Tell me about a time you accidentally overpaid for something because you were too embarrassed to back out

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 2021-08-04T15:55:18+00:00

For me it was when I was a Uni student, visiting family in France and went into a little French boutique that had reasonably priced trinkets - €10-€20. I picked up a purse simply because I needed a new one, assuming it was €20 as it was on a table with other €20 stuff. €135 [shock] I couldn't speak French very well and was too embarrassed to put it back so forked out. That was my food money for the month. I survived for the next 3 weeks on pot noodles and plain jacket potatoes [grin]

Bubbles1st · 04/08/2021 17:03

I went to collect to Perspex display shelves I'd seen on Facebook market place. Not they were not very expensive £5, however when I got there the angle of the photo had been very misleading and were for displaying very small items ie earrings and not actual shelves of any sort!

I just handed over the cash and laughed my way back to the car 🤣

ComtesseDeSpair · 04/08/2021 17:22

In my first year of university I spent £100 on a goth lacy smock type thing from a shop in Camden Market. I was idly looking at the clothes and the shop owner asked if I wanted to buy it; it was far too expensive, and I didn’t even like or want it that much, but I was quite a shy 18-year-old so I just said I didn’t have enough cash on me and would need to go and get some from the ATM (planning obviously to just walk away and never return.) This must have been a common tac from shoppers, because the shop owner then said she’d send her assistant with me to the cash point so that I didn’t get lost on my way back - so I had to walk about ten minutes away with this random shop guy, get my cash out whilst he watched, and then be accompanied back to the shop to buy this thing.

Scandalous really, I always wonder if anyone ever made a proper complaint about them!

Cheeseandlobster · 04/08/2021 17:24

@ComtesseDeSpair

In my first year of university I spent £100 on a goth lacy smock type thing from a shop in Camden Market. I was idly looking at the clothes and the shop owner asked if I wanted to buy it; it was far too expensive, and I didn’t even like or want it that much, but I was quite a shy 18-year-old so I just said I didn’t have enough cash on me and would need to go and get some from the ATM (planning obviously to just walk away and never return.) This must have been a common tac from shoppers, because the shop owner then said she’d send her assistant with me to the cash point so that I didn’t get lost on my way back - so I had to walk about ten minutes away with this random shop guy, get my cash out whilst he watched, and then be accompanied back to the shop to buy this thing.

Scandalous really, I always wonder if anyone ever made a proper complaint about them!

That is outrageous behaviour from the shop owner. Gobsmacked

Original poster

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 04/08/2021 18:06

@ComtesseDeSpair that's terrible!! That reminds me of rogue builders who March elderley women into the bank to withdraw £10,000 for a half paved driveway!

OP posts:

Wombat64 · 04/08/2021 18:09

A £200 veg knife...

Intherightplace · 04/08/2021 18:12

Any Turkish restaurant. I keep getting sucked in by people telling me how wonderful it is. Then I end up with something I could have got from a kebab van at £100+ for four.

belhaven · 04/08/2021 18:14

I'm visiting London just now and eating out. The 12.5% 'discretionary' service charge added to the bill (just for lunch/cheap tea). I would add this on and pay it anyway, but really dislike having it added to the bill and I'm too embarrassed to say anything! I have only ever experienced this in group/big meals before.

AthelstaneTheUnready · 04/08/2021 18:15

A goose. £80. Couldn't defy my previously loved local butcher. Paid up, in time for covid, £80 goose to myself.

I don't spend that much on clothes a year.

LoopyGremlin · 04/08/2021 18:19

Not me, but my husband misread the chicken price tag in M and S and thought the price was for the whole chicken rather than per kilo. He paid over £20 for an organic corn fed chicken rather than tell the shop assistant on the till he no longer wanted it!

BarbaraofSeville · 04/08/2021 18:24

Sangria on Las Ramblas Barcelona.

Made the stupid mistake of just sitting down at a bar and getting a couple of glasses from a menu with no prices on it.

Up to now, food and drink out in Barcelona had been fairly cheap and we had 20 euro on us, which we thought would have been fine. I think it came to about 30 euro so one of us had to go to the cash machine but luckily there was one we could see from the bar.

It has worked the other way for us too, once a group of us went to a tapas bar in the outskirts of Malaga, had a few beers each and a few tapas too and we were starting to get a bit concerned about how much we had spent. When the bill came it was for less than 30 euro for all of us and the exchange rate was really good at the time so it worked out about £5 for an evening's worth of food and drink.

tinkywinkyshandbag · 04/08/2021 18:24

A bottle of artisan olive oil at some boutique olive grove type place in France, it cost £20 and neither DH or I had the balls to say no. Also in France got a piece of cheese weighed out, it also came to about £20 but again we couldn't say no! Must be something about France...it's those complicated numbers! Or maybe they just saw us coming...

couchparsnip · 04/08/2021 18:25

Went into a nice shop looking for kids sun hats, expecting to pay £5 tops. The kids picked their favourites, they were lovely so we took them to the till.
This shop was deserted and in a busy seaside town so when the bill was £50 I felt like we had to pay it. Stupid really but they were nice hats, I didn’t want to disappoint the kids. Plus I felt like I had to buy them once they were tried on!

sorryiasked · 04/08/2021 18:27

First Christmas in own home. Ordered a small Turkey from the butcher thinking it would be a little bit more expensive than the supermarket.
5 times the price. I cried when I got outside as we couldn't afford it.

ExtremelyDisorganised · 04/08/2021 18:29

Italy. Stopped at a cafe and went to the counter to order coffee and cake, they asked if we were eating in or taking away, there were tables free so I said eating in and they said that'll be "extortionate amount three times what the label on the cakes behind the counter says". I pointed to the label and they said "takeaway price" so I just paid up as DP had sat at a table by then. Most expensive cake ever.

littletinyboxes · 04/08/2021 18:33

On holiday with DH, 2 x DC and MIL. Some places in the resort stated prices in £, Euros and local currency and others just in local currency. There were quite a few roadside craft/souvenir stalls and prices were all really cheap (usually the equivalent of about £1-£2 for most things). One day we were sitting on a bench having and icecream and MIL started looking at a stall selling small bracelets made of olive stones threaded on to thick elastic. For a small fee they could also have a bead with your name written on in sharpie. MIL wanted to buy one for each of us and for a couple of her friends. She was told a price (just the number, not a currency) for each one or 10 for a slightly reduced price. We assumed that this would be in local currency and the equivalent for about £2 each £18 for ten- so about the same as most stalls we'd seen. MIL chose 10 (one for each of us plus gifts for 5 friends- I am not a fan of such things but happy to go along with it) and had them personalised. She spent ages choosing and gave the the life history of each friend. When she went to pay they told her the price was Euros, so actually the equivalent of about £180 for the ten. She didn't say anything- just pointed at DH to pay and he dutifully did. Given that the same evening we paid £40 for a meal and drinks for the 5 of us this was incredibly expensive. MIL has never mentioned the incident

BlowDryRat · 04/08/2021 18:33

So many things, most lost in the mists of time.

£12 on 2 slices of cheesecake from the Harrod's food hall. I kept thinking I could have had 4 whole cheesecakes from Sainsbury's for that! The fancy cheesecake didn't taste much different either.

A jade dragon for then 6-yo DS. I got the exchange rate wrong and paid about £80! The woman had spent about 10 minutes helping me find the perfect one and I was too embarrassed to say it was too much after all. They all had price tags on so she wasn't hiking up the price just for me.

The one I still feel annoyed about is £500 (yes, five hundred quid) on 10 pilates lessons. I'd arrived as an au pair in a foreign country and the mum of the family recommended her friend's pilates lessons to me. Goodness knows why she thought that was an acceptable thing to do. I was a young, people-pleasing type so felt too embarrassed to say it was too much. I don't even like pilates and was a crap au pair so returned home before I'd even had my money's worth!

MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig · 04/08/2021 18:38

I do this all the time. It’s like some crazy mist descends when you’re out and you just go along with the madness. Then you get home and think ‘what they fuck did I spend all that money for?’ 😩

thinkingaboutitall · 04/08/2021 18:39

10 years ago I was 14 and whenever I would walk through a beauty hall, counter staff would ask to give me a makeover. I think they thought I was older and more wealthy than I actually was

Benefit staff were the worst, and 14 year old me felt pressured to buy all the makeup they tried out on me (even though it was like £100!)

Tuscancat · 04/08/2021 18:41

But most of these examples are not overpaying, just things were more expensive than you thought they'd be.

Original poster

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 04/08/2021 18:44

@Tuscancat potato potarto

OP posts:

littletinyboxes · 04/08/2021 18:44

@ExtremelyDisorganised

Italy. Stopped at a cafe and went to the counter to order coffee and cake, they asked if we were eating in or taking away, there were tables free so I said eating in and they said that'll be "extortionate amount three times what the label on the cakes behind the counter says". I pointed to the label and they said "takeaway price" so I just paid up as DP had sat at a table by then. Most expensive cake ever.

My DM tells a similar story about a visit to Germany. Apparently she and Dad met up with a friend and his girlfriend. Friend bought them each a can of drink and would not accept payment so she said she'd but them each an ice-cream later (thinking a cone eaten outside). Girlfriend (who was local) said she knew just the place which was actually a cafe selling ice-cream sundaes. The price on the menu was more than she'd wanted to pay but DM didn't want to make a fuss so went along with it. The actual price was 5 times as much because apparently the price depended on where you sit. Girlfriend had insisted that the seats at the front overlooking a lake were the place to be and these were the most expensive seats. It was the days before ATMs and debit cards and DM ended up spending almost all the currency she'd got left on ice-cream.

Orf1abc · 04/08/2021 18:44

A t shirt in Dubai for £160.

It didn't even fit me.

rookiemere · 04/08/2021 18:46

There is an expensive shoe shop in our local neighbourhood. Its a husband and wife that own it and they're always rather snooty.

I ended up buying a gorgeous but completely impractical pair of Paul Green red suede shoes at £110, simply because I didn't want them to think I couldn't afford them. I've still got them as can't bear to give them to the charity shop.

SedentaryCat · 04/08/2021 18:49

2 bras for £160. They were lovely and fitted beautifully, I was just too shy to say no to the bra fitter. Not something I would have a problem with these days.

Every time I wore them I'd calculate how much each wear was costing me!

Strangely enough, the shop went bust. I guess there's no a market for £80 bras where I live.

HarrietSchulenberg · 04/08/2021 18:49

£10 for a quarter of Turkish Delight from a gorgeous little stall at our local annual food and drink fair, and another tenner for a tiny tub of olives from the same stall. As if that wasn't bad enough I made the same mistake at the same fair the following year.
I've learned to avoid him now.