deception

"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Paul Michael — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:29:25 +0000

That quote from Howard Beale (character in Network, 1976 movie) sums me up right about now. And it's probably just the straw that broke the camel's back, because it's not really a big deal on it's own. But over the past few months, several of the grocery stores I visit have started seriously inflating the prices of various foods before putting them on sale. And I'm sick of it.

Most recently the culprit was my local Safeway. I like a can of soda now and then and I usually stock up when I see a deal, like 30% off or BOGO. Well, I popped into Safeway and was greeted with a huge display of 12-pack sodas from both Coke and Pepsi, with the massive sign above them reading "Buy 2, get 1 free." I know a deal when I see one, so I loaded 3 of the 12-packs into my cart and went to check out.

The check out guy rang them up and then I saw the total...it was a few pennies shy of $12. "Hang on," I said in my most stern British accent (sometimes it helps) "these sodas are buy 2, get 1 free. That should be about $8."

"Nope, the before sale price for each 12-pack is $5.69" he said with an "I couldn't care less" smile. "Oh, really?" I said and paid the bill. Then, when I got home, I looked at my receipt from the last time I went shopping at Safeway some 5 days earlier. The price for a 12-pack was $3.99. So, in less than a week they had shot up by around $1.70. That didn't see right, but maybe there was a huge soda shortage or something. I called Alberstons and King Soopers, their 12 packs were still $3.99. I felt annoyed. Really annoyed. Livid, in fact.

Safeway was basically doing something that I personally believe to be completely underhanded. They are massively inflating the before sale price in the hopes of making you think you're getting a stellar deal. "Wow, I just saved a bunch of cash" you're thinking. But in actuality you've saved almost nothing and bought more product than you would have done if the sale wasn't there.

A day later, I looked around several grocery stores at the BOGO deals and sale goods. It was happening everywhere. Cans of tuna where up in price but on sale. The same went for detergent, bread, even contact lens solution. And it just made me boil over. Most consumers don't really pay attention to the prices, they just look for the deals. In this case, the deals (including those nasty 10 for $10 bulk-buy rip-offs) are not deals at all. The stores have simply done a little dollar-cost averaging and played with the numbers so that deals equate to the same price before the sale.

Well, I don't know about you but I'm sick of it. And I'm sure many of you are, too. So I propose we all do something about it, starting with me. I have a camera-phone and I'll be carrying it with me everywhere. When I see a deal, I'll take snapshot. If the "before price" looks suspicious, I'll compare it to the price of the product when it comes off sale. And over the next few months, I'll keep a detailed log. I'm out to prove once and for all that we're being manipulated like pawns in chess by the billion-dollar grocery chains.

Now, who's with me? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Exposed: Magazine subscription rates complete BS.

Paul Michael — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:32:02 +0000

Have you ever wondered about the validity of those "special offer magazine subscriptions" you get in your mailbox? As someone who gets most of his magazines for free through various free subscription sites, I never really gave it much thought. But then I read an article by Chris Anderson, of Wired magazine, and he exposes some ugly truths about subscriptions.

Longtail.com recently published an article by Mr. Anderson that highlights the trcikery involved in magazine subscriptions. You can read the complete article here but this excerpt gives you the meat of the argument. All you need to do is take out any of the "special offers" you receive in your mailbox (I get them daily) and cross-reference them with the following list of facts.

there is no such thing as a "special courtesy rate"
"guaranteed savings" is a meaningless phrase (and indeed you can often find magazine subscriptions cheaper through an agent--check eBay--or a credit card loyalty program)
it makes no difference if you reply by the "reply by" date
"statement of benefits itemization" are just empty words meant to invoke an invoice
all those "free" or "included" things are just the regular content that's in the mag for everyone.

The basic marketing logic behind all of this is based on consumer gullibility. If you tell them that you must reply by a certain date, then guess what, they will. If you tell them they're getting a special courtesy rate, they'll feel special.

This goes way beyond magazine subs, too. One tactic I'm increasingly sick of is the seasonal sale. In Colorado, we have a store called American Furniture Warehouse. And they have a sale every day of the year. If it's July 4th, it's the Independence Day sale. If it's Labor Day weekend, the same. But when there's no particular holiday, they make one up. "The boss is on vacation" or "Falling prices in fall" or any other trite link is used, and it works. The store is always chock full of consumers looking for a bargain. And these stores can get away with it because as long as something in the store is genuinely on sale, they're in the clear. Most of the items in the sale are the same price the whole year round.

And this gets us back to magazines. Those subscription rates you can get by just calling up a contact number in any magazine and asking for the subscription department. You don't need a savings card or an invitation, magazines are happy to give you a stellar rate because it increases their readership figures, which means higher advertising revenues. Cha-ching.

So, next time you think you're getting snowed by a magazine subscription offer, just call and ask for a better rate. You'll most likely get it.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

$6500 repair bill to remove a stone from a moon roof

Paul Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:05:52 +0000

How many times have you felt like someone was ripping you off? Hopefully, you can trust your gut instincts, just like the guy in this video below.

You can watch the full 7 minutes for yourself, but the basic story is this. He went to a Mercedes Benz repair shop complaining of a problem with his moon roof. The shop took a look at it and said he needed a complete new moon roof.

Total charge from Merc = $6500 (remember, this is Mercedes so it's going to be high, but gee whizz).

Being a customer worthy of Wisebread status, although I hope he got that Merc on a discount, he went elsewhere for a second opinion. I presume one of those smaller shops that don't have such huge mark-ups. You can imagine his surprise when he discovered the moon roof was simply jammed due to a small rock in the mechanism.

Total charge from other shop = $143

All it took was a pair of tweezers to remove the offending pebble. So, armed with a hidden camera our seriously ticked-off customer goes back to the dealership. Here are the results.

Car Dealership Tries To Screw Customer - Watch more free videos

Moral of the story: A second opinion is worth its weight in gold. Oh, and as I have said earlier, be wary of dealerships. They're not all bad, but some are just out for maximum profit.

Main photo by Saschaaa (with a new plate by me)

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Pet lovers beware - there's a new scam in town.

Paul Michael — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 22:08:35 +0000

If you thought those Nigerian scammers could not sink any lower, think again. It was reported today by WTAE.TV that there's a new scam making the rounds, and this time the scammers are praying on the good nature of pet lovers.

It's a simple enough set-up. Someone either emails or posts an ad (often local, so beware of Craigslist and MySpace) featuring a beautiful free puppy. Many reasons are given for the free giveaway, ranging from a poor environment to lack of funds to keep the little pup. The correspondance tugs on the heart strings like a professional harp player, hitting all the right notes. And then when you reply saying you'd like the free puppy, the con begins.

First, they'll ask for the hefty shipping fee to be sent, something like $160. If you bite, and send the fee, then all of a sudden the shots for the pooch will need to be administered. And guess what, they're not cheap. Before you know it, you've sent several hundred dollars to someone you don't know. Most likely the dog doesn't even exist, and cute pictures of helpless puppies are not exactly difficult to come by online (see main picture).

If you really do want to adopt a dog and give a homeless animal a good life, go to your local Humane Society or animal adoption center. They are legitimate, you'll need to pay a few fees for adoption, but at least you know everything is above board and the money is helping real animals. The people who commit these crimes are animals of an entirely different kind.

Main photo of a beautiful pup by Shuck . Thanks, it's wonderful.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Buy scamming customers with Intranet - UPDATED!

Paul Michael — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:23:42 +0000

George Gombossy, consumer watchdog for The Courant , broke this story on March 2nd of this month. It's a great story, and I apologise to George for not stating him as the source in my original post, my bad entirely. Anyway, other sites like The Consumerist have also covered it, but I wanted to do a follow-up of my own on the story. But first up, what is the story, if you don't already know? Well, read on...

WHAT'S THE SCAM?
It works quite simply. You see a great deal online. It's cool, you want it, you go into the store to pick it up. But hey, the price is higher than the one you saw at home. No worries, you indicate to the salesperson that the instore price is wrong and direct them to the instore Best Buy website. That's when you find out that YOU made the mistake because the price on the Intranet is the same as in the store. How can this be?

Well, the Best Buy Intranet is priced higher than the Best Buy site you access at home. And as the burden of proof is on you, you're really up a creek without a paddle. Unless, of course, you remembered to print out the deal you saw at home and bring it to the store. But how often does that happen?

BEST BUY ADMITTING GUILT...KINDA.
Justin Barber, a spokesman for Best Buy, earlier denied even the exsistence of this mythical website. Now he's changed his story, but is still insisting the company never intended to mislead or deceive Best Buy customers. If that's true, one has to wonder why this Intranet with higher prices was in stores at all. Why not just have the good old Best Buy website that we all access at home? Surely the answer is simple...money! Good for Best Buy, bad for us.

BEST BUY'S BAD TRACK RECORD
In New Jersey and Ohio, Best Buy have been accused of deceptive sales practices, by repackaging used merchandise and selling it as brand spanking new. Another case of not intending to mislead customers I'm sure. Best Buy paid just $135,000 to settle that suit in New Jersey, although the Ohio case is ongoing. But it's hardly a good indicator of fair business practices. Makes you wonder how new that item is that you bought last week from your trusty Best Buy store.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Well, let's hope that this Intranet is pulled from the stores so you don't have to worry about it. But nonetheless, take a printed copy of the Bestbuy.com page with you to the store. That's the page that contains the REAL deal. Or just buy online (althought shipping charges then apply). Even better, why not just boycott the big box giant for a while and go shopping at Circuit City, Ultimate Electronics or Media Play. I know I'm wary of Best Buy and its overfriendly staff now.

UPDATE: AND HOW IS BEST BUY NOW?
As it happens, I'm on the prowl for a new laptop of my very own. My first one actually. So I visited a couple of Best Buy stores a few days ago, just to see if the prices advertised online were the same as instore. Yes, they were. However, when I asked if I could see one or two of the laptops working via the Internet (I wanted to check out a few HD movie trailers to check the 1080 resolution) I was told that they don't have Internet hookup anywhere. When I asked why, I was informed by a very helpful Best Buy clerk that they have no way to control what people download (not true) or look at (also not true) so they had to disable Internet access throughout the store. It was the same story at a different Best Buy store. So, I'd like to know if anyone else is having the same issue, or has Best Buy got the Internet working again, without it's own suspicious Intranet anywhere to be found.

And while we're on the subject of suspicious, check this video out. It was made by an ex-employee and seems to indicate that Best Buy staff screw their customers. (If it's already been featured on The Consumerist I'm very, very sorry. But it relates to the post, so there.)

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: