Hoodwinked @ MindSay

Hey all…

I don’t know if age makes you wiser…or just a little more irritable when it comes to those who try to pull a fast one on you.  To get the wool pulled over your eyes, to get hoodwinked, to get some super-duper sales pitch from the semi-professional sales associate in the electronics department of your local big box mart, so on and so forth, etc. etc….. Why can’t I just get what I asked for without getting a list of reasons that I am going to have to have all of the accessories for my new gizmo?  Sure, I know that there is suggestive sales when it comes time to make your purchase…can’t buy that new ceiling fan without getting new light bulbs for it, can you?  You mean I can’t buy a $100 car stereo without having to buy a new dash mounting kit, a new wiring harness and hook up, an antenna hook up, speaker wiring harnesses…so now my $100 stereo is really going to cost me well over $200?  Uhem…perhaps I will just keep my factory AM/FM with 8-track stereo instead.

I do know that there are many shady deals done at the expense of the un-aware customer.  Heck, I’ve seen first hand how the old “bait and switch” slight of hand has been cause for feathers getting ruffled.  Of course if you have seen Fargo then you had seen a good example of this when Jerry Lundegaard was throwing in the super under coating without the customers knowing about it…then billing them for a service or item that they did not want.  That sure is some good true coat…isn’t it Jerry?

Now, I know that there are professionals out there that have rates and fees that are proportional to the time that they spent in graduate school and that is reflected in the bills that they send out.  I have no quarrels when it comes time to pony up for services that meet or exceed my expectations by any professional.  My concern, is when you are referred to this person or that person and they may (or may not) be able to assist you with your needs.  How convenient is that!  It just so happens that in this specific situation revolves around one doctor making a referral for another doctor.  Ah, well it would seem that nothing could really be done to help out by doc number two, but he can refer you to another who might be able to lend a hand.  It just seems that when the bill comes, there would be some sort of justification for the amount that was billed by said doctor number two. Again, time is money…I guess the five or ten minutes I spent with them was well worth expense…well, maybe not.  If you really didn't do anything, shouldn't your bill be a little more in line with that?  Well, huh?  Perhaps doc number three or specialist number four will work out better.  Where's my checkbook? 

It’s Sunday and it’s slow…if you can’t tell from my rant.  

Hey all…

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like being talked to like I just crawled out of a cave by sales persons when out doing some shopping.  Yeah, knucklehead me…just crawled out of a hole now sell me something for a stupid price…duh. 

Anyway, I was out doing some furniture shopping the other day and decided to stop by one of the local places that was having one of those “we’ll beat anyone’s price...or we’ll give you a new Lexus” or “nobody has lower prices that we do…not even the big out of town chain stores” adds.  Ah, another good one is the “talk to our friendly sales staff…we do not hire some out of town company like other big name stores”…blah, blah, blah.  So I figure, what the heck.  Doh!  Well, as soon as I walk in the door this sweet little grandmotherly type snatches me by the arm and starts with the smoozing.  La-la-la…this is what I was looking for…la-la-la…this is what I was interested in.  For some reason though the first thing that I told her was that I had been in the store on several other occasions and had seen some pieces that I liked and had priced them at that time.  Oh, but I guess that didn’t come through when I was getting the smoozing.  It didn’t take but a few minutes to see that somehow all of the “original list price” had somehow grown overnight like a fungus grows behind the sink basin.  Boom…price explosion!  So, my new best buddy from Utah (not a local after all…mmmmm) is showing me around when I notice the exact same piece ( and I mean the exact same floor model that I had seen the year before) that I had priced before had somehow grown in value to the point that now one piece was as much as the three piece set cost last year.  Uh….one plus one is five….right? 

I bickered and haggled with them for a little while and they of course gave me the big “what’s it going to take to get you in this today” and “we’re getting ready to do the books and would like to get this off” lines.  I quoted my price and it was just not where they thought it should be.  “Let me talk to my boss…who will talk to his boss” so on and so forth.  Talk about getting hoodwinked. 

Needless to say…I do believe that their four-year-old floor display is still there.  I just don’t know if I have the heart to go in and make a scene in the hopes of getting my new Lexus from them.  On the other hand though…it is a new Lexus.

So, today brings a new day and new adventures in furniture shopping.  Maybe someone is giving away a free trip to Vegas or someplace else if you buy something from them. 

Man, I want to go back to Vegas…cha-ching!

Have a super day!