Expensive mistakes

[Roominmyhouse]

I’ve just released I’ve booked the wrong tickets for an event and a non-refundable hotel so I’m now over £100 down and gutted. Going to try and sell the tickets but it’s unlikely. 😞😞😞

Make me feel better and tell me your stories of expensive mistakes so I feel less of a tit! I could have sworn there was a thread like this before but couldn’t find it by searching.

@supremelybaffled

Family member has been waiting and waiting for an interview for their dream job, after having passed preliminary rounds months ago. Got confirmation today - interview next week.

Being a bit nosey, I thought I'd read up on the company. I have just read on their website that this employer's terms specify no visible tattoos. Guess who went and got themselves a tattoo on Monday? I despair, I really do.

How visible is the tattoo? 😬

@supremelybaffled

Family member has been waiting and waiting for an interview for their dream job, after having passed preliminary rounds months ago. Got confirmation today - interview next week.

Being a bit nosey, I thought I'd read up on the company. I have just read on their website that this employer's terms specify no visible tattoos. Guess who went and got themselves a tattoo on Monday? I despair, I really do.

Who gets a visible tattoo 😬

The one I'm most annoyed about - I published under a surname (imagine it's Smith-Jones) that was my DD's legal name but not my legal surname (Smith). I was in the process of changing it. I got a job offer and they insisted I couldn't take the job up without having legally changed my name to the name I published under. It's a good thing I didn't publish under really weird pen name.

Another work one that still rankles - the same job told me I should pay for work travel/accommodation up front and get reimbursed. Fine. One time I paid for a flight at very short notice, nearly £200 plus costs for train fares and a hotel. The flight was delayed then cancelled, and I never made the event. Work then declined to pay for flights, hotel, travel etc., on the grounds there was no 'proof' I'd made a real effort to attend.

We were travelling by train to a friend's wedding overseas. Got to the station with plenty of time to spare and found the name of our destination on the electronic board. We wait for a while on the platform but none of the trains are right. Eventually head back to the main hall and it turns out we were looking at the arrivals board rather than departures 🙈 ran to the correct platform and got there JUST as the doors closed. Ended up forking out 200 odd euros for new tickets and ran into the church just as the bride was waiting outside to go in. Gave her a bit of a laugh at least !

Most calendars start on a Sunday and end on a Saturday.

Not on the booking site I used. It started on Monday and ended with Saturday and Sunday. I now realize a lot do.

So I booked a Thursday but it was really a Wednesday. The hotel would not change the booking even though I realized it immediately because it was on bookings.com or similar.

Couldn't afford to pay twice so just didn't go.

Booked flights to Portugal…and a hotel in Greece

My geography is appalling so when it said somewhere on the website transport from airport to hotel would be provided I thought nothing of it. I’m
Still not quite sure how it happened but I’m banned from booking holidays now!

@liveforsummer and @GreenLunchBox How visible is the tattoo? It would be visible when wearing short-sleeved uniform shirt, unfortunately.

I spent £££ on a new pair of glasses. The prescription was not right, but the optician refused to believe me. I asked if I could have a second eye test with a different optician, but that was not allowed. The glasses did not fit properly and left a red ridge on my nose, which the optician insisted was normal. The optician insisted I paid for the glasses, so I had no choice but to fork out. I refused to take the glasses home and asked them to put them in their donation box.

The optician was so rude to me, I just could not face going back to the shop.

Changed my car for one two years newer. I basically wanted the same car but newer. However, we didn’t really look at the new car properly. Just kind of assumed it was the same and had the same gadgets.

Got it home and after driving for a week, hated it and missed some gadgets the old one had and this one didn’t. Kept it 3 months and then changed it for something completely different. Lost about £000’s ☹️

My parents gave me £500 cash as a wedding present. It got mixed up with wrapping paper and envelopes and it got thrown out 😬

[quote supremelybaffled]**@liveforsummer* and @GreenLunchBox* How visible is the tattoo? It would be visible when wearing short-sleeved uniform shirt, unfortunately.[/quote]
Is it a job with an airline by any chance?

I thought I'd managed to get really cheap train tickets to go down to London from Manchester by myself for a few nights to see the Royal Academy exhibition and sightsee. Turned out I'd bought tickets for the opposite journeys, so EUS - MCR then MCR - EUS. The hotel and RA tickets couldn't be refunded and I couldn't change the train tickets so had to pay again for the correct trains

@MissMarplesGoddaughter I don't understand why you paid? You didn't get what you needed. They can't force you - you refuse to take the product as it is not 'not fit for purpose'. I'd have complained to someone senior.

We got a lovely shiney new to us car when I was 3 months pregnant as we needed something bigger to fit 3 child seats. I had to go to a different site for work meeting so had to drive and park in a multistorey. Traffic had been awful and the carpark was really full, but I managed to find a space next to a wall. I pulled in to the space, and realised there wasn't much room to get the door open, so tried to move the car a little. To this day I really don't understand how I did it, but I couldn't get the car out or in without getting closer and closer to the wall. Eventually I was so close I had scraped the whole side of the car and was panicking so much I couldn't even get out of the space at all. I ended up climbing out over the seats and calling my father in law, who didn't live far, and kindly came and got the car out of the space - I was so shaken up and in years by that time and had missed the meeting so just went home. The repaint job cost nearly £900 and to add insult to injury the parking cost me £5.50. Not my finest hour.

I had saved up to take my dd to Paris for her 16th birthday. I kept checking the flights and when they were at their lowest I hurriedly booked them whilst at work . Looked at my e mails few days later I realised I had spelt my own name wrong - my finger had slipped whilst booking and there was a random z in my name . The airline charged me £120 to change the name , I tried so hard to wriggle out of it and they were having none of it £120 for the letter z ! 😫

Was in a long que at boarding gate for a flight from New York back to London, was really thirsty so ran off to buy a bottle of water, was back within 8 minutes and that was still 12 minutes to Gate closing time. But the waiting area was empty and the gate closed! I was told that b/c all the passengers had boarded they are allowed to close the gate even before gate closing time! and the last bus to the airplane had left, no amount of pleading would help, I missed my flight!
I had to pay $1,500 for a new flight in order to get back in time for my sisters wedding!

That was the most expensive bottle of water anyone has ever bought!
Did try to complain to the airline and insurance company but sadly never managed to get anywhere....

Booked the wrong day for a theme park. 2-day tickets so cost approx £400 twice!

Scraped the side of my car along a wall. Put off the insurance claim for aaaages due to £900 excess. Thought fuck it, time to claim, then it was rejected because 2 years had elapsed . So had to pay £2000 for the work instead.

Ffs.

Put petrol in a diesel car and had to have it pumped out. £180 for the pumping, £30 of wasted petrol and £50 to fill up again with diesel.

Husband measured for blinds for patio doors, made to measure in frame kind. He gives me the measurements, I put them into website and double check with him.
He gave me the width in mm and the drop in cm, both should have been in mm……cue 16cm blinds rather than 160cm blinds. Still have them and had to but rhe right size!!

Not me but DH reversed into parked car last night. Other car owner needs dent removed and paint job, we’ll need a new bumper. Probably going to cost £500-600 or go through the hassle of insurers and excess. Expensive but these things happen. No point crying over spilt milk.

My first marriage / wedding. Within 1.5 years he was having an affair with a friend of mine. We split up and l divorced him

Flip side is we had made money on the house we bought and renovated. He tried to “buy me out” by offering me £5k and a knackered 8 year old car. I negotiated x11 times that in the divorce. Twat!

Rob Beckett calls these things idiot tax.
Every year you're allowed £1000 idiot tax.
If that makes you feel better?
I ordered made to measure blinds - 1 metre too short!

@EcoCustard

I ordered some expensive made to measure curtains however I put the wrong drop length in and ended up with curtains that dropped about 5cms from the pole. I cried a lot when I opened the box they arrived in. I ordered when I was 2 weeks post partum and suffering very much from sleep deprivation and brain fog. They cost about £140 non refundable, was gutted.

5cms from the pole? I'm imagining 10cm long curtains flapping about in the draft?!

DP once booked train tickets for 8am instead of 8pm. Or the other way round. Non-refundable, obviously.

This is all making me feel a lot better. I appear to have gone from being the adult-ier adult of the house to practically qualifying for care in the community and keep dropping balls on a daily basis.

Last weekend I took DC1 to swimming lesson and on to a birthday party. Pulled up at the nearest car park to party venue. Parked and strolled in. Bit distracted as we were running late due to swimming lesson but had checked with hosts in advance and wouldn’t cause a problem.

Except I forgot to pay for the parking. Got back to find a PCN notice. That’s £25. FFS. On the plus side, I brought the right child home in the right car, which is not a given at the moment.

@justtheonedc, I love the idea of idiot tax!

I've managed to book flights to Costa Rica using a BA voucher which I took when previous flights were cancelled and we were asked not to claim a refund to help the travel companies stay afloat

Due to an impending house move we will not be in a position to travel and it seems I am unable to get a further refund or reschedule the bastarding flights.

Over £2k.

And I get the added bonus of sitting at home when my flight is actually taking off too