Rip-Off Report

Pardon me for a moment. I'm gonna use this blog post as an outlet to just vent about a whole bunch of financial frustration that's been building up at our house over the past several months. Don't mind me. I know it could be a whole lot worse than having to shell out buckets of money on a whole lot of stupid stuff, but it's really annoying that when we just start to feel like we're getting our financial feet under us, the whole world seems to be conspiring to keep us in debt. So here I go, digging up some old grudges and hashing the dirt on some recent financial grievances:

Special "Tourist" Price for Camera Equipment:
This is an old story, and I haven't written about it mainly because my blood still boils when I think of this day and this whole messy retail transaction. (I know, it's not healthy to hold a grudge for so long. I'm hoping that by typing it out and clicking "publish post", I'll finally be able to get over it and move on.) So, Justin and I were in Miami back in October. Justin was taking a dental CE class, and I had a day to kill. I had gone jogging that morning on the boardwalk, and wished that I had some kind of arm band for my iPhone so I could listen to music while I ran. As I wandered the streets of Miami Beach, I saw a little electronics store that I thought might carry just the type of arm band I was seeking. I went into the store and was met by a friendly foreigner named Kenny. He greeted me with a smile, asked what he could help me with, and I asked him if he had the iPhone arm band I was after. He didn't have it on the shelf, so he sent another salesman "upstairs" to get what I was looking for. Then Kenny, being the flattering salesman that he was, started asking me about the "very nice" camera I was carrying around my neck. He suggested that while I waited for the other salesman to come back with the arm band, he could show me a really cool lens filter for my camera. He demonstrated how the fancy polarized lens filter reduces glare, protects my lens, actually saves me money in the long run, blah blah blah. I totally bought the pitch and shelled out 100 bucks for the filter. No, I hadn't a clue what a lens filter should cost. I just figured camera equipment is expensive, and if I want to protect my lens, this is what I would have to pay. Well, when I got back to my hotel room, I decided to do some research and found that the exact same lens filter was on Amazon.com for $34!!! Furious, I immediately called the store and wanted to know why their price was so much higher. Kenny's only explanation was "you're in Miami Beach so of course it's going to cost more. We can't compete with online prices." I told him I didn't like paying 3 times as much as I had to for a product and he told me "no refunds". I argued and asked to speak to the store owner. Kenny wouldn't budge and told me the store owner is in Japan. There was nothing he could do for me. He even told me I should have researched before I bought the product and that now I know better than to buy from his store anymore. He very calmly told me in his debonaire voice, "You've learned a very valuable lesson. Next time you'll research the product before you buy it. Don't worry. You won't make this mistake again next time." Grrrr! Are you kidding me?!? What a SLEEZE!!! I tell you, my blood still boils when I think about it, and I can hardly stand to use my camera anymore because it reminds me of the stupid lens filter that I paid 3 times too much for. Lame. Lame. Lame!!!

An Offer I Can Absolutely Refuse:
We had our Lake Ozark house on the market for six months with a Realtor. In that time, we had probably 3 showings on the house. Towards the end of our listing agreement, we received an offer from a "buyer", who also happened to be the parents of our Realtor's boyfriend. The couple was "very interested" in the property, and wanted to buy it, only their credit wasn't good enough to qualify for a home loan at the time. They were confident that in another two years, their credit would be better, and they'd be able to buy the house. So, in the mean time what they wanted to do was lease the house from us for less than the price of our mortgage payment with $500 of the rent going toward their offered purchase price of $375,000...$14,900 less than what we were asking. So, basically, they wanted us to pay for them to live in our house for two years so that they could buy it for less than the list price...oh yeah, and they wanted us to throw our dining room and ping pong tables into the deal. Woah. I mean, sure, I know it's a buyer's market, but come on!!! Needless to say, we didn't accept the offer, or renew our listing contract with that Realtor.

Just Poopy:
Shortly after moving into our new place, we noticed a problem with the septic system. I'm not 100% clear on how the whole septic thing works, but somehow some pipe wasn't long enough to accommodate the amount of septic usage our family was flushing into it, so we had a big soggy mess running down our hill where the pipe ended. We paid someone to come out and lay a bunch more pipe, supposedly fixing the problem...only now we notice that the same soggy mess is running down the hill in the same place it was before, so no, the problem is NOT solved.

Real Smooth Realtor:
A few months ago, we received a call from one of our old neighbors from Lake Ozark. The guy is a Realtor, and was asking if our house at the Lake is still for sale. (We had let our contract expire with the original listing, lowered the price, and had it listed online as "for sale by owner") We told him it was for sale, and he said he had a buyer who he thought would be very interested. We were prepared to work with a buyer's agent, and expected that since we had the house "for sale by owner", we would pay 3% commission to anyone who brought us a buyer. That wasn't what this guy had in mind, however. He wanted me to sign a contract that made him the representative for the buyer and seller, giving him a full 6% commission after not even listing or advertising the house at all. Ummmm...anyone else see something wrong with this? I told him no thanks.

What in the Blazing Keywords?!?:
Back in May, Justin's brother was looking for work. He was living at our house, and searching online for jobs. He came across an ad from Google offering an info. packet for a work-at-home job. The packet cost $ .99 to order. My bro-in-law didn't have a credit card of his own at the time, so we let him borrow ours to order the info. packet. The packet never came. My brother-in-law found another job. We all but forgot about the transaction. Over the next 8 months, our credit card incurred multiple unrecognized charges from multiple companies. The charge amounts were the same each month, but the company names listed on the credit card statements kept changing. Charges for $72.21 showed up from "Google Genie", "Blazing Keywords", and "Online Services". Charges for $38.34 showed up from "Web Services", "ECO Career Help", "Products Resource", "DCY Grants", and "Grants 4 Us". Charges for $29.90 showed up from "ID PowerSafe", "Credit-4-Me", and "Access Member Area". I didn't notice the charges at first, because I didn't know to even look for them, and the names kept changing so I didn't know they were all related. Finally, after calling the numbers listed on my credit card statements, I came to realize they were all linked back to that $ .99 info packet that my brother-in-law ordered and never received. Over the past 8 months, we have incurred a total of $859.58 of unauthorized transactions on our credit card, all stemming from the "work at home" online scam. I've since canceled my credit card, and am filing disputes on all of the charges. The credit card company can only charge-back on transactions less than 90 days old, so there's no guarantee I'll be able to get my money back on everything, but they're "doing what they can".

The $7500 Bathtub:
The shower in our bathroom was a small, stand-up stall that leaked constantly. We wanted something bigger, with a tub, that didn't leak. We called on an old friend who had dome some construction work for us at our Lake Ozark house. We asked him estimate how much a prefabricated shower would cost vs. a tile wall shower. He estimated $1,100-$1,500. We thought the price was reasonable, so we scheduled the remodel to take place while we took our family on a 7-day cruise, hoping that when we got home the work would be done and we wouldn't have to go without a shower. The job took a few days longer than anticipated, but within two or three days after getting home, we had a nice, tile shower with a tub in our bathroom. Then we got the bill...for $7,500!!! What the...?? At first we thought it must be a typo. Surely, the "7" was meant to be written as a "1". Justin called to ask the guy, who confirmed that the price truly was meant to say $7,500. We were floored!!! How in the world could a bathtub cost $7,500??? When we asked about his original quote of $1100-$1500, he claimed that he was estimating the difference in cost between a pre-fab shower and a tile one. He had never given us a full estimate for the full job because we never asked for one. Ummmm...seriously? We had two other contractors come look at the job, and they both confirmed that $1500 should've taken care of the work. I'm still dumbfounded. Still not sure how exactly to settle with this guy, but I can tell you we won't be having him over for dinner anytime soon.

The Damn Dam:
About the same time we had our septic system "fixed", we noticed a large sink hole in our lake's dam. We had someone come with a tractor and patch it up. Then this past week, the sink hole was back...only much bigger this time around. Come to find out, this has been a recurring problem on this property for several YEARS, and it is caused by a bad drainage pipe running through the dam. The previous owners just kept patching the sink hole every time it happened, without ever fixing the actual cause of the problem. We had a couple of dam experts come take a look at the problem today. They estimated that the cost to really fix the actual problem with the dam would be around $25,000. I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Seriously? Would it be that bad to just let the lake erode the dam away, flood the neighbor's property and house next door, and leave a huge, 5-acre pit in our front yard? Isn't there some way we can ask the previous owners to help pay for the dam repair? Shouldn't they have disclosed the fact that there was a dam problem on the property before we bought it? So, so, SO ANNOYING!!!

Like I said, I know it could be a whole lot worse. I'm very fortunate to be blessed with a hard working husband who makes a good living, and provides very well for our wants and needs. I shouldn't even be complaining since he's the one who's really gotta come up with the dough to pay for all of this junk. But once again, I'm the one with the blog, and I can think of about a million other things I'd rather do with Justin's hard-earned money than give it away to dishonest salesmen, contractors, realtors and online scam artists. I guess the best thing to do, is just take smooth Kenny's advice and "never make that mistake again." Sometime's life's lessons are just expensive. Now I know that I'll never again buy camera equipment unless I know how much it's supposed to cost, and definitely never from any place that offers "no refunds". I'll always get a written estimate on a job before I have it done. Next time I buy a house with a lake (pretty safe to say that's never gonna happen, but nonetheless), I'll make sure and get the dam professionally inspected. And if my brother-in-law ever needs to buy something online, even for .99, and doesn't have a credit card of his own, I'll tell him to go to Wendy's and pick up a job application.