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

[FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop]

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 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

Spent a huge amount as a young adult in TGi Friday in New York as the very aggressive waitress said that's what tip was right. It was our first day and we were getting to know the tipping process. Never forgotten how much of our money we spent.

A pair of baby espadrilles, DS was born in July and DH wanted to get him a little pair of espadrilles to go with a little romper and summer hat.
He got the exchange rate wrong & the fact they were handmade (apparently) and they ended up around £60 they were also online and shipping was unbelievable they were shipped all around the world from Spain which he kept paying added shipping every few days they'd be somewhere else and then finally they spent 2 weeks in JFK customs he payed around £35 shipping costs in the end for a pair of newborn sandals.
When they arrived they were absolutely huge on DS and never fitted him until winter by which time he was in snowsuits.
It was such a nightmare ordering them we had no clue how to go about sending them back so we just left it. Almost £100 on baby shoes that were never worn it still infuriates me 8 years later.
He's sure he wasn't scammed but I'm completely convinced he was.

I had a bridesmaid dress altered at a very expensive place in central london. Stupidly didn't get a quote as it was 'minor'. When I went to pick it up they charged my £300.... I just paid. Worse thing was it was altered all wrong and but it was too late then to do anything.

We were in Trafford and went past a little stall selling chocolates; the guy started chatting to us and was so friendly, so we bought about 10 individual bite sized chocolates. Nothing was priced, but we didn’t mind spending a little more to support small businesses, but it came to about £45! The chocolates weren’t even that nice and the stall had gone the next time we went- not surprised at those prices!

In a restaurant once I asked for a glass of Chenin Blanc, the waiter must have misheard and brought a glass of champagne. Iirc it was £16 for the glass - early days of dating DP when we were both students, he had wanted to take me out but I insisted on paying because I didn’t correct the waiter when he brought a very obviously wrong glass

littletinyboxes

The same thing happened to me in Israel, many years ago. I was buying some tacky keyrings and the like and I naturally assumed that the blurry 'S' before the numbers on the price tag was shekels - you know, the currency in Israel, which were worth something like 20p/25p each. No, it was US dollars - and I had a sneaky suspicion that the conversion rate to pounds they used (I had to pay on a credit card as I had no dollars) was very much in their favour.

2 bras for £160....

Strangely enough, the shop went bust.

I saw some lovely fabric in John Lewis - £8 a metre, and three metres would make me a nice skirt.

It was only after the lady started cutting it that I saw I had misread the label and it was £18 a metre - so instead of getting a new skirt for £24, it was going to cost me £54!

I didn’t make the skirt for years because I was too scared to cut into the expensive fabric!

£4 on a tiny punnet of tomatoes from an Italian deli. It isn’t that much compared to some of these, but I was a student at the time, and it felt like a fortune to me!

At least now I’m able to say no thanks!

I think there are some shops where this is their deliberate OM - have buttock-clenchingly high prices that are either not displayed at all or are very confusingly labelled - and then rely on people being too embarrassed to say it's too expensive - or just scream "Behave yourself!!!" at them and flounce out

@belhaven

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.

Me and DH were in London with some friends, we went to a bar and we had 2 cans of diet coke, then charged a 12.5% tip for pouring them in to a glass! We didn't want to look cheap in front of the others so paid it.

MO - not OM!

@LoopyGremlin

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!

I ended up with a £12 small bag of cherries from M & S, and they were awful.

Every time I go to primark 🤷‍♀️ 🤣

@SedentaryCat

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.

The bra shop went bust....

This is pretty minor compared to some of the others but I recently had a splitting headache whilst out shopping so popped into Boots for some ibuprofen. I passed over the Nurofen brand because I know it's more expensive than the generic stuff and doesn't work any better for me. Picked up a pack of cheapo ibuprofen that I usually pay 38p for in Aldi that was price marked 55p. I thought that was a bit of a hike, but needs must. Got to the checkout and was charged £1.50. I was gobsmacked but felt like too much of a cheapskate to query it.

I am still absolutely livid about it 8 weeks on and have boycottes Boots ever since

A good few years ago now. Dashed out if work one lunchbtime to find a birthday present for a colleague. There was an independent jewellers nearby which sold a mish mash of top end jewellery and also budget stuff. Saw a nice pair of costume jewellery earrings at 4.99 which was the right sort of price. Went in and they were putting stuff away for half day closing, asked for the earrings and got a fiver out. They were actually £14.99. Just paid. I kept them for myself and got the colleague some chocolates!!

For my 18th birthday my ex-husband (then boyfriend) took me to Paris for a long weekend. We were obviously not well off but we’d saved money to pay for some treats like Disneyland and dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
We had some money left and after looking through a tour brochure we decided on seeing a show at the moulin rouge. The price printed we could just about afford and we were due home the next day anyway.
We paid through the hotel and it turned out that it was priced per person. Ex-husband just meekly slid his credit card over

£9 for a G&T in London.

Loads of London folk will now come on and say that’s good value, but I was shocked

About £25 for 2 beers in Paris, approx 15 years ago! The food menu at the cafe was reasonable so we thought we were safe. There was no drinks menu though... A sneaky trick.

@beela

About £25 for 2 beers in Paris, approx 15 years ago! The food menu at the cafe was reasonable so we thought we were safe. There was no drinks menu though... A sneaky trick.

As in, reasonably priced.

Kind of the opposite but it still ended up becoming incredibly awkward. I was in a craft centre, ended up the only browser in a studio where the friendly guy made wooden objects, chatted for a while and felt the need to buy something and asked if he had one if his nice carved letters in my DD's initial. No but he could make one, not today, could I come back? We lived too far away, thought I'd got away with it, but he said he'd be in my town and would deliver - took ages taking details, arranging to drop it off, then he called to change delivery times a few times, turned into a massive faff, the guy basically drove 20 miles to deliver a wooden letter for the princely sum of £4. In the end I was just glad it was over, shut the door as he left, breathed a sigh of relief and handed toddler DD her lovely carved initial which she looked at it solemnly for a moment and then for some reason whacked it on the floor and it smashed into pieces.

A little dinosaur tail that went round the waist for 3 yo (at the time) DS at a festival. I asked how much it was and heard £13 and thought "oh, fair enough". They put it in a bag and said "that'll be £30"! I guess it was sort of reasonable as they were probably paying the festival £££s for the pitch but was definitely more than I wanted to spend!

Nice restaurant in Las Vegas. No prices on the menu. When we ordered our steaks the waiter asked whether we would like sides with it; we imagined he meant ADDITIONAL sides to what the steak would be served with so declined. Food arrived and it was just a steak on a plate.

We were only 21 and too embarrassed to say anything so just ate our lonely steaks and asked for the bill…$240!! I cried.

Camden Market in the 90s. Nothing had price tags on, the stall holders eye you up and see how far they can push your luck.

I asked a lady how much please for a dress up plastic cigarette holder and crap fancy dress gloves (ie going as Audrey Hepburn) and she said oh those are um, then she looked at me, looked at her friend and said twenty six pounds. Her friend said 'what'?? And I said sorry how much are they each? She said um it's twenty six pounds.

Which I was so young and stupid I paid, and she laughed as I walked away. They were literally pound shop toy level.