credit card application in the mail from our bank and hello they denied me so why the hell are they sending me that crap. I don't like hypocrisy. Why send someone a credit card application and then deny them if they don't have enough credit? Why even send them one in the first place if they don't have enough credit? I just toss it out. Deny me once, I will never apply for you again.

Where they get you is when they use words like pre-selected or pre-qualified. This means nothing more than your name was spit out of a computer. You weren't actually qualified. You just met their minimum standard (not dead?) for an attempt to get you to sign up.

Stay away from credit, it's another manipulation to get your money like the one you talk about in your first post.

Credit card companies are the very first in the chain of responsibility of the gloomy state of the economy.