What's the most ripped off you have ever felt?

I’ve just thought of another. Not a huge monetary rip off in the grand scheme of things but still a charge which shouldn’t be there.

The main car park in town has now changed so that you can only pay via an app, all ticket machines have been removed, but there’s a ‘Convenience Fee’ of 25p on top of the parking charge for using the app which, should you choose to park there, you have no choice but to use.

I feel you. But we had an out of hours appt for the cat with a urine infection (also 5 minutes) and the bill started with a 4!

I agree, the money-for-nothing ticket booking charges are inexcusable. If there are no circumstances in which you can buy a ticket for the advertised price (e.g. by going into the venue and paying in person), then the charges ought to be illegal.

$1,500 to rent a cabana for the day at a Vegas pool party. Drinks were included upto that price but it was $600 for a bottle of Bicardi so didn’t stretch far! Oh and a $750 mandatory gratuity on top of the price too! Absolutely fleeced, vowed never to return.

These are small fry. I lost £20k when my accountant fucked up 🙈

1cm trim off my naturally poker straight one-length hair. I was asked to wash it before arriving to home hair dressers house (in next village). In and out in ten mins.

£50

I never returned.

It's outrageous, isn't it? I think it started in the days before you could download tickets online and venues somehow thought that the cost of providing a box office to sell the tickets wasn't a basic essential part of their overheads to factor in to their prices. Just like tipping or adding extra charges for service in restaurants, in fact.

When you booked over the phone and didn't live near enough to collect them in person, they would charge you more than it cost them for sending them out to you, as an added earner. Once they no longer needed to pay people to deal with selling the tickets, they were reluctant to give up the extra money. I reckon they hoped that people would be so used to paying an extra charge that it wouldn't occur to them that they were now paying extra for nothing at all.

Sadly, if they did the honourable thing and scrapped the hidden charge, and added it to the actual face value price of the tickets... after a couple of years, somebody would dream up the idea of charging a spurious extra fee, so you'd just end up paying the unjustifiable extra twice!

You see similar with ebooks, whereby Amazon and others will charge you exactly the same price (or even more) as they would if they'd had all of the considerable extra costs of supplying and delivering a physical book. Corporate greed means that nowhere ever passes the obvious savings back on to you, once they've got you into the habit of choosing a new option that is much cheaper for them as standard.

£19 for a bag of pick and mix fudge at a fair 😂

The National Trust do everything they can to get people to join them, rather than actually paying the non-member price. They don't actually want you to pay the higher one-off price; they want you to pay them every month ad infinitum!

I've recently bought a parking permit for leisure car parks local to me. In 2021 I paid £80 for the year.

This year, £155! 😱

Not sure what could possibly have changed in those five years to warrant such a leap.

Everything in football is a rip off now @MadisonAvenue it’s the people’s sport and yet unaffordable for most.

I’ve renewed our football season tickets this morning, mine and my son’s and both are adult tickets.

Up until four years ago we paid £702 each. This coming season we’re now paying £846.
We also have a car park season ticket near the stadium. Four years ago it was £260, for next season it’s costing us £408.50. No improvements have been done to the car park to warrant a price increase and there’s a fella on the entrance checking your ticket and another showing you where to park so it’s hardly valet parking. We need to pay it as we have to drive to games and at least by paying up front we know we haven’t got to drive around looking for a car park should we be held up on the motorway and late for kick off.

I know these things are luxuries and not essential but when you support a team enough to want a season ticket it’s hard to give it up. We do feel ripped off though.

About 14 years ago got to the hotel in Rhodes from airport and my suntan lotion leaked. I wrapped it in two food bags.

I had to pay €12 for SPF 15. Usually go for 30 plus and talking €22.

I take two bottles now

It’s grabbing every possible chance to extract more money. Also charging car parking on top of ticket prices has become standard eg at national trust (if you aren’t a member).
For Badminton on top of the very expensive tickets (£56 on Saturday) there is parking at £23 and yes a £2:50 booking fee!
I had free tickets or else I couldn’t afford it!

I didn’t pay this.

About 20 years ago, I was in Prague and went to a pizza restaurant. The couple next to us were paying the bill and asked what was the cruet charge was. It turned out to be salt n pepper on the table which they never used. I believe it was around £3.

As me and my ex finished we got hold of a menu and put exact amount for the cost of 2 pizzas and 2 beers and scuttled away

Yes, that looks much better value, and as you say, you can make a meal of it. If you buy a steak in the supermarket it's upwards of £8 normally so that doesn't seem overly dear.

I remember once paying about £4 for an ice cream at a race course, which was par for the pricing you expect, but it was one small scoop balanced on the cone which seemed stingy - normally you get some ice cream actually inside the cone at least!

I know, and my concert tickets also added on a "venue fee". Wtf??? I also totally begrudge paying an admin fee for things like insurance, when I'm the one that's done all the admin - maybe i should charge them! And a joining fee for a gym. I just don't get it

Something else just occurred to me - booking fees on tickets. I think it's a total rip off that it's charged per ticket not per booking, which ought to be the correct way if it's genuinely for the booking. Really it's just an unavoidable uplift in the ticket price so why not just add it to the ticket price in the first place?

The pitch costs are very high @InterestingDuck
SiL had a pitch in the craft tent last year. I’ve forgotten how much it was now but she worked hard all week, covered her costs but made a very modest profit at the end and will stick to smaller craft fairs with lower costs going forward.

Actually I had a £16 steak sandwich from the Argentinian steak stall yesterday which was excellent value for the price of ice creams. She cooked a whole steak beautifully before slicing it up and adding chimichuree sauce. I did it because we are heading off on holiday today and I made it my main meal so I didn’t have to cook in the evening.
You need to be discerning and choose wisely!

I understand overheads, costs going up etc. and I imagine Badminton charge high rent/pitch costs for vendors, but how can anyone imagine £7.50 is a reasonable cost for a flake cone? Do they really sell enough to make it worthwhile going to the event?

For anyone heading to Badminton Horse trials - an ice cream cone with a flake and sprinkles is £7:50
So if you have two children and take their two best friends a round of ice creams will set you back £30
Buckle up and pack a good picnic.

Sometimes it’s the small things. Mum paid for us all to go to Centre Parks about 15 years ago. We swam three times a day. You had to put 20p in to use the small spinner in the changing room to spin dry your costumes.
Also there was no dryer and the weather was bad so there was nowhere to dry costumes and towels. The heating was set (not on). DH is an engineer and fished out his screwdriver and reset the heating so the radiators were in full blast the whole time and we could dry everything.
DH wanted to play tennis with Mum’s partner - the charge was per person not for the court so when we thought it was going to be £10 for tennis (or whatever the price was) they wanted double that plus more if the girls joined in for a short knock about. DH ranted and whined til they gave up and we had it for the single charge.
Everything was extra, none of it cheap, apart from the swimming. That 20p really was the icing on the cake!

@Fixydodah which cafe in York please - am going in a couple of months so want to avoid!

Some of the catering / comestible ones are just 😳

By contrast, friend and I had an absolutely lush Sunday roast at a nice country pub recently. Generous portions, a huge side of cauliflour cheese, a large alcoholic drink, two soft drinks, all in £48, and the staff and service were ace.

£10 for crisps on a stick at Winter Wonderland. Never went back.