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 ...
"When you are calling a utility/customer service number, and you need to speak to someone but receive an automated menu prompt, choose the Spanish option, then press "0"."Multiple benefits here. More often than not, they do not hire reps that only speak Spanish - they will most likely be bilingual, and will handle overflow calls in English anyway. Second, Spanish speakers are less common in India, so the Spanish speaking call-centers are usually located in the US - so when you get the rep, you will not have to deal with language barriers often encountered with the Indian reps. In addition, the wait is usually not as long."
I find it interesting these were gleaned from Reddit.
What’s wrong with the wedding trick? How are you under any obligation to describe your event to a contractor, other than what they need to do? The cable TV ploy is just negotiation.
How do they figure this is “getting ahead in life” ? It’s sinking into a cess pit.
They thought Voting for Obama was “getting ahead in life”.
Well, Obama got ahead in life, the rest of us not so much.
I think I missed the one where you run for political office , lie like hell to get elected and then screw the electorate for every penny legal and illegal you can.
One cheat I heard about, in the form of a joke, but I think it would work.
This New York woman walks into a bank and asks to borrow $30,000, so she could go to Europe for a couple of weeks, then she would pay it back when she returned. The bank manager asked her what collateral she had and she took him outside to show him her Lamborghini. The bank manager agreed to the loan and when she signed the loan, she gave him her keys and the manager parked the car in the bank parking lot.
A couple weeks later, the woman returns and pays off the loan, as well as the couple hundred in interest. The bank manager asked why she borrowed the money if she was able to,pay it back,so quick. Her response was, “Paying interest on that loan was cheaper than paying for parking for those couple of weeks.”
I think the customer is screwing himself with the Wedding trick. One of the reasons Weddings cost more is because they require different preparations (A lot more film, multiple cameras, extra lenses, an assistant), so having a surprised photographer could lead to disappointing results. Too many Reddit types think the photographer is ripping them off because he charges more for the weddings. It’s as if profit margin has nothing to do with it.
It’s similar to pissing off the people who serve you food, if you know what I mean. You may manage to swing “savings,” but your could be unhappy with what you pay for.
Have never actually done this, but you can do the same at lots of places for a full hot breakfast, especially if you wear a suit.
Wear a suit and you can probably eat for free at most hotel restaurants. Just charge it to your room. I don't think I've ever been asked for ID in 30 years.
Most hotel convention centers you could also walk into events and get in line at buffets and such. Most such events nobody is really paying attention or taking tickets, etc. The bigger the event the better. Same probably applies for large wedding, etc.
Deliberately underestimating the specifications for the contract as a means of securing a lower bid is certainly unethical. Unless you are a wedding photographer, you are not an expert on what the contractor "needs to know."
Some of these are very interesting.
Nothing.
Actually, there is a website devoted to evading phone trees: gethuman.com. It was created as a hack by the one of the founders of kayak.com.
They forgot one of the more important ones:
If you’re fast approaching your deadline for an article submission, and you have nothing whatsoever to submit to your editor due to the fact that you’ve been surfing facebook and reddit all day rather than actually working, you can just pick an interesting thread from an internet discussion page, add some stock photos, properly attribute every comment, and make it seem like you did some work today.
Penny ante small stuff.
If you want a step bigger in illegal scams, watch “environmental” groups sue the EPA, which then deliberately loses the trial... so that the corrupt judge can then issue a court order to the government to “correct” a wrong that Congress specifically didn’t fund.
Or just hang on without pressing any buttons. Usually an actual human being will answer within a minute or so, much faster than if you dive into the phone tree.
And it's not even unethical. Just weird.
What Jon Corzine did is worse than what Bernie Madoff did (after all, Bernie's clients should have known he was up to no good; that's not the case with Corzine). But Corzine has a D after his name.
This really works.
I do inspections in buildings. In operating businesses, I can walk in carrying a clipboard and tools, and start cutting holes in the walls. Maybe one time in ten somebody will ask for authorization. This includes hospitals and areas where presumably security is an issue.
Remember the saying “What would the world be like if everybody did what I do?” Also if they ran a business, they would be very forgiving of customers pulling fast ones to save a few pennies, right?
I used to live in a rooming house with a guy(heroin/methadone addict) who claimed that he always filled a bulk coffee bag at Safeway with a more expensive bean than what he wrote on the outside if the bag. He was getting EBT, so the taxpayers were paying for it anyway.
Now I have to confess that I hate to buy movie theatre food. When I used to go to the Seattle International Film Festival, I would often have a Dicks hamburger in my purse. And if you are from Seattle, your mouth is watering ready.
If you do nothing they assume you’re on an old rotary, therefore cannot navigate the tree. It’s a good shortcut. I really never thought of diving into the Spanish version in order to land in a US based call center.
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