What's the most ripped off you have ever felt?

[coulditbeme2323]

Now I don't mean something that was expensive but you really enjoyed, but where you felt ripped off.

I'll start.

26 euros for two Sprite's in Paris.

And this was circa 2014.

Wasn't in Barnsley was it? 😬

Took the children to a charity circus, bought loads of snacks and extras inside. As we were leaving they had people on the door making balloon models. Youngest asks if she can have one and daddy says yes. Other children all perk up and request one too. Then when they're all made I find out they're £5 each. So £20 on four balloons, three of which popped before we'd got into the car.

pumpkin picking
£28 entry/£30 on pumpkins
so £60 to look around a muddy field trying to find pumpkins that aren’t half eaten or rotten get 2 medium sized 3 small

have to chuck away a couple of pairs of shoes because they are so caked in mud there is no coming Back
so add another £40 for binned footwear

oh and then the promised trip to Costa after to bribe Everyone to go in the first place for this lovely experience £25

and if you’re really lucky like me
you’ll find the pumpkins you forgot to take out of the boot rotting a week later
and have to spend money on getting the car cleaned so you don’t gag

I fell for a dropshipping ad and bought a "therapy swing" and door fitting for my autistic son for over £100. It arrived and is was a length of cheap polyester fabric and a flimsy bar for pull-ups. Would've cost £40 to send it back to Hong Kong and I didn't want to be even more out of pocket. Tried it once carefully and it fell of the frame with my kid in it.

I took my 5 year old daughter for a haircut, stylist asked if I wanted a french plait put on, I got charged an extra £8 for the plait.

Taxi from the airport to our hotel in Kyiv - we went to the taxi rank, he took us to our hotel and it worked out at about £115. When we were going back to the airport a few days later, our hotel receptionist ordered us an Uber…£30.

Legoland Windsor. Took DD about 9 years ago.

Overpriced, absolute dump, dirty, chaotic queueing that meant that the only way to get on some rides was the £££ fast pass thing and the water park was closed....in August. DD was too little to notice at 6, but I felt totally ripped off as had to travel quite a way and spend a lot for a hotel.

Felt the same about Disney Paris, although that was compounded by the eyewateringly rude staff. That was a fair few years ago too so one hopes that both places have improved since then.

It’s actually my fault because I didn’t check the price or even say anything when I found out but about 3-4 years ago I was at those markets you get in shopping centres and there was a stall from France that sold olives. I got a tub of them, nothing too huge and it cost me £15!! They weren’t even that nice!

Took my kids to CW about 23 ish years ago it was great. Loads of free chocolate, stuff to do etc. Suspect that like a lot of things it has just been left to rot whilst also becoming a cash grab (see my comments about Disneyland Paris and Legoland Windsor).

ETA that I now avoid anything owned by Merlin as it seems to be across the board with them not spending anything whilst expecting customers to spend ££££

I swerved being ripped off in a charity shop, in a reasonably posh area, which sounds dreadful, but I pretty much only buy from charity shops, and generally don't mind if something is a bit more expensive for a good cause and it ticks my boxes.....

Found a really cute Zara dress for about a tenner, then was chuffed to find a pair of shoes, barely worn but not brand new, in a comfort style I favour given my middle aged feet, that went really well with the dress. Wasn't wearing my reading glasses and misread the price tag as 4.99 - which I appreciate was totally on me. When the assistant rang up the total and it was nearly 60.00 altogether, I was mortified - shoes were actually 49.99. I didn't actually have enough to cover it, so had to put the shoes back. I appreciate they were a good brand, but I thought nearly 50.00 quid when they were on sale elsewhere brand new for around 70.00 was a bit much. It was the look of combined disdain and pity that sent me slinking out with my tail between my legs.

Every time I do my gluten free shop 😫

My sister and I had a similar experience in a "posh" charity shop. Everything wildly over priced. She saw a dress she liked and it was priced at £40, so we googled it and it was currently on sale for something like £30, wasnt even a particularly lah de dah brand, cant remember but imagine something like M&S level. We saw a lot of people looking at things and then the price tag and then leaving. Can't imagine it will be around for long!

The ones that gall me most are those that involve my own stupidity.

In Malaga I got stung at fish restaurant in Pedregalejo in 2002. The prices were all reasonable and it was busy with locals. The waiter suggested I try their seabass baked in salt and I agreed without checking the price, something I’d normally do. I can’t remember how much it was now but it was extortionate and I’d been stitched up like a kipper.

The cartons of room temperature water at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in April were $24 each. Despite a 15 hour journey and it being 3.00 am UK time I took the long walk back to the reception to ask for complementary water and the next day we stocked up at the CVS store. I’d rather die of thirst than pay that.

This made me laugh! Yes, at that price you’d hope she’d have been propped up on satin pillows in bed with minions dancing in attendance like a feline Barbara Cartland.

I think that this is the difference...."I would rather die of thirst than pay that"

Talking to some friends just today who went through THAT airport in Turkey a couple of weeks ago. 4 beers and two bowls of fries.....£65. I said that I would rather have gone without and they said that it was just easier to pay it than wait until they were on the flight. So they were happy to pay for convenience. Not me! I currently earn NMW, no way in HELL am I working 5 hours to pay for 4 beers and two bowls of fries! We got into it because I asked if the Maccies there really is as expensive as people say and she said that yes it was but there was still a big queue. Nope, sorry, wouldnt do that!

Ooh, I remember staying at a hotel or B&B in a mediocre little English town by the sea. Southwold?
It was me, my ex-husband and our very young daughter. They told us they were upgrading our room. It had a double bed and a single. They tried to charge us extra in the morning for using the single bed, as they’d have to make it up again! Bonkers. I guess they expected our daughter to sleep in with us!

£550 to replace BFs lock on the day he moved into a rental property a couple of years ago.

I'd shut the door behind us, not having a key on me and not realising it was an automatic locking mechanism that couldn't be opened from the outside (it looked like a normal UPvC door with a standard lock!)

Worst of all, the key was in the lock on the inside of the door so we couldn't open it with the spare from the agent and the locksmith couldn't push it out.

Argghhh!

£30 for a small glass of house wine and a pint in Norway.

Re-mortgaged the house to avoid bankruptcy.

What was the price for a non-constpated cat? 🙀

Turkish airport pricing is bizarre. I took my last £30 of Turkish Lira and sad we’d use it up at the airport for coffee and a sandwich each for my group of three. You’d think £30 would be plenty for three coffees and three sandwiches in an airport coffee shop in a generally lower cost country. I was short about £8.

16 euros for a glass of Prosecco in Dublin

€9 for a macdonalds meal in dalman Airport 2013

€4 loaf of standard brown bread Cyprus 2008

$25 (£25) for a large half salt beef bagel (so $50 for a whole bagel) in NYC 2023 dollar pound parity at the time but the sandwich was pricey! There were many rip off moments on that and another US holiday disney in 2022.

That was decent value, especially the Xrays

Remember getting in a yellow cab in Cairo, before we realised uber was cheaper and nicer cars. How much to hotel, £100, we looked at him and he said ‘ok, £50’…carried on looking and it came down to £5, with a smile and a shrug. Most entertaining ride as he’d no idea where our hotel was, had to keep stopping to ask, while rattling off premier league football stats and feeding us endlessly. Ubers were more reliable but nowhere as entertaining.

I recall being charged 40 francs for a pot of tea in Paris in the mid 90’s. I think this was the equivalent of about £5. I’ve never got over it.