Posted on 09/05/2013 10:13:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Hard work and smarts do get you ahead. But not everybody plays fair.
People frequently bend or break the rules to their advantage and don't get caught. A recent Reddit thread asked for the best unethical life hacks people use to save money or get ahead. We've picked some of the most fascinating and devious examples.
These hacks are uniformly unethical. Some veer into fraud. They should be regarded as informational and for entertainment purposes rather than as actual suggestions. You shouldn't do them.
Via Reddit user the_girl:
"Whenever I go to a big chain movie theater, I get my tickets from those electronic kiosks they have at the front, and I buy the child's price tickets. They're way cheaper.
"I'm always prepared to say, "Oops, did I buy a kid's ticket by accident? Sorry!" if I ever get caught, but I've done this at least a dozen times and have never been called on it."
Via Reddit user Norwegian_Blue:
"Never tell vendors for your wedding that you're hiring them for a wedding. It's an event or reunion. Big price difference."
Via Reddit user Cysurflex:
"Make an appointment for the DMV for two weeks from today online (or whenever its available). Save the confirmation page as PDF or HTML or JPG. Modify the date to todays date and the time to right now with Photoshop or edit the HTML with a text editor or whatever you're most comfortable with.
"Walk into the DMV past all the sorry people waiting hours directly to the 'appointment line'. Get served in under 5 minutes.
"Done this multiple time, it works. Sometimes they say 'oh, you're not in the computer, weird. Doesn't matter - our system always screws up. Go ahead.'"(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
As someone who has had people try that trick with me re music at a wedding - by the way, no one ever succeeded - it’ s a crappy thing to do and when it backfires, because I catch the lie, the would-be perpetrator looks like a jerk, and also loses my services, because I don’t do business with lying sc*mb*gs.
An old boss of mine and I were doing some work in the night in a major city. He thought we would get better data by putting some dynamite in the river, inspite of not having the proper permits (not like they would have allowed it anyway). He put on his hard hat and safety vest to look official - although nobody was around.
We were wrong. Just on the other side of the bushes from the river (and explosion) were two security guards for the city park. We noticed them when they shouted “What the F*(&^ was THAT!!”.
My boss calmly walked around the bushes and explained that we were doing a study for the city.
“Oh - okay then.”
This is clearly a transaction with both parties better off.
The bank earns interest on what is pretty much a risk free loan and the woman saved money on parking fees.
bump
“If you look like you know what you’re doing, no one will bother you.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
That basically still works....try it in a ‘big box’ store, go around looking like you are lost or looking for something and ‘they’ avoid you like the plague.
Act like you are in full stride, heading in a direction with confidence and you are most likely to have at least one person ask if ‘they can help you’.
That may also have something to do with age also as NO ONE wants to deal with the ‘doddering old fool’.
It used to be— before Clinton and Timothy McVeigh— a middle aged white guy with a clipboard and a SCOWL could have access to most anywhere in any large city.
The two above just brought out the fact that just because you have an education and/or a vet doesn’t necessarily make you a ‘nice guy’ -— a status us ‘nice guy, educated, Vets’ enjoyed at one time.
Buying children’s tickets for movies should allow most movie goers to retire and live in luxury by the age of 40. Today I am going to go buy at least a few hundred children’s movie tickets. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?
I deal with banks a lot, and the best way to get through the phone tree is simply select the “open a new account” option and wing it from there. The phone is answered by a live human immediately, and they’ll usually send you to a live person instead of the phone tree that warned you of a twenty minute wait due to high call volume.
My personal least favorite aspect of the phone tree is when they start it off by claiming my call is very important to them, and that the tree is there to improve service.
No, it isn’t, or they’d have a human pick up the phone. Which is, as you say, what they do when they think it might really be an important call for them.
And no, it’s not. The tree is there to save them money.
Yes, I’m not a fan of the trees; they haven’t improved our lives while they do improve the bottom lines of companies. The worst aspect I deal with is when the phone message encourages email instead. I’ve had foreign banks take over a week to respond to requests for information necessary for funds transfers; no way to do business today.
I've never seen a DMV with so few people in it! Should be standing room only.
Also, yes, a clipboard and a suit in some situations, or a clipboard, work clothes, and a helmet in others. The secret to looking like you belong. A walkie talkie helps, too, with an occasional fake transmission.
Bm
And it works. When my Comcast Cable bill hit $132 per month for basic cable and internet, I went in person to pay my bill at their office and told them to disconnect my cable, that I would get Direct T.V. and D.S.L. internet.
They fell all over themselves to give me the same service for $69 per month for 6 months and then $79 per month thereafter.
By the way, my threat to change providers wasn't a bluff, I was fully prepared to do it.
I remember a homeless guy with a suit and a briefcase, but some kind of drug shakes, sitting down at our company’s two-day conference in a luxury hotel—trying to pass, if you will. Security had to discreetly escort him out.
“Usually an actual human being will answer within a minute or so”
They are catching on to this one. More and more are switching you back to the main menu to force you to make a choice. I think I’ll try the Spanish option next.
I did the same with DirecTV. So they offered two months of free movie channels.
I accepted. Received a new contract agreement in the mail a few days later, which was very long, small print, and detailed. Didn’t read it.
Decided to cancel my subscription a few weeks later and found out the ‘free’ extra channels were free only if I signed for another year, as described in that long new agreement they sent me.
Wouldn’t let me out without paying for those channels I never used (I thought I would, but didn’t). Said they would simply turn it over to a collection agency.
That’s how they treat 10 year, loyal, pay on time, high monthly payments, customer. I’d sent them thousandsover the years, but they’d be damned if they would overlook $100 for something I hadn’t used.
Hell will freeze over before I do business with them again.
I suggest that unless you enjoy being financially screwed over, don’t do business with DirecTV.
“Never tell vendors for your wedding that you’re hiring them for a wedding. It’s an event or reunion. Big price difference.”
Sounds like a good, solid way to start a life together, screw over the people with a lie as you take an oath before God.
Seesh.
We cancelled them years ago. For nearly a year, they called weekly, offering discounted bundles that were still full of channels we never watch and had 2 year commitments. We just stopped picking up the phone. Since then, we receive mailers offering the same discounted bundles w/commitments. Don’t even open them anymore.
We are old. Time flies by. We don’t worry if we have to wait a season to get a movie or series on disc or via streaming. We pay under $17/month for one DVD at a time and unlimited streaming. We watch 1-2 hours of TV a day, maybe and sometimes on weekends or holidays we do a 3 hour marathon of a series we like. News channels, even local ones, have clips on Roku, vodcasts or podcasts. Internet fills in the gaps.
We will never subscribe to sat TV again.
Phone companies are just as bad - all of them. They lie about what it will cost, how much rebate you will get, charges they will defray,etc.
I’ve had dealings with most of the big name phone companies since 1990, they are all rotten to the core.
There’s a reason that Verizon has a full time security guard in their local office, they piss off everybody.
Sprint occasionally sends me bills for around $200 that they say I owe them from 10 years ago, I do not owe and I’ve told them to k.m.a.
I always thought they had to give up after 7 years but apparently not. I don’t get a bill as often as I used to though, a couple of times a year. I just toss them in the round file.
Film?
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