Rip Off Britain

Why does everything here have to be such a rip off?

The other day, I was booking a ferry to Ireland. We saw that they accepted Tesco vouchers, which is great. We frequently get free trips to France using these vouchers.  It turns out that in order to pay with Tesco vouchers, you have to go to a special page to book your ticket.  This page is exactly the same as the other page, BUT THE PRICE IS %25 HIGHER.  If we had used our vouchers we would have ended up paying more and wasting all our vouchers! 
Needless to say, the whole purchase was littered with tricks to try to rip you off.  At one stage of the process you had to pick what kind of cabin you wanted, all options costing £80 or so.  Why do you need a cabin for a 3 hour ride in the middle of the day?  After some looking, I found the tiny hidden "skip" button only to go to a step where they tried to sell me "premium" seats for £17 each.  Then some worthless insurance, then breakdown cover. In the end, I had to get my wife to help me sort out what was reasonable. 

Why does everything have to be like that?

Why does everything here have to be such a rip off?

The other day, I was booking a ferry to Ireland. We saw that they accepted Tesco vouchers, which is great. We frequently get free trips to France using these vouchers.  It turns out that in order to pay with Tesco vouchers, you have to go to a special page to book your ticket.  This page is exactly the same as the other page, BUT THE PRICE IS %25 HIGHER.  If we had used our vouchers we would have ended up paying more and wasting all our vouchers! 
Needless to say, the whole purchase was littered with tricks to try to rip you off.  At one stage of the process you had to pick what kind of cabin you wanted, all options costing £80 or so.  Why do you need a cabin for a 3 hour ride in the middle of the day?  After some looking, I found the tiny hidden "skip" button only to go to a step where they tried to sell me "premium" seats for £17 each.  Then some worthless insurance, then breakdown cover. In the end, I had to get my wife to help me sort out what was reasonable. 

Why does everything have to be like that?

It's awful, isn't it?  EVERYTHING is like that.

Yup, you have to keep your wits about you all. the. time.

Got a car insurance renewal from Direct Line the other day, it was £450 for a year.  It went up a ton since I'd had a really dumb accident.  I was just about to renew with them when I thought it might be worth checking a price comparison website....found the same coverage for £220! 

Even stupider, my no claims discount went from 5 years to 3.  I had the accident this year!?!?!  What the hell is 3?  What do those numbers mean and why does an accident lower it by two?  If no claims is meant to be an industry wide way for insurance companies to judge risk, why can I pay extra to protect it? If I had paid these crooks more money, my no claims  bonus would still be 5 years.  Are they selling me permission to lie to other insurance companies?  It makes no sense!

I was renting a car here once, I'd bought 3rd party insurance not wanting to pay the outrageous prices at the place. They signed me up for it without telling me and I didn't notice until I returned the car and saw the bill was 3x what I expected. They only had me sign for the rental agreement with no mention of it. In the US that violates a number of consumer protection laws!

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Very naughty!

Got a car insurance renewal from Direct Line the other day, it was £450 for a year.  It went up a ton since I'd had a really dumb accident.  I was just about to renew with them when I thought it might be worth checking a price comparison website....found the same coverage for £220! 

Even stupider, my no claims discount went from 5 years to 3.  I had the accident this year!?!?!  What the hell is 3?  What do those numbers mean and why does an accident lower it by two?  If no claims is meant to be an industry wide way for insurance companies to judge risk, why can I pay extra to protect it? If I had paid these crooks more money, my no claims  bonus would still be 5 years.  Are they selling me permission to lie to other insurance companies?  It makes no sense!

I just renewed the car insurance this week.  It is shocking what they "offer"...

My wife’s niece parks her car on the street outside her house and last year it was hit while parked there by an ambulance. The ambulance company paid in full but a few months later on renewal they bumped up her premium a lot. Their excuse is that regardless of blame the stats show that the chances of a claim by her had now jumped significantly.

Why does everything here have to be such a rip off?

Why does everything have to be like that?

I know  the reason.

It's something many/most people won't really like to read/hear.

There's nuances to the reason and also interlinked aspects.

I've mentioned as to why on a few other threads on UKY!

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It's because manufacturers/importers/service industries/small to medium businesses know that many/vast majority of consumers will put significant/major/minor/every day expenses onto ..  a Credit Card. The UK's population 'mindset' isn't one of good financial planning/outlook/tracking, so prices are increased at each level prior to getting to the consumer. Add in other factors like Import Duty/VAT for goods/services coming into the UK, service/clearing/admin/governmental/council etc costs for domestic products/services - it becomes easier to see just how 'costs' at each stage are added. Some companies are more 'sneaky' than others, but on the whole - it's well known in higher levels of business/trade from around the world that 'UK pricing can be adjusted higher' as UK's consumers will 'just stick it on a credit card' (or other unsecured debt). Those higher costs are added and 'passed on' to consumers. Funnily enough, domestic UK businesses do the same....

Don't even get me started on that legal 'scam' that is 'car insurance'...

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Why does everything here have to be such a rip off?

The other day, I was booking a ferry to Ireland. We saw that they accepted Tesco vouchers, which is great. We frequently get free trips to France using these vouchers.  It turns out that in order to pay with Tesco vouchers, you have to go to a special page to book your ticket.  This page is exactly the same as the other page, BUT THE PRICE IS %25 HIGHER.  If we had used our vouchers we would have ended up paying more and wasting all our vouchers! 
Needless to say, the whole purchase was littered with tricks to try to rip you off.  At one stage of the process you had to pick what kind of cabin you wanted, all options costing £80 or so.  Why do you need a cabin for a 3 hour ride in the middle of the day?  After some looking, I found the tiny hidden "skip" button only to go to a step where they tried to sell me "premium" seats for £17 each.  Then some worthless insurance, then breakdown cover. In the end, I had to get my wife to help me sort out what was reasonable. 

Why does everything have to be like that?

My fiancé and I went to Belgium through France last summer, and we used the ferry to get across from Dover. I’m a bit fuzzy on all the details since he booked it, but he paid extra for a flex ticket in case we decided to return a bit earlier, thinking that extra covered us if we decided we wanted to get on an earlier ferry. Sure enough, day of traveling back, we wanted an earlier time so he rang up the ferry company to cash in that flex option he paid for. In reality all that did was make a slight dent in the price difference they wanted us to pay for the earlier ticket. What’s the point of paying extra for flexibility if they’re just gonna charge you the difference of a last minute ticket? Needless to say, we waited for the time we had booked and won’t be using the flex option next time we travel by ferry. Such a rip-off.

Ugh, I feel your pain Kay. I've never taken a ferry from Dover, always the tunnel.  They are totally cool with you being early or late, even by hours. They just put you on the next train.

Urgh. Don't save a few pounds by ordering a mattress online here. We ordered one not realising the newer model had hard buttons on it (the reason we were getting rid of ours plus the fact it offered no support) and when it was delivered they had all instances of the model number covered. We broke the plastic because it wasn't what we were expecting and thought they'd straight up delivered the wrong thing. They wouldn't let us refuse delivery because of a 6" tear in plastic to view the model. Now we are out the mattress we paid to recycle (they wouldn't give it back) and have to pay to return this one by courier. Beyond pissed.

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The mattress seller was acting illegally.  Online sales are subject to a 14 day return policy

https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

The mattress seller was acting illegally.  Online sales are subject to a 14 day return policy

https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

Oh, we know they were. I'll be filing many written complaints!

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Ugh, I feel your pain Kay. I've never taken a ferry from Dover, always the tunnel.  They are totally cool with you being early or late, even by hours. They just put you on the next train.

The overall experience was fine, but we found out the hard way that flexibility is expensive!