A thread for everyone who’s made an expensive mistake recently

[Forgottenmyphone]

Just mucked up with our holiday booking, and it’s cost us a few hundred. I’m so annoyed with myself as we were literally scraping the top end of our budget without this mistake.

please share your recent expensive mistakes to help make me feel better! Or at least help me get things in perspective!

Go on to the National Savings website. NS will have a record. My wife had some from the 1950s. We were able to reactivate the account quite easily.

Try searching on this site https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/

Bought a stupidly expensive new rug for a room we were renovating, didn’t open it as the building work overran.

finally opened it, realised it looks too small even though I taped out the space. Tried to send it back, customs stopped it and sent it back to me by which point it was over the returns period.

It’s sat in its box and has been for weeks because I’m too angry to order the right size one and I can’t find anyone to buy this one second hand 🤣

Recently paid a lot to have a new patio installed, along with some other garden updates. We’re unhappy with an aspect of it and it’s going to cost about £3,000 to fix it!

Brought new washing machine. Didn't fit it for over a year because new kitchen was delayed. When it was fitted part of it was broken and it was out of warranty.

AA autorenewed at great expense.
I had a note in my diary to leave them and rejoin a day later but forgot. Over £100!
I have now turned off autorenew, which was so easy feat.

You’d be in grace period to cancel

Just fyi, @Unmotivatedteen

Time limit: An unexpired, unopened pen can be kept out of the fridge at room temperature (up to 30°C / 86°F) for up to 21 days.

Time limit: You can store an opened or currently in-use Mounjaro pen at room temperature (up to 30°C or 86°F) for up to 30 days.

Last year. Super super organised and had everything down to a t for our jet 2 hol. Cases packed and good to go, like you top end of what we could afford. Marked in diary Wed am flight 7.30am. On Tues as I was sorting last bits at home had email from Jet 2 confirming we were a no show for our Tues 7.30 flight, it was a package hol and it still makes me feel sick thinking about it. My DF had suddenly passed away a few weeks before and my head had just been all over the place. Jet 2 said nothing they could do. insurance didn’t cover it as it was of course my own fault. Kids really upset. I cried on the phone to jet 2 and insurance co!

in end I contacted hotel direct who agreed to shift the booking on a day but we lost the flight price and had to rebook flights for the following day from the only airport we could find (at our cost). Upwards of £1k as school hols. Am so embarrassed I’ve not told many people IRL. So so stupid of me. But hope this makes you feel better!

I bought new wallpaper, paint, cushions, throw, curtains for the living room etc. Loved it all. Now when we’re supposed to be decorating, I’ve changed my mind and hate everything I’ve bought. It’s too late for refunds/exchanged.

Paid for a job before they'd finished it.
They didn't finish it and were never seen again. Took them to small claims court and they had moved premises and slightly changed the name so I never got the costs awarded to me.
I gave cash to one of the workmen for materials to do a different job that hadn't been included and never saw him again either.
Arseholes. Paid thousands for it all. It must be about 15 years ago now and I'm still pissed off about the bastards

I somehow forgot I had £100 in vouchers and they are now not usable. I’m so angry with myself.

I was selling some land with planning permission. It was under offer for quite a while, while some things went through on the buyers side. I forgot to submit the documents needed to extend the planning permission, so it has now lapsed.

Land is now worthless. Planning department won’t grant permission again (for complicated reasons). £100k mistake 😥

These are making me feel so much more human.

I organised a trip of a lifetime to Disneyland Paris back when it was the end of Covid. My two daughters were little and I found a really good deal with a well known company.

Booked it told my husband started paying it off monthly as we didn’t have tonnes of money at the time.

The original flights we had booked got cancelled but the company didn’t bother to tell me I would have to rebook them myself (no refund given either and all emails from them ended up in my junk mail so never seen) nothing on the payment portal to show new flights needing to be booked etc.

When there was about a month to go I had it all planned for my daughters birthday I was going to surprise her on her 6th birthday, bought little Disney scratch cards etc and some merchandise for the trip.

Anyway once I had paid the full balance I hadn’t heard much and wanted to check in online. Airline didn’t have a booking for us, none of the booking references worked so I rang up the holiday company to check, thinking it would be a small error and easily fixed. Nope. They said the flights had been cancelled some
Time ago and they didn’t rebook flights so now we had basically lost the booking if we couldn’t find new flights (and pay within two weeks) we didn’t have the money to pay for them so we lost our entire booking. No dream trip. Thank god I didn’t tell my girls. I have a horrible memory of me crying on the phone to the company on the school run. I was totally heartbroken and about £1000 down.

I still think I could have got some money back but I had small kids and was so emotionally drained by it all in the end I just left it…

I will never ever use that company again now…

I lost £2.5k a few years ago. Was making a holiday booking, checked all the details twice, went back to change something in the booking and it changed the date, it had one of those spinning wheels for the date, and it had reset itself. I realised within 30 seconds and rang customer services but they refused to do a damn thing, and wanted to charge £1000 to change the date. When Thomas Cook went bust a couple of years later I wasn’t exactly sorry (sympathy for those who lost their jobs though)

The guy who put my kitchen in gave me a telling off for paying him the day before he finished. 'Don't EVER do that etc etc.' I know he's reasonably honest and wouldn't rip me off but I wouldn't do it again.

The original flights we had booked got cancelled but the company didn’t bother to tell me I would have to rebook them myself (no refund given either and all emails from them ended up in my junk mail so never seen) nothing on the payment portal to show new flights needing to be booked etc.

how could the company have rebooked flights without finding out what was suitable for you @Blondemacaroni ?

I may owe you that drink lol
I'll give that a look
Thank you

Thomas cook still exists?

We already have that with goose down
I love the colour but it's just too light
Thank you though

I did the same with some curtains for our old house. It wasn't even a funny shaped window, just very long.

Ours cost about the same. I ended up giving them to a friend as I hated them so much and was resentful at the cost.
She loved them! Cost me £400 😫

So we adopted 2 house cats earlier this year. A week later our very elderly cat was put down. Got in touch with Pet plan to let them know old cat has gone and we have two nee ones.
Person on phone took basic details, and said "We will get back to you to arrange cover".
I should have got back to them but didn't, one of those things that I was meaning to do. Besides they were confined to the house what could go wrong??
Well adult sons left the small upstairs toilet window open and the door ajar. Female cat climbs out of window and lands on paved patio below below.
She broke her metatarsal!!!
She had no insurance cover, it hadn't been put in place.
£1350 later she is now recovered.
Lesson learnt, very expensive lesson.

Lent a friend (inverted commas!) £7,500 in Feb, for 'two weeks'.

Nope, not had a penny back. Bastard. I'm going to have to cash in some premium bonds this month to pay for my holiday.

Take them out that week!
Wouldn’t normally do that but in this case I would as genuine mistake -other parents also probably from into that trap.

Our last holiday cost over £800 extra because of a mistake the agent made but we made a mistake thinking we'd get it back. Our next holiday is going to be £1300 more expensive because of something that changed that we didn't take into account and now we have to fork out that or lose the holiday. Making a mistake sucks 😞