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Original poster

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

272 replies

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 04/08/2021 16:55

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

OP posts:
garlictwist · 04/08/2021 21:20

Stopped at a motorway service station in Italy and filled up on the delicious looking buffet. It came to 60 euros. That is more than I have ever paid for a meal before or since. It really ruined the last day of my holiday.

NeilBuchananisBanksy · 04/08/2021 21:22

@HarrietSchulenberg

£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.
I came on to say this!! Pot of olives from a market which was £10 and a tray of baklava which was prepackaged but then be weighed it. I was so annoyed with myself!
SusannahSophia · 04/08/2021 21:23

Back in the 1980s, crossing a toll bridge in France to the Ile de Re. I was used to the 50p toll at the time on the Severn Bridge, and this was around £1.10 I calculated from French francs. Nope, got my decimal point in the wrong place. £11 to cross a bridge! About £30 in today’s money.

MrsMaizel · 04/08/2021 21:23

A hugely expensive drink in a club in Corfu - I thought that guy was chatting me up 🙄😂

Crossstitchismyhobby · 04/08/2021 21:25

Years ago when the craze for loom bands was massive the kids asked if I’d buy loom band boards-they told me I could buy them in the pound shop
I saw some at my local market so thought I’d support a local trader instead
In the pound shop they where £2 each
With this market stall-£16 each!
I ended up dumping £80+ of bits of plastic crap that broke within the week

TheDaydreamBelievers · 04/08/2021 21:26

First day in Prague. Hadnt got our heads around the conversion rate. Accidentally agreed to pay £28 for two basic tuna sandwiches. Now think the cafe may have been some kind of front as the only people in it all seemed to be best pals with the owner and only smoking, and they seemed really confused that we wanted the food

goingtotown · 04/08/2021 21:28

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park 10 years ago 2 small glasses of red wine £16. DH refused to pay the price, I was so embarrassed I paid.

blairresignationjam · 04/08/2021 21:30

This happened just last week! Booked an audiologist to have microsuction done on my ears, I was completely certain I had impacted ear wax. Turned up to be informed there was nothing in there. Settling up I was charged the full £75 for double ear wax removal...of which I had none. I felt like too much of a doofus not to pay for their time.

MumofSpud · 04/08/2021 21:31

Olive bread in Venice- I thought the price was for the whole loaf - but it was per gram / oz (can't remember) - I just paid (embarrassed) - it ended up being v v expensive.
Got home the next day and it was mouldySad

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/08/2021 21:31

They kept ordering extra sides, champagne, more wine, whiskies etc then of course they decided to split the bill equally. I had to pay £120 for my £15 bit of veg and tap water. I tried to protest but was shouted down for being stingy and nean. I had to run outside to make a panicked call to my dad to ask him to transfer money to me to cover it.

I will never, ever understand how some people can demand money from somebody else, because they (presumably) weren't able to control their own consumption and need a sub - and then THEY are the mean and stingy one?!?!

notacooldad · 04/08/2021 21:31

The number of times the tight old bugger had ‘forgotten his wallet’ when the 4 of us were eating out, turned into a very wry joke between me and dh
That doesn't wash with me anyone. I know which friends are genuine if they haven't got enough money or whatever in them. Those that I know pull thatctrick get told 'no problem, let's do a bank transfer now" I've not lost it since I started sticking up for myself over money.

EllaMayGrace · 04/08/2021 21:35

Early twenties and I’d just moved to London from my small northern hometown. I wanted to buy my DH (who at the time fairly was a fairly new boyfriend) a nice hat and wandered into Brora.

Found a nice grey hat, a little bit basic, but very soft so I prepared to pay £30/£35 for it… Anyway, £89 pounds and 6 years later DH still has the hat (and the little comb I paid extra for!) but says it works too well and makes his head too hot. 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

MsDFye · 04/08/2021 21:35

About £50 for a pair of sandals for my toddler. A better-off friend had recommended the brand and the shop but I hadn't realised they'd be quite as expensive. I was a lone parents on benefits and it was fortune to me at the time. One of my flip-flops broke as we we leaving and I had to walk out of the shop barefoot! Blush

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/08/2021 21:35

That doesn't wash with me anyone. I know which friends are genuine if they haven't got enough money or whatever in them. Those that I know pull thatctrick get told 'no problem, let's do a bank transfer now" I've not lost it since I started sticking up for myself over money.

Smartphones and online banking must be the absolute modern bane of the 'oops I forgot my wallet' crowd's life! Good for you!!

user1494055864 · 04/08/2021 21:37

Not a massive amount of money, but I got my ears pierced the other week. The website said £20 lobe piercing. Paid a £10 deposit to book.
Chose the studs from the selection on a stand he showed me, so I presumed in that price range, and he said, "or you can have these more expensive ones" I chose the standard studs, and he charged me £35.
(He knew I'd paid a £10 deposit) Confused I paid up, but am still confused how they can put £20 and charge £45.

FlorrieLindley · 04/08/2021 21:38

Slightly away from the main topic - not me, but my DH, when he gave up smoking several decades ago. I didn't know he'd been putting his regular cigarette money away.
He came home one day with this wall-mounted, state-of-the-art, wine bottle opener from Selfridges.
I asked him how much it was and he said £90 (this was around the late 90s). I went mad, saying we had perfectly good corkscrews, blah, blah blah (he was a bit of a fiend for kitchen gadgets), when he said: "It was my cigarette money!"
And I felt like a complete ogre. We still use it!

FlorrieLindley · 04/08/2021 21:40

But in terms of paying more than you thought something cost - first visit to the USA in the 1980s, didn't know that they added on sales tax at the till, so that the price on the ticket wasn't the final price. Bit of a shock when you think you're paying one thing and then faced with another, different price.

HeronLanyon · 04/08/2021 21:42

I was a young penniless barrister taken clothes shopping by senior woman in Chambers to one of her favourite designers. Early 90s. Knightsbridge. Small shop. It was for some event which I’ve forgotten totally. I tried something on which was beautiful fit me perfectly and really suited me.a kind of tunic/jacket dress in gorgeous colour. Still remember the covered buttons. Trouble was we had been for quite a boozy lunch beforehand (she had paid I think) and all of my ability to just say ‘I can’t afford this (or anything on this whole street)’ left me. It was something like £600 decades ago. I definitely could not afford it. Put it on my access card (yes Access). Was paying it off for ages. Only wore it once as I tried to avoid a lot of legal ‘dos’ when junior and it was way too smart and stunning to wear many places. I was more of an ‘old kings cross’ clubber at the time.
Oh dear.

notacooldad · 04/08/2021 21:46

That doesn't wash with me anyone. I know which friends are genuine if they haven't got enough money or whatever in them. Those that I know pull thatctrick get told 'no problem, let's do a bank transfer now" I've not lost it since I started sticking up for myself over money

Smartphones and online banking must be the absolute modern bane of the 'oops I forgot my wallet' crowd's life! Good for you!!

I'm surprised anyone made sense of my post with so many typos!! Sorry.

TellySavalashairbrush · 04/08/2021 21:48

£370 for a bloke to put a few mouse traps down in my home. He originally quoted £150 but then started talking technically and I got caught up in it . I’m still angry and it was months ago. Still got bloody mice too Angry

NoddyMcdoddy · 04/08/2021 21:48

DP bought me two small bags of green tea in Hong Kong. Thought nothing of it til he got his credit card bill the following month. He completely got the exchange rate wrong and had paid over €300. I googled and it was very expensive organic hand picked by virgin maidens tea. The Aldi green tea I usually drink was nicer.

BlobbyBloo · 04/08/2021 21:49

Never that I can recall.

I am a frugal northerner and proud. I have no problems walking away from anything that I consider poor value for money.

FinallyHere · 04/08/2021 21:50

DH working abroad years ago, used air miles to pay for me to fly out for the weekend for the Christmas party in Munich. His friends suggested we go cross country skiing on the Saturday afternoon, all good.

Brilliant fun, brilliant scenery and then we stopped at a mountain hut kind of place for a drink. They had collected me from the air port, driven us around and arranged this afternoon so it was obvs up to us to pay for these drinks, whatever the cost.

I knew it would be bad but I hardly could believe my eyes when I looked at the menu. Wow. The prices were ten times, closer to 100 times even expensive costs. I was going to have just an expresso but they said oh no everyone has the speciality here so of course, we ordered a round of the speciality. I knew we must just use a credit card and enjoy it along with the scenery and everything else.

Only when we got the credit card bill did we establish that we had crossed a border from Germany into Austria, those prices were in Austrian schillings, exchange rate some 70:1 to the currency we were expecting.

Phew.

itcouldhave · 04/08/2021 21:50

ExDH made me go to one of those dodgy electrical goods flash sales that were briefly a thing in the early 90s.

Basically, you turn up at a venue and they usher you in. It’s all very high pressure. They then start auctioning boxes of stuff saying it has a microwave or whatever in it and you pay x amount for the box without really knowing what’s in it.

Anyway, exDH was desperate for a camcorder for shooting stuff to do with his band, but he was out of work and we were relying on my PT wages and benefits. He had heard that there was a camcorder in this box and was determined to get it.

We got locked in a room and they made everyone bid for the boxes. It went over the amount of cash we had so he MADE me ask to be let out to go to the cash point. It was so humiliating because by that time I realised it was a scam but exDH was hooked and wanted his camcorder.

We paid £150 for a box of broken toasters and useless crap. It was awful because we really were on the breadline. The next two weeks we ate beans on toast.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/08/2021 21:51

But in terms of paying more than you thought something cost - first visit to the USA in the 1980s, didn't know that they added on sales tax at the till, so that the price on the ticket wasn't the final price. Bit of a shock when you think you're paying one thing and then faced with another, different price.

I hate places in the UK that do this with VAT - where they either give the price 'plus VAT' or don't mention the VAT at all until you're paying and they add it on then. I suppose they might reckon that they don't see any of it themselves, but that's their job to work out before offering me an all-in price, not mine, and it's the same for everybody. They also have staff costs, electricity costs, business rates etc., but it's still not my job to pay those separately - you do all of your sums, account for everything including all your costs and profit and then tell me the actual end price for me to pay you in order to walk away with the goods or have the service.

I actually think it should be illegal to quote prices without VAT, unless it's very clear that you're selling to a business or somebody has specifically asked for the price without it. Unless it's a business purchase, there's no other possible reason for it other than to deceitfully make your prices seem artificially lower to the customer.