snookered

Snookered and scammed.



Every once in awhile we get tricked into something that after awhile we think about it and realize, "heeeeey....what the F*&^ !?!... I think I just got snookered".



There are all kinds of scams out there that are pretty obvious such as those Nigerian 'dearest christian..." emails. Also those telemarketers either trying to sell something or fish for donations for "sick diseased orphans" or "dead police families".



In my neighborhood there had been scammers who particularly target the elderly by charging obscene amounts of money for snow removal jobs that they never even asked for. Scammers call people stating that their (neice, grand son etc..) is in trouble overseas and needs x amount of money right away or else!.



I had to learn the hard way that you need a written contract whenever you have work done to your house. It is also best to check around, to be patient and ask the right questions.



One of the worst scams are the sneaky ones that are disguised as legitimate.



I think those contracts with health clubs (gym) that "make things easier for you by having monthly payments automatically extracted out of your checking account" is insane. I would never trust anyone with automatic withdrawal out of my checking account.



Are you nuts?

Of course, air travel with all those stupid fees and add-on expenses are just plain obnoxious and insulting.

I have listed a couple of stories that would not be labeled as scams but I think they come close because the end result is really sneaky and sleazy.



Here are a couple of real life examples:



1) A few years ago, my mother was away on vacation during the winter. She wanted my father to start her car up to make sure the battery was charged. It was a cold day and my father went out to start her car up. He dropped the keys on the driveway and the key broke. It was one of those electronic keys. He went to the hardware shop to get a new key made. He had a 1995 truck and he has had keys made for his truck. Those keys cost him about $2.50 each.



When he brought the key to hardware store for my mother's foreign-made car the clerk could not do it. He said he had to bring to the dealer to be made. When my father went to the dealer about having a key made he nearly had a melt-down.



They told him the key would have to be "speciality made and they would have to 're-program" something in the starter". The bottom line is that a key that would've cost only $2.50 for an older model American-made truck is now going to cost $200.00 for my mother's 2006 Mitsubishi coupe.



Who would've ever thought a stupid key would cost this much to replace? It's a F*&^ing rip-off!







2) My friend "Sue" bought herself a nice sporty volkwagen car. One day she woke up and found that one of her tires was flat. The mechanic she had used in the past was only a block away. She figured she could just drive it over there very carefully and get the flat fixed for about $15.00-20.00 and she would still have time to get to work on time.



The mechanics struggled with the bolts and could not get the tire off. It turned out that volkwagens made now are equipped to be only serviced by certified volkwagens dealers. Everything bolted on requires special tools made exclusively for volkwagens only. Needless to say, they couldn't do it and her car had to be towed to a volkwagen dealer just to change a F*&^ing tire. So now as you can imagine this simple tire change was now priced in the hundreds. Not only was this an outrageous added cost but she would've been totally stranded if she had a flat tire somewhere else. AAA would not have been able to help her.



What a scam.







3)I just bought a new washing machine. It is a bigger machine than my old one. I was sold on it's "new and improved" techology because it uses less water and it has no aggitator. They call it HE (high efficency) Well I found out what HE means. It means you can't use 'regular" laundry detergent. You have to buy this special low suds HE laundry detergent or you will ruin your machine.



So now when I buy 100oz HE "speciality" laundry detergent it cost me $14.00 a bottle compared to a regular 100oz discount brand I used to buy at $4.00 a bottle.



Although this is rather minor I felt I've been "snookered".



At $14.00 a bottle it does do a good job getting bird poop off my shirts.



But it bloody well SHOULD! At $14.00 a bottle it should serve me pancakes in the morning as well!