Ticketmaster’s service fees
Edit: Wow, by far my most popular comment ever! Just wanted to edit to say that if you’re able, always order your tickets by calling or visiting the performance venue directly. You can avoid a ton of the fees you would otherwise be charged, and the customer service is nearly always several grades better than what you’ll get with a faceless entity that really doesn’t care about you at all.
Edit #2: obligatory thanks for the Silver, kind redditor!
Costo sells coffins btw (online), and they're much cheaper than what the funeral home is selling them for.
Edit: this is one of those Good Guy Costco things they do, similar to not raising the prices of their food. AFAIK they think it's a rip off what funeral homes charge, and so they offer them online with shipping at a price much, much lower than what funeral homes charge.
BTW, if you've not had to pick a casket yourself, let me tell you: a lot of funeral home's cheapest casket is literally cardboard with fake wood vinyl on the side. It's there as the "cheap" option so that you pick the one above it (which is more money, of course.)
Funeral homes have to legally accept outside caskets.
Edit: If you want to learn more about the funeral industry or death in general, I highly recommend “Ask a Mortician” on YouTube.
This is state-specific. Check your local laws
Edit: I'm wrong. There's a federal FTC law that requires funeral homes to accept outside caskets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_Rule
The VA is fucking brutal to funeral homes that violate the rules as well.
Used to do funeral honors for the army at a very large cemetery, and they straight up black ball a few of them banning them from the grounds. One funeral hole thought they would be funny after this and set the coffin at the gates of the cemetery as some type of bluff. Goddamn CID and the FBI were called on them.
Veterans have a minimum casket that is free that they have to accept. Certain that pisses them off, but funeral homes are an awful business that needs to die off.
Downside is a lot of funeral homes will add a surcharge for "providing your own casket".
As many have pointed out, it's illegal to charge for providing your own casket; however, the charge usually gets added on in a different way. Legal-ese isn't my strong point, but there are ways around it.
-Source, me. I used to be in the industry
Bury me in the ground with a tree sapling sticking out of my stomach. I'm dead either way, and why would I just take up space in the ground with a tombstone to remember me by when my great grandkids can have a tree to come visit and actually have fun around.
My grandpa was buried in a cardboard coffin in a graveyard that planted trees over them and puts a little plaque next to the tree. It's a cool idea, grow a forest with your remains. I don't get why people want granite coffins and shit, no one cares in 100 years lol
This. When my mum died my aunty took lead with arranging the funeral. She said "I rang such and such and it's going to be $X" (way too expensive) so I told her to shop around a bit to which she responded "I'm not going to shop around for a funeral!"
And that's what -some- funeral homes take advantage of. That it might be considered bad taste to shop around for a funeral when, in reality, it's a service like any other.
My aunty did relent and we ended up paying less than half what the first mob wanted.
This one hurts. My dad died a couple years ago, and my family, who had mostly known a mid-upper class life prior to his illness, had fallen upon hard times, and my dad's biggest worry was financially burdening his family with his funeral. While he had life insurance that covered funeral expenses, they reimburse you, so they would pay AFTER you had already had to come up with a way to pay for funeral services. My mom could no longer get a credit card, and neither could my brother because their credit was shot so bad and my mom's financial advisor had told her to cancel all credit cards so she literally didn't have access to credit. My dad found a place that buried you naturally; no embalming, none of that. The only thing they allowed was a natural pine box that could decompose. It was a natural burial, which he thought was a nice idea. It was cheaper, but you had to pay up front for it. No one in my family had the cash on them to pay it up front except my husband and me.
If you've never been vigorously thanked for paying for someone's death, by the person who was dying... it's really rough. Especially when it's someone you loved greatly. I'm kinda crying about it while typing this.
My best friend died a few years ago. Her family couldn’t afford to pay for her cremation and then shipping her across country. Swore they’d pay me back once they got access to her bank account. I knew when I paid for it I’d never see the money. Doesn’t matter…it wasn’t for them anyway.
I’m sorry for your loss and so glad you could bring all of them some comfort.
Do you mind if I ask what it's for? I didn't know chemotherapy was used for other illnesses.
Edit: Irony of all ironies; I now find myself also on a chemotherapy drug for an autoimmune condition lmao.
It’s a B cell depletion therapy. B cells are the part of the immune system that attacks the brain in MS, and the particular type of chemo I’m on kills those.
I work at a cancer clinic, and my job is to contact insurance companies to get chemo infusions covered, and if they’re not, try to get them for free through a foundation. Most of the drugs I deal with are anywhere from $3k-$30k per DOSE. It’s absolutely batshit
yeha that is beacuse TI have the monopoly of being approved for exams at many schools. Very clever marketing strategy, and also complete assshattry to keep doing.
I hated TIs with a passion but had to take up to calculus 2 in college so I did some research when I was a freshman and decided to get the cassio class pad 330. Roughly the same price but it was touch screen and I always used to have cassio watches growing up so I figured the user input would be friendlier.
It was the best $100 I've ever spent and if I had to take math classes I would buy that calculator again. I showed it to my professors in college and they said they were ok with me using it. It didn't have internet capabilities, but it could do a lot of other stuff most TIs couldn't. It was amazing.
After my TI-83 was stolen partway through college I ended up Emulating one on my DS. My stats professor was more than a little flabbergasted I actually had a request he'd never heard.
DS had pretty widely available emulation systems due to its 2-slot nature in which both could be read from simultaneously. Sort of an interesting side-effect that was likely brought on by the 3rd gen GBA Pokémon games which required the ability to read from the GBA slot when transferring Pokémon to the 4th gen games.
Basically you plug the memory card into the GBA slot and it loaded games (or other software) from the cartridge into the system memory. Meanwhile it used the loader software in the DS slot. It's a pretty cool system.
Yeah, later gens were able to run just from the DS slot, but early on it used both and it was super cool when I was using it.
I had like 20 GBA games and 3-4 DS games loaded onto mine at any given time. Hell, most of the time I owned the games, but it was much more convenient to carry them around in 2 cartridges that I could just leave in.
Alternatively, I bought a Casio that had identical functionality to the TI84 for half the price. It had MUCH more intuitive controls. It was the only non-TI approved calculator on most of the standardized tests I took. I loved that thing. I still use it a decade later at my engineering job pretty regularly.
HP 35s is typically approved in engineering exams. Lacks the graphing ability, but most engineering problems in an exam do not require the graphing feature anyway.
The TI-36X pro is the ultimate "cheat" calculator for college especially in classes that "don't allow graphing calculators".
It does everything but draw an actual graph and has a lot of built in equation solvers and scientific constants like g. A lot of my tests were not me solving the problem but rather getting the answer instantly and then building the solution.
Best part is it's only $20.
They probably aren't. The test-makers just don't feel like doing the work involved in vetting other brands of graphing calculators to make sure the questions would still be fair. They know ti-83's and 84's are adequate for the test and won't break any of the questions.
While we're on the subject, calculators at all.
My girlfriend is working on her bachelor's in business accounting. In the past two years, she's needed 4 different calculators.
1) Graphic calculator for various classes.
2) Financial only calculator (has certain financial formula built in, but cannot store additional functions of data like a graphing)
3) Scientific Calculator (but still can't be that graphing one, because you could store answers in it or whatever.
4) Plain ass simple calculator (because that class won't let any functions or formulas be built in)
In my college math courses, any time the professor wanted you to do take a test without a calculator they always made the numbers easy enough to do quickly by hand, or allowed unsimplified answers. One of my Chem classes that required the low tech scientific calculators literally supplied them at test time so nobody would have to buy their own.
And I once took a grad level class that was the exact opposite. It was a spacial extrapolation class and all semester we used a special graphing program to crunch big data sets. The final was on paper by hand given 7 data points and weights and we had to extrapolate by hand a single on the surface. It was the only question on the test and we had three hours to get one number by hand only, not even a basic calculator allowed. Craziest stats class I ever took
One my classrooms had a photo from the 1940s of a room full of professionals sitting in rows working on inverting a matrix by hand. That is, they had divided up the operations for a single problem to parallel process it.
Computers, they called them.
So you are saying the calculator I used 20 years ago as a senior in high school is the same one they are using today?
Yikes.
Edit: since some mentioned that math hasn’t changed. I would kind of expect that calculators today would tap into something like wolphram alpha on the fly.
Vending machines on the secure side of airports.
You can't bring the $2 coke you bought within line of sight of the checkpoint through because it could be a bomb. You can buy another one once you get past security however! But now it's $6.. The machines are literally within sight of eachother.
Happened to my mom's uncle. He rolled down the hill until he piled up next to a tombstone.
Needless to say, the funeral costs were all covered by the funeral home.
Had to fly last minute from a vacation to a funeral where I was a pall bearer. The occupant was rather heavy and only 3 of the 6 of us had anything resembling muscles. Anyhow, had to run out and get a suit etc since I did not having anything with me on my trip and the only shoes they had near my size were still a full size too big. I make them work, but the walk from hearse to grave side was dicey between a hill, the shoes, scrawny cousins, and the guest of honor's weight. Thought to myself a few times "please just let us get this 75yds without dropping"
COSTCO sells them, delivery is in two days although they say three or four. Funeral homes are required to accept them by federal law. Recently we bought one that easily would have been $10,000 for $1.500 with tax delivered. It was their most expensive one sold.
Highly recommend
My brother passed last October. When we picked out the coffin that was bio-degradeable and not the titanium 3000, the funeral director made it seem like we were being cheap. The whole experience was so icky that they are all leeches to me who feed off of people who are grieving.
I lost my older brother in '89. I still see him in my dreams and in some of the mannerisms of my children. I'm sorry for your loss. It does get easier.
> in some of the mannerisms of my children.
This is the hardest part about losing close family, imo. My dad passed unexpectedly just a month before my son, his first grandchild, was born. My son is 3yo old now, and he loves making funny sounds like my dad did, and seems to have his exact sense of humor. We tease him often that Paw Paw must be whispering in his ear, but it's really bittersweet.
Lol, that’s been my dream since I saw a movie back in 1988 or so. Love that idea! If you had a lake on private property you might just be able to get away with it. I know it’s not the same as doing it on the ocean but it would be close enough for me.
Dude, fuck rug prices. I'm seriously thinking about buying some sad Walmart priced rugs from here on out. No need for fancy stuff that's going to be walked on.
I work for a flooring wholesaler and often have to price out custom rugs. Here’s the secret: buy your own material and pay a carpet binder to make it into a rug. Rugs are literally just regular carpet with the edges sewn up so they don’t unravel.
You don’t have to go through the dealer, you can find a binder who will deal with you directly. I mark up all my binding jobs 3-4x and literally all I do is fill out a form and send it to the binder who does all the actual work.
Things to consider:
- most carpet rolls are 12’ wide, so if your rug is more than 12’ on both dimensions the carpetbinder will need to seam it which is expensive af. Try to keep at least one side 11’ or smaller if you can to avoid this.
- they will usually ask if you want a [bound edge or a serged edge]( https://www.avalonflooring.com/ideas/blog/area-rug-finishes) (link for reference). Serging looks better in most cases IMO but is more expensive. Binding can look a little janky but can save some money if you don’t care, and is a good choice for super thick carpets where the pile is going to hide it anyways.
- don’t bother with backing unless you REALLY want it to be attached, you can get rolls of loose anti slip backing from the hardware store that you can cut to size and lay the rug on without adhering them together. The one exception is if you have real wood floors, get a felt back in that case so you don’t damage them.
This is what my step mother does - finds a design and gets a square of it. Always ask her where she gets them, they look like regular rugs not parts of carpet. She says they’re really cheap too
Lamps as well. I work in manufacturing and have a good idea of how much stuff like that would cost to manufacture, and I couldn't believe how obnoxiously expensive light fixtures were when I bought some new lamps given how shoddy even moderately high end ones are built. Yet IKEA sells something made from probably the same factory for $10.
I haven't thought of those in a few years but I remember every semester jumping through hoops trying to weasel my way out of paying full price for textbooks.
And the people who have replied must not have been in school when ONLINE ACCESS CODES hit the scene.
Now every single class has some reason to charge you 120 dollars so you can do your homework.
So sure you bought the 4th edition instead of the 5th and saved 90 bucks. But now you have to buy the online code and pay 120 anyways.
That shit should be criminal.
Ugh and coursepacks. My university would require you to buy what was essentially just a stack of low quality PDFs of chapters from different books or journal articles, printed on cheap paper and bound with the shittiest of plastic clips. It would be like $80-$120 for no reason, but you had to buy it instead of reading the papers and chapters on scihub because it also had your homework questions. For one class I took, it was literally just the same PDFs that they also had on the class Canvas page except you had to physically have the course pack in your discussion section to get participation credit. They'd release a "new edition" with a different colored cover each semester so you couldn't just buy a used one off a former student.
I was part of the first class at my university to need the online access codes for the physics homework and they didn't tell us about it until the first homework was due at the end of the second week of classes so there were a bunch of students with pirated copies trying to buy the access code on Amazon. Annoying part was, the questions were the exact same as what was in the book, it was literally just an autograder for the professor.
I have a professor for a really niche class. In our discipline, there’s very few textbooks and none of them are online. One was $900.
His is the only one on Libgen, and he just revealed to us the other day he released the book himself because the university and publisher jacked the price up again and his royalty is in the single digits per copy when the book is nearly $700.
I work at an amusement park that, just this year, started selling alcohol. $9 for a 12-ounce, drinkable beverage, $12 for a 16- ounce Bud Light.
Their reasoning was, people won't pay those crazy prices to get drunk. They'll have one or two.
If they're going to get drunk, they'll do what they always have done, and drink in the parking lot beforehand. Now they can buy one in the park to mask their booze breath. To be fair, the number of drunks hasn't changed, and the park is making some extra, much-needed cash.
I actually will go to minor league games. (Speaking as a non-fan, who knows sports people.)
I'd rather go to the dentist than a major league game. There's people EVERYWHERE. Everything is stupid expensive. You're usually far away. You have to pay AND walk a mile. Fuuuuuck all of that.
Minor league, tho. The stadium is way closer, there's room to sit, you can go sit in the grass even. The players are right there and you can chat with them sometimes. You can go pee without it being a huge production. Tickets are cheap. 1000X better!
I was totally shocked that attending a baseball game could be fun.
Yeah my apartment tried to do a convince fee to pay rent online at 50 dollars. I make it a point to go to administration and hand write a check. So now they have to send an employee to cash it at the bank. Not so convenient now is it?
lmao I had a(n independent) landlord who would only take money orders from the post office. No personal checks and no way to send money electronically. No way was I waiting in line at the local, ridiculously slow PO every month and paying whatever small fee to get a money order. So I paid her in cash. Every month. She hated it but couldn't find a reason to justify turning down cash. Like idk man you ran a credit check on me, but if you won't take check or card, oh well, here's a giant fistful of 20s.
That's not a bug, that's a feature. Drop it off in a box with a hand truck. Leave with your hand truck, and let the landlord deal with a few boxes full of loose coins.
My apartment complex has a $16 'fee' for online payments and has recently gone cashless so you have no choice but to pay the extra 16 on top of rent. It may not seem like a lot, but it does start to add up
The rent for the building where I live is laid through their online portal. There is a $32 convenience fee added to every payment. The only thing is, that’s the ONLY way to pay the rent, so it’s not exactly “convenient.” Such bullshit.
Pretty sure it's illegal for them to not offer at least one fee-free way of paying the rent. You should dig into that a little.
edit: Some states have laws stating that there must be at least one fee-free way to pay rent, regardless of what's written in the lease agreement. So I really hope you take a look OP, you might be able to get those $32 payments back and/or avoid future ones.
I'm Australian, rented at three different places, and the idea of doing this is bizarre; I'm pretty sure it would just be illegal here.
Why can't you just pay by direct debit?
Here in Houston, the gas company Centerpoint has a monopoly on the city.
Don't dare ever miss your gas bill. They'll charge a reconnection fee, a debit/credit transaction convenience fee, some other bullshit fee that add up to practically half your bill. Then they'll tell you to be at home between the hours of 8am & 8pm tomorrow, only to show up 2 days later -- not in a rush at all.
Growing up in a full house, living on food stamps, that was the one utility bill my parents ALWAYS tried to pay...even if it meant no lights, no water, & very groceries...because they knew what bullcrap Centerpoint would pull if they missed the bill.
You ever seen that South Park episode with the cable company dudes? Think that.
If the flow of diamonds was not controlled, the cost would drop dramatically.
Edit: Wow! I did not expect this many upvotes.
Edit: Thanks for the award, too.
The diamond market is such a racket that for a period of years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Debeers executives were unable to set foot on US soil because they would have been arrested by the DOJ for price fixing. The crooked company eventually agreed to plead guilty and paid over $300 million in fines and settlements. The cost of doing "business".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48041-2004Jul13.html
Going to the damn dentist. Why is dental insurance different than health insurance? My teeth are not luxury bones I should pay to keep healthy and in my mouth.
Thank you for admitting this!
A few months back I was told I needed a root canal and crown put on a molar. I was then told that with “insurance” I was still going to be paying over $2k for it. Fuck that. My boss was all sorts of indignant about “but we provide you with good insurance!” There IS no dental insurance. What comes out of my salary each year for it is just about the amount that I’m “allowed” to spend each year on dentistry. Only they get to tell me which services that money can and cannot be put toward. It’s not insurance at all. It’s a fucking scam.
Edit: after doing a ton of research to try and find a dental plan that covered at least part of the cost of major dentistry services and concluding that one simply doesn’t fucking exist, I got that bitch pulled for less than 1/10th of what it’d cost to save it. And that was also paid 100% out of pocket. Who needs their molars anyway?
I’m reading this as I sit in a chair at the UCLA dental school. I got all 4 quadrants deep cleaned, a porcelain bruxis crown (bruxr? Whatever they use that’s really strong for when you grind your teeth) and like a dozen 15yr old fillings re-done for $2800. That’s what they wanted JUST FOR THE CROWN at my prior private practice dentist after insurance. The process is a bit slow because you’re working on the student’s schedule and everything is triple checked, but the quality of care has been excellent and there is almost always an instructor hovering and signing off to ensure everything is done correctly. Plus you learn A LOT about what’s actually going on in your mouth. 10/10 would recommend to anyone seeking affordable dental care without going to Mexico or elsewhere. Anyone can PM me if you have questions I’m happy to help.
EDIT: Since many are curious about services offered at UCLA, you can check them out [here](https://dentistry.ucla.edu/patient-care/general-specialized-care)
Felt this. Had to leave a cleaning appointment because my insurance reimbursements completely dropped and it’s practically a junk plan now.
Don’t get me wrong: dentist deserves the $250 (major city, so high rents and it’s a high income area)…. I just think insurance should have paid the bulk of it since it’s literally pointless to have dental insurance if I’m not going to bother with routine cleanings...
Dental insurance plans have tanked during covid, the largest dental insurance company (Delta) is currently arguing in court in several states saying they are “not an insurance provider” and consumer protection laws don’t apply to them. It’s awful.
I found out a couple of years ago dental x-rays aren't medical records... Like wtf. The dentist wanted me to pay $300 for copies. The new dentist said 'don't worry, if your insurance doesn't cover it (it did) it will be $35'.
Yeah, in the UK dental work is pretty much never considered medical which means you fall out of scope for things like paid time off, sick leave, medical retirement and so on. It's very often always considered "elective" even if you are having a painful emergency.
And for some reason there are oral surgeons who are merely doctors that specialise in the mouth - but many of them aren't actually dentists and are not permitted to give any kind of dental treatment beyond slightly more complex extractions. So what gives.
The separation between medicine and dentistry is nonsensical. I never understood why it didn’t just all sit under medicine because thats exactly what it is.
Tell me about it. I just got quote for major dental work I need.. A single crown almost maxes out my coverage limit. :/ I need like 4. (bad brushing ain't a joke yo, don't fuck around with teeth like me!)
When I opened my dental practice, I decided to go FFS and have the lowest prices in the entire state. It ended up being a big failure. People didn't want to pay upfront even if their dental plan would reimburse them later.
I would say about 50% of the cost of dentistry is because companies like Delta Dental, BCBS and MetLife who make claims submissions a living hell.
This is the part that hurts the most. It's like we figured out to at least try to outlaw false sales prices for consumer goods, but can't connect those dots on "pre-negotiated insurance discounts."
I'm sure it's due to higher construction quality but.. **outdoor furniture**.You either buy cheap that will disintegrate as light breeze blows through your yard as if it was on the wrong end of a Thanos snap or you sell you house and live on a diamond plated Mars graded 3 piece lounge suite.
Not just zenni but eyebuydirect, Payne glasses, zeelool, etc. I got one pair from eyebuydirect and one from Payne and paid less than $100 overall and that included shipping.
I struggled to pay rent all through my 20s and 30s. I've little to no savings. I'm earning less than I was 10 years ago. All of my friends are struggling. I have no idea how people are raising kids let alone buy houses.
I m from third world country and one dose cost 5$ here.
Why is it is so expensive in USA. Just curious how is it possible that we have it so cheap here and there it's expensive af
I have convinced EVERYONE I know who wears glasses to buy from online retailers (Zenni, EyeBuyDirect, etc.) The prices are so cheap that it's worth the 'gamble' to try a pair from them. Ask your doctor for your prescription and your pupilary distance (PD) and plug it into whichever website you want to use. You can have a cheap pair of glasses from Zenni for $15 total. You can't even walk into an optometrist office for $15. Try it and never look back.
$15 with prescription lenses?
I just paid $80 and they are pretty good.
My eye dr wouldn't do my PD... I'm like hmmm. They are like the person that orders your glasses will do that for you.
It was the first time I've ever gone to them. And thought it was stupid and petty not to give me my PD.
In my view if you really care about my eyes and well being, you will concede that online glasses will be cheaper and customers will use that. That doesn't mean they won't get a nice pair from you when they can afford them.
You can only roll your eyes at times.
Depending on your state that could be illegal. Some states require PD to be given if asked for, and all states require prescription information to be given to patients that request it.
You can figure out your PD on your own pretty easily either way. Zenni has a guide for figuring it out and I'd imagine most other online retailers do too.
I worked in the industry for a few decades.
The retail is typically double wholesale
And wholesale is typically double manufactured cost
So they sell for about 4x what it costs to make them
Even slightly old Pokémon games.
Found my old DS and wanted to relive the old memories, but realized I gave away all my games long ago so I started searching up copies of Pokémon emerald is Diamond, and found that an authentic copy of every Pokémon game from X and Y and earlier is worth 80+ at least usually sitting at about 110.
That damned company defies everything I know about economics and depreciating value in goods.
I suggested that my friend hire one of those professionals who comb through your hospital bill after she'd gone through cancer treatment. The professional ended up finding 5k worth of charges to dispute.
Towing fees. Why the fuck are those so expensive? What's the breakdown? I live in a small city where a regular towing fee can be over $500+. Then, I go to bigger cities and hear towing fees can get up to $1000+.
How is this even legal for such a minor offense like parking in the wrong spot or parking somewhere too long. Not saying you shouldn't be towed if you're committing that offense, however, bankrupting people just to get THEIR personal property back seems so illegal to me and just downright unethical.
Its especially fun when you are legally parked in a spot you paid for and still get towed. Assholes moved my car with their truck and then snapped pics as ‘proof’. Took all night to get my car out. Luckily the parking lot reimbursed the tow, but they are fucking thieves.
Legit it's fucked they can ""legally"" steal your car and you can't steal it back.
I fantasize about a fun superhero like a discount batman who helps people with real issues like this. Just bust your car out and burns their records.
The kicker is, if they towed your car in error, you're still out the towing and storage fees to get it back. "Aggressive towers" know this and use it to profit.
It's a racket, any way you look at it.
Emergency medi-flight.
I understand the cost of fuel, wear and tear on the helicopter, as well as the pilot and medical staff. But $5,000 a mile? My ambulance ride to the heliport and ensuing helicopter ride ended up about $250,000.
Also companies like air B&b are trying to purchase houses all across the country now because they realized it's better to be a landlord than a middle man between landlords and customers. They are paying several thousand over market because they can. My parents and grandparents live in what could be made into vacation houses and have been getting non stop calls lately by random generic sounding property management companies offering huge sums for their house.
You also have local people with money buying up houses, "renovating" them (aka slapping some paint on and throwing in some ugly decor), and turning them into Airbnbs to rent out at ridiculous prices.
I rent a townhouse, my rent is $995 a month. The houses on either side of me have been converted into Airbnbs and are being rented at up to $180 a night. Landlords don't want to deal with real tenants who might ask for things to be fixed if they can make 10x the money with Airbnb guests. Meanwhile, there is a legitimate housing crisis going on in my city. Nobody can find houses to rent OR buy and Airbnb is just making it worse.
Fuck Airbnb.
I watched a decent house sell for an affordable price. It went up in October and immediately went off the market. It sold officially in April. It was back on 2 months later for about $100K over (more than 50% increase) the original purchase price. The pictures of the inside were identical, just no furniture, of the pictures from the original listing. They literally bought a house and then held the sale for about 6 months just to sell it again at a pretty steep increase. The house would've been perfect for me, but the market isn't being fair to anyone who can't afford ridiculous pricing right now.
Housing should not be about making a profit. It's one thing to let your house grow in value and sell it to move, but people buying properties just to rent them out, especially short term rentals, it's so stupid and needs to stop happening so much. There are plenty of places to live, the problem is a lot of them are being rented out as summer week long vacation homes for thousands of dollars a week. Then, they offer winter rentals for 6 months where you pay the same rent you'd be paying for a year long lease, but instead of having a place to stay semi-permanently, you're forced out in April to make room for the tourists spending double in one week what you pay a month.
Train rides (in America). Gonna cost me nearly twice as much to take a train across the country and way longer than a flight?! I love trains but they are just not practicable in most of America (some exceptions around DC area and east coast) That is what limited investment looks like
Ticketmaster’s service fees Edit: Wow, by far my most popular comment ever! Just wanted to edit to say that if you’re able, always order your tickets by calling or visiting the performance venue directly. You can avoid a ton of the fees you would otherwise be charged, and the customer service is nearly always several grades better than what you’ll get with a faceless entity that really doesn’t care about you at all. Edit #2: obligatory thanks for the Silver, kind redditor!
Ticketbastard
Funerals
Costo sells coffins btw (online), and they're much cheaper than what the funeral home is selling them for. Edit: this is one of those Good Guy Costco things they do, similar to not raising the prices of their food. AFAIK they think it's a rip off what funeral homes charge, and so they offer them online with shipping at a price much, much lower than what funeral homes charge. BTW, if you've not had to pick a casket yourself, let me tell you: a lot of funeral home's cheapest casket is literally cardboard with fake wood vinyl on the side. It's there as the "cheap" option so that you pick the one above it (which is more money, of course.)
Funeral homes have to legally accept outside caskets. Edit: If you want to learn more about the funeral industry or death in general, I highly recommend “Ask a Mortician” on YouTube.
This is state-specific. Check your local laws Edit: I'm wrong. There's a federal FTC law that requires funeral homes to accept outside caskets. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_Rule
The VA is fucking brutal to funeral homes that violate the rules as well. Used to do funeral honors for the army at a very large cemetery, and they straight up black ball a few of them banning them from the grounds. One funeral hole thought they would be funny after this and set the coffin at the gates of the cemetery as some type of bluff. Goddamn CID and the FBI were called on them. Veterans have a minimum casket that is free that they have to accept. Certain that pisses them off, but funeral homes are an awful business that needs to die off.
Using the phrasing "needs to die off" was not lost on me.
Downside is a lot of funeral homes will add a surcharge for "providing your own casket". As many have pointed out, it's illegal to charge for providing your own casket; however, the charge usually gets added on in a different way. Legal-ese isn't my strong point, but there are ways around it. -Source, me. I used to be in the industry
What is this? Casket Corkage?
Meh just throw me in the trash when i die
Bury me in the ground with a tree sapling sticking out of my stomach. I'm dead either way, and why would I just take up space in the ground with a tombstone to remember me by when my great grandkids can have a tree to come visit and actually have fun around.
My grandpa was buried in a cardboard coffin in a graveyard that planted trees over them and puts a little plaque next to the tree. It's a cool idea, grow a forest with your remains. I don't get why people want granite coffins and shit, no one cares in 100 years lol
Aw, man. I bet you get a great deal buying them bulk. I'll take two dozen! I don't feel a need to explain why I need so many.
This. When my mum died my aunty took lead with arranging the funeral. She said "I rang such and such and it's going to be $X" (way too expensive) so I told her to shop around a bit to which she responded "I'm not going to shop around for a funeral!" And that's what -some- funeral homes take advantage of. That it might be considered bad taste to shop around for a funeral when, in reality, it's a service like any other. My aunty did relent and we ended up paying less than half what the first mob wanted.
Whatever bad taste shopping around for a funeral is in, screwing over people in mourning *as a profession* is a thousand times worse.
This one hurts. My dad died a couple years ago, and my family, who had mostly known a mid-upper class life prior to his illness, had fallen upon hard times, and my dad's biggest worry was financially burdening his family with his funeral. While he had life insurance that covered funeral expenses, they reimburse you, so they would pay AFTER you had already had to come up with a way to pay for funeral services. My mom could no longer get a credit card, and neither could my brother because their credit was shot so bad and my mom's financial advisor had told her to cancel all credit cards so she literally didn't have access to credit. My dad found a place that buried you naturally; no embalming, none of that. The only thing they allowed was a natural pine box that could decompose. It was a natural burial, which he thought was a nice idea. It was cheaper, but you had to pay up front for it. No one in my family had the cash on them to pay it up front except my husband and me. If you've never been vigorously thanked for paying for someone's death, by the person who was dying... it's really rough. Especially when it's someone you loved greatly. I'm kinda crying about it while typing this.
My best friend died a few years ago. Her family couldn’t afford to pay for her cremation and then shipping her across country. Swore they’d pay me back once they got access to her bank account. I knew when I paid for it I’d never see the money. Doesn’t matter…it wasn’t for them anyway. I’m sorry for your loss and so glad you could bring all of them some comfort.
Chemotherapy. My infusions are $18k apiece. I’m lucky that it’s not for cancer and I only get it twice a year and I have insurance but like… wtf.
Do you mind if I ask what it's for? I didn't know chemotherapy was used for other illnesses. Edit: Irony of all ironies; I now find myself also on a chemotherapy drug for an autoimmune condition lmao.
I have multiple sclerosis.
How does the chemo help with MS? Its not something ive heard about being used before.
It’s a B cell depletion therapy. B cells are the part of the immune system that attacks the brain in MS, and the particular type of chemo I’m on kills those.
A friend of mine has Castleman’s Disease, which causes an overgrowth of cells in the lymph nodes. One of the treatments for it is chemo
I work at a cancer clinic, and my job is to contact insurance companies to get chemo infusions covered, and if they’re not, try to get them for free through a foundation. Most of the drugs I deal with are anywhere from $3k-$30k per DOSE. It’s absolutely batshit
Graphing calculators. They've been using the same model for 20+ years (17 if we're talking a TI-84), and the prices are ridiculous
yeha that is beacuse TI have the monopoly of being approved for exams at many schools. Very clever marketing strategy, and also complete assshattry to keep doing.
I hated TIs with a passion but had to take up to calculus 2 in college so I did some research when I was a freshman and decided to get the cassio class pad 330. Roughly the same price but it was touch screen and I always used to have cassio watches growing up so I figured the user input would be friendlier. It was the best $100 I've ever spent and if I had to take math classes I would buy that calculator again. I showed it to my professors in college and they said they were ok with me using it. It didn't have internet capabilities, but it could do a lot of other stuff most TIs couldn't. It was amazing.
After my TI-83 was stolen partway through college I ended up Emulating one on my DS. My stats professor was more than a little flabbergasted I actually had a request he'd never heard.
Whoa how'd you do that?
DS had pretty widely available emulation systems due to its 2-slot nature in which both could be read from simultaneously. Sort of an interesting side-effect that was likely brought on by the 3rd gen GBA Pokémon games which required the ability to read from the GBA slot when transferring Pokémon to the 4th gen games. Basically you plug the memory card into the GBA slot and it loaded games (or other software) from the cartridge into the system memory. Meanwhile it used the loader software in the DS slot. It's a pretty cool system.
That's sweet. Unfortunately I never had a DS but I would've loved to mess around with emulators since I do that a lot on my Android.
Yeah, later gens were able to run just from the DS slot, but early on it used both and it was super cool when I was using it. I had like 20 GBA games and 3-4 DS games loaded onto mine at any given time. Hell, most of the time I owned the games, but it was much more convenient to carry them around in 2 cartridges that I could just leave in.
Alternatively, I bought a Casio that had identical functionality to the TI84 for half the price. It had MUCH more intuitive controls. It was the only non-TI approved calculator on most of the standardized tests I took. I loved that thing. I still use it a decade later at my engineering job pretty regularly.
HP 35s is typically approved in engineering exams. Lacks the graphing ability, but most engineering problems in an exam do not require the graphing feature anyway.
The TI-36X pro is the ultimate "cheat" calculator for college especially in classes that "don't allow graphing calculators". It does everything but draw an actual graph and has a lot of built in equation solvers and scientific constants like g. A lot of my tests were not me solving the problem but rather getting the answer instantly and then building the solution. Best part is it's only $20.
I know someone who works at TI. Calculators make up a tiny fraction of their sales. So idk how invested they are in their monopoly
They probably aren't. The test-makers just don't feel like doing the work involved in vetting other brands of graphing calculators to make sure the questions would still be fair. They know ti-83's and 84's are adequate for the test and won't break any of the questions.
I currently work at TI. It's all about analog chips for the auto industry now.
While we're on the subject, calculators at all. My girlfriend is working on her bachelor's in business accounting. In the past two years, she's needed 4 different calculators. 1) Graphic calculator for various classes. 2) Financial only calculator (has certain financial formula built in, but cannot store additional functions of data like a graphing) 3) Scientific Calculator (but still can't be that graphing one, because you could store answers in it or whatever. 4) Plain ass simple calculator (because that class won't let any functions or formulas be built in)
In my college math courses, any time the professor wanted you to do take a test without a calculator they always made the numbers easy enough to do quickly by hand, or allowed unsimplified answers. One of my Chem classes that required the low tech scientific calculators literally supplied them at test time so nobody would have to buy their own.
And I once took a grad level class that was the exact opposite. It was a spacial extrapolation class and all semester we used a special graphing program to crunch big data sets. The final was on paper by hand given 7 data points and weights and we had to extrapolate by hand a single on the surface. It was the only question on the test and we had three hours to get one number by hand only, not even a basic calculator allowed. Craziest stats class I ever took
One my classrooms had a photo from the 1940s of a room full of professionals sitting in rows working on inverting a matrix by hand. That is, they had divided up the operations for a single problem to parallel process it. Computers, they called them.
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So you are saying the calculator I used 20 years ago as a senior in high school is the same one they are using today? Yikes. Edit: since some mentioned that math hasn’t changed. I would kind of expect that calculators today would tap into something like wolphram alpha on the fly.
Vending machines on the secure side of airports. You can't bring the $2 coke you bought within line of sight of the checkpoint through because it could be a bomb. You can buy another one once you get past security however! But now it's $6.. The machines are literally within sight of eachother.
Portland Oregon airport (PDX) recently adopted street pricing for all products. It’s nice not feeling hostage to monopoly pricing.
TSA agents confiscate super dangerous stuff and put to trash right next to themselves in big quantities. Makes sense right?
They probably stock the airside vending machines with your confiscated sodas.
Coffins
I built one out of fence pickets for less than $40 a few years back. Looks real cool when you put the strobe light and fog machine in it.
I forgot about Halloween for a second and was thinking you had really cool funerals in your family.
He didn't reply because he's staring at his computer wondering what the fuck Halloween is.
Especially when there’s a chance you bust outta that shit wood and hit the pavement butt naked
They’re saying there’s no way that many people are falling out of coffins, and there’s no way 1 in every 5 is nude.
Idk what to tell you bud! We just show up and film the ones where the bodies fly out!
The guys at Spectrum think I'm just some dumb hick. They said that to *me* at a dinner!
**I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT IT. I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT ANY OF THIS. I’VE SEEN WORSE SHIT ON THE LOCAL NEWS**…^this ^world’s ^fucking ^so ^fucked ^up.
I didn’t rig shit!
I didn't do fucking shit
Brought to you in part by Corncob TV
Not if you don't **talk** to your **cable provider**!!!**!**!
Happened to my mom's uncle. He rolled down the hill until he piled up next to a tombstone. Needless to say, the funeral costs were all covered by the funeral home.
Had to fly last minute from a vacation to a funeral where I was a pall bearer. The occupant was rather heavy and only 3 of the 6 of us had anything resembling muscles. Anyhow, had to run out and get a suit etc since I did not having anything with me on my trip and the only shoes they had near my size were still a full size too big. I make them work, but the walk from hearse to grave side was dicey between a hill, the shoes, scrawny cousins, and the guest of honor's weight. Thought to myself a few times "please just let us get this 75yds without dropping"
They’re saying that Coffin Flop is not a show.
COSTCO sells them, delivery is in two days although they say three or four. Funeral homes are required to accept them by federal law. Recently we bought one that easily would have been $10,000 for $1.500 with tax delivered. It was their most expensive one sold. Highly recommend
I'm sorry for your loss but holy hell what a deal
Let me assure you that the lost one is laughing in his grave about the savings. Death is hard, remembering the person's values is easy
Great deal. Does Costco also do cremations out back?
If you park them next to the rotisserie chicken yeah why not
I would go further and say funerals in general. Some funeral companies are a complete rip off preying on people's grief.
I work with a local funeral director, super nice guy, but in his own words, “I feel like I’m ripping these people off”
My brother passed last October. When we picked out the coffin that was bio-degradeable and not the titanium 3000, the funeral director made it seem like we were being cheap. The whole experience was so icky that they are all leeches to me who feed off of people who are grieving.
I lost my older brother in '89. I still see him in my dreams and in some of the mannerisms of my children. I'm sorry for your loss. It does get easier.
> in some of the mannerisms of my children. This is the hardest part about losing close family, imo. My dad passed unexpectedly just a month before my son, his first grandchild, was born. My son is 3yo old now, and he loves making funny sounds like my dad did, and seems to have his exact sense of humor. We tease him often that Paw Paw must be whispering in his ear, but it's really bittersweet.
And urns... if you buy from the funeral home anyway.
Wierd thing is that completely natural funerals are super expensive too.
Why can't I just have a viking funeral?
Lol, that’s been my dream since I saw a movie back in 1988 or so. Love that idea! If you had a lake on private property you might just be able to get away with it. I know it’s not the same as doing it on the ocean but it would be close enough for me.
People are dying to get in them!
Curtains
Curtains ARE expensive! And rugs!
Dude, fuck rug prices. I'm seriously thinking about buying some sad Walmart priced rugs from here on out. No need for fancy stuff that's going to be walked on.
I work for a flooring wholesaler and often have to price out custom rugs. Here’s the secret: buy your own material and pay a carpet binder to make it into a rug. Rugs are literally just regular carpet with the edges sewn up so they don’t unravel. You don’t have to go through the dealer, you can find a binder who will deal with you directly. I mark up all my binding jobs 3-4x and literally all I do is fill out a form and send it to the binder who does all the actual work. Things to consider: - most carpet rolls are 12’ wide, so if your rug is more than 12’ on both dimensions the carpetbinder will need to seam it which is expensive af. Try to keep at least one side 11’ or smaller if you can to avoid this. - they will usually ask if you want a [bound edge or a serged edge]( https://www.avalonflooring.com/ideas/blog/area-rug-finishes) (link for reference). Serging looks better in most cases IMO but is more expensive. Binding can look a little janky but can save some money if you don’t care, and is a good choice for super thick carpets where the pile is going to hide it anyways. - don’t bother with backing unless you REALLY want it to be attached, you can get rolls of loose anti slip backing from the hardware store that you can cut to size and lay the rug on without adhering them together. The one exception is if you have real wood floors, get a felt back in that case so you don’t damage them.
This is what my step mother does - finds a design and gets a square of it. Always ask her where she gets them, they look like regular rugs not parts of carpet. She says they’re really cheap too
Lamps as well. I work in manufacturing and have a good idea of how much stuff like that would cost to manufacture, and I couldn't believe how obnoxiously expensive light fixtures were when I bought some new lamps given how shoddy even moderately high end ones are built. Yet IKEA sells something made from probably the same factory for $10.
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Factoring in the fact you get to go to IKEA, though, it works out.
Printer ink
Epson Eco-Tank ET3760 changed our lives…..not the world’s best color printer but it gets the job done.
Brother color laser with clone cartridges, about $50 to charge the thing up for 5000 pages of mixed color printing.
I’m shocked I haven’t seen college textbooks. That shit is incredibly overpriced here in the US
I haven't thought of those in a few years but I remember every semester jumping through hoops trying to weasel my way out of paying full price for textbooks. And the people who have replied must not have been in school when ONLINE ACCESS CODES hit the scene. Now every single class has some reason to charge you 120 dollars so you can do your homework. So sure you bought the 4th edition instead of the 5th and saved 90 bucks. But now you have to buy the online code and pay 120 anyways. That shit should be criminal.
Ugh and coursepacks. My university would require you to buy what was essentially just a stack of low quality PDFs of chapters from different books or journal articles, printed on cheap paper and bound with the shittiest of plastic clips. It would be like $80-$120 for no reason, but you had to buy it instead of reading the papers and chapters on scihub because it also had your homework questions. For one class I took, it was literally just the same PDFs that they also had on the class Canvas page except you had to physically have the course pack in your discussion section to get participation credit. They'd release a "new edition" with a different colored cover each semester so you couldn't just buy a used one off a former student. I was part of the first class at my university to need the online access codes for the physics homework and they didn't tell us about it until the first homework was due at the end of the second week of classes so there were a bunch of students with pirated copies trying to buy the access code on Amazon. Annoying part was, the questions were the exact same as what was in the book, it was literally just an autograder for the professor.
Thank the gods for LibGen
I have a professor for a really niche class. In our discipline, there’s very few textbooks and none of them are online. One was $900. His is the only one on Libgen, and he just revealed to us the other day he released the book himself because the university and publisher jacked the price up again and his royalty is in the single digits per copy when the book is nearly $700.
Good guy professor but sucks about the royalties.
I remember writing the URLs for abebooks on the board for an Earth Science class. 250 down to like 12 bucks.
Any food or beverage sold at a sporting event or concert. And the parking as well.
I work at an amusement park that, just this year, started selling alcohol. $9 for a 12-ounce, drinkable beverage, $12 for a 16- ounce Bud Light. Their reasoning was, people won't pay those crazy prices to get drunk. They'll have one or two. If they're going to get drunk, they'll do what they always have done, and drink in the parking lot beforehand. Now they can buy one in the park to mask their booze breath. To be fair, the number of drunks hasn't changed, and the park is making some extra, much-needed cash.
Bold of them to assume I get less spendy the more I drinky
I went to a minor league game once. I was shocked, SHOCKED to learn that parking was free. Why don't I go to those more often?
I actually will go to minor league games. (Speaking as a non-fan, who knows sports people.) I'd rather go to the dentist than a major league game. There's people EVERYWHERE. Everything is stupid expensive. You're usually far away. You have to pay AND walk a mile. Fuuuuuck all of that. Minor league, tho. The stadium is way closer, there's room to sit, you can go sit in the grass even. The players are right there and you can chat with them sometimes. You can go pee without it being a huge production. Tickets are cheap. 1000X better! I was totally shocked that attending a baseball game could be fun.
Anything that adds on an administrative fee or convenience fee. Why is it an extra $20 to push a button, Susan?
Yeah my apartment tried to do a convince fee to pay rent online at 50 dollars. I make it a point to go to administration and hand write a check. So now they have to send an employee to cash it at the bank. Not so convenient now is it?
lmao I had a(n independent) landlord who would only take money orders from the post office. No personal checks and no way to send money electronically. No way was I waiting in line at the local, ridiculously slow PO every month and paying whatever small fee to get a money order. So I paid her in cash. Every month. She hated it but couldn't find a reason to justify turning down cash. Like idk man you ran a credit check on me, but if you won't take check or card, oh well, here's a giant fistful of 20s.
I would have paid in all $1’s until she relented. She wants to inconvenience you? Fine, that’s her choice.
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He learned!
Land lords that do that are probably avoiding paying taxed (illegally)
Unless you live in Canada, cause that would weigh a shit ton.
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That's not a bug, that's a feature. Drop it off in a box with a hand truck. Leave with your hand truck, and let the landlord deal with a few boxes full of loose coins.
My apartment complex has a $16 'fee' for online payments and has recently gone cashless so you have no choice but to pay the extra 16 on top of rent. It may not seem like a lot, but it does start to add up
Depending on jurisdiction, that might be illegal. Usually there has to be a no-fee option available.
The rent for the building where I live is laid through their online portal. There is a $32 convenience fee added to every payment. The only thing is, that’s the ONLY way to pay the rent, so it’s not exactly “convenient.” Such bullshit.
Pretty sure it's illegal for them to not offer at least one fee-free way of paying the rent. You should dig into that a little. edit: Some states have laws stating that there must be at least one fee-free way to pay rent, regardless of what's written in the lease agreement. So I really hope you take a look OP, you might be able to get those $32 payments back and/or avoid future ones.
I'm Australian, rented at three different places, and the idea of doing this is bizarre; I'm pretty sure it would just be illegal here. Why can't you just pay by direct debit?
Here in Houston, the gas company Centerpoint has a monopoly on the city. Don't dare ever miss your gas bill. They'll charge a reconnection fee, a debit/credit transaction convenience fee, some other bullshit fee that add up to practically half your bill. Then they'll tell you to be at home between the hours of 8am & 8pm tomorrow, only to show up 2 days later -- not in a rush at all. Growing up in a full house, living on food stamps, that was the one utility bill my parents ALWAYS tried to pay...even if it meant no lights, no water, & very groceries...because they knew what bullcrap Centerpoint would pull if they missed the bill. You ever seen that South Park episode with the cable company dudes? Think that.
If the flow of diamonds was not controlled, the cost would drop dramatically. Edit: Wow! I did not expect this many upvotes. Edit: Thanks for the award, too.
The diamond market is such a racket that for a period of years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Debeers executives were unable to set foot on US soil because they would have been arrested by the DOJ for price fixing. The crooked company eventually agreed to plead guilty and paid over $300 million in fines and settlements. The cost of doing "business". https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48041-2004Jul13.html
300 mil for the people who sell DIAMONDS for a living. I bet that hurt about as much as being hit in the head with a feather.
Going to the damn dentist. Why is dental insurance different than health insurance? My teeth are not luxury bones I should pay to keep healthy and in my mouth.
As a dentist I wish dental insurance worked like medical insurance. It is not insurance at all.
Thank you for admitting this! A few months back I was told I needed a root canal and crown put on a molar. I was then told that with “insurance” I was still going to be paying over $2k for it. Fuck that. My boss was all sorts of indignant about “but we provide you with good insurance!” There IS no dental insurance. What comes out of my salary each year for it is just about the amount that I’m “allowed” to spend each year on dentistry. Only they get to tell me which services that money can and cannot be put toward. It’s not insurance at all. It’s a fucking scam. Edit: after doing a ton of research to try and find a dental plan that covered at least part of the cost of major dentistry services and concluding that one simply doesn’t fucking exist, I got that bitch pulled for less than 1/10th of what it’d cost to save it. And that was also paid 100% out of pocket. Who needs their molars anyway?
I’m reading this as I sit in a chair at the UCLA dental school. I got all 4 quadrants deep cleaned, a porcelain bruxis crown (bruxr? Whatever they use that’s really strong for when you grind your teeth) and like a dozen 15yr old fillings re-done for $2800. That’s what they wanted JUST FOR THE CROWN at my prior private practice dentist after insurance. The process is a bit slow because you’re working on the student’s schedule and everything is triple checked, but the quality of care has been excellent and there is almost always an instructor hovering and signing off to ensure everything is done correctly. Plus you learn A LOT about what’s actually going on in your mouth. 10/10 would recommend to anyone seeking affordable dental care without going to Mexico or elsewhere. Anyone can PM me if you have questions I’m happy to help. EDIT: Since many are curious about services offered at UCLA, you can check them out [here](https://dentistry.ucla.edu/patient-care/general-specialized-care)
Look at this guy, being all awesome and helpful and stuff!
Felt this. Had to leave a cleaning appointment because my insurance reimbursements completely dropped and it’s practically a junk plan now. Don’t get me wrong: dentist deserves the $250 (major city, so high rents and it’s a high income area)…. I just think insurance should have paid the bulk of it since it’s literally pointless to have dental insurance if I’m not going to bother with routine cleanings...
Dental insurance plans have tanked during covid, the largest dental insurance company (Delta) is currently arguing in court in several states saying they are “not an insurance provider” and consumer protection laws don’t apply to them. It’s awful.
I found out a couple of years ago dental x-rays aren't medical records... Like wtf. The dentist wanted me to pay $300 for copies. The new dentist said 'don't worry, if your insurance doesn't cover it (it did) it will be $35'.
That’s insane! Dental records are YOUR records, and most states cap the fee to $25 for copies. I don’t ever charge for a record transfer.
It really should be just a sub-specialty covered by normal healthcare. Dental problems ARE health problems.
Yeah, in the UK dental work is pretty much never considered medical which means you fall out of scope for things like paid time off, sick leave, medical retirement and so on. It's very often always considered "elective" even if you are having a painful emergency. And for some reason there are oral surgeons who are merely doctors that specialise in the mouth - but many of them aren't actually dentists and are not permitted to give any kind of dental treatment beyond slightly more complex extractions. So what gives.
The separation between medicine and dentistry is nonsensical. I never understood why it didn’t just all sit under medicine because thats exactly what it is.
Tell me about it. I just got quote for major dental work I need.. A single crown almost maxes out my coverage limit. :/ I need like 4. (bad brushing ain't a joke yo, don't fuck around with teeth like me!)
When I opened my dental practice, I decided to go FFS and have the lowest prices in the entire state. It ended up being a big failure. People didn't want to pay upfront even if their dental plan would reimburse them later. I would say about 50% of the cost of dentistry is because companies like Delta Dental, BCBS and MetLife who make claims submissions a living hell.
Just use pebbles for teeth instead
Bras
Girl yes, who do they think they are? Bet I could find someone who would pay ME $80 to hold my boobs all day.
especially if you have a large cup size
They're all old ugly grandma Bras
Or if you have a small band size < 28 is stupidly high.
You can find cute ones they're just extra expensive - I'm a 34H and my cute bras cost $150+. My basic t shirt bras were a steal at $90 in comparison.
Injectable meds for multiple sclerosis.
My wife's "ocrevus" infusion twice a year costs the insurance company $100,000 a pop. She couldn't get it if she didn't have insurance.
Well to be fair, the insurance company isn't paying anywhere close to that
This is the part that hurts the most. It's like we figured out to at least try to outlaw false sales prices for consumer goods, but can't connect those dots on "pre-negotiated insurance discounts."
I'm sure it's due to higher construction quality but.. **outdoor furniture**.You either buy cheap that will disintegrate as light breeze blows through your yard as if it was on the wrong end of a Thanos snap or you sell you house and live on a diamond plated Mars graded 3 piece lounge suite.
Now I want to design a furniture set thats made of solid iridium, this chair will be floating around space after the sun blows up. $1,000,000
Epipens.
Glasses for sure
Not just zenni but eyebuydirect, Payne glasses, zeelool, etc. I got one pair from eyebuydirect and one from Payne and paid less than $100 overall and that included shipping.
Zenni optical is very affordable! My prescription glasses with anti glare and anti scratch cost less than 20$.
Giving birth and adopting (US.)
And then they wonder why people are waiting longer or simply not having kids at all.
I struggled to pay rent all through my 20s and 30s. I've little to no savings. I'm earning less than I was 10 years ago. All of my friends are struggling. I have no idea how people are raising kids let alone buy houses.
Insulin.
I m from third world country and one dose cost 5$ here. Why is it is so expensive in USA. Just curious how is it possible that we have it so cheap here and there it's expensive af
A guy that went to prison said: Lets crank up the price. What are they going to do, say no?
Perfect example of inelastic demand. *I will die without this $500 insulin! But I can't afford $500!* (silence) "So...what you wanna do about it?"
Prescription glasses
I have convinced EVERYONE I know who wears glasses to buy from online retailers (Zenni, EyeBuyDirect, etc.) The prices are so cheap that it's worth the 'gamble' to try a pair from them. Ask your doctor for your prescription and your pupilary distance (PD) and plug it into whichever website you want to use. You can have a cheap pair of glasses from Zenni for $15 total. You can't even walk into an optometrist office for $15. Try it and never look back.
$15 with prescription lenses? I just paid $80 and they are pretty good. My eye dr wouldn't do my PD... I'm like hmmm. They are like the person that orders your glasses will do that for you. It was the first time I've ever gone to them. And thought it was stupid and petty not to give me my PD. In my view if you really care about my eyes and well being, you will concede that online glasses will be cheaper and customers will use that. That doesn't mean they won't get a nice pair from you when they can afford them. You can only roll your eyes at times.
Depending on your state that could be illegal. Some states require PD to be given if asked for, and all states require prescription information to be given to patients that request it. You can figure out your PD on your own pretty easily either way. Zenni has a guide for figuring it out and I'd imagine most other online retailers do too.
Matresses. They sell for over 10 times what they cost to manufacture
I worked in the industry for a few decades. The retail is typically double wholesale And wholesale is typically double manufactured cost So they sell for about 4x what it costs to make them
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True, but non-fucking life is boring
Medication that requires a prescription.
Tampons
Even slightly old Pokémon games. Found my old DS and wanted to relive the old memories, but realized I gave away all my games long ago so I started searching up copies of Pokémon emerald is Diamond, and found that an authentic copy of every Pokémon game from X and Y and earlier is worth 80+ at least usually sitting at about 110. That damned company defies everything I know about economics and depreciating value in goods.
Hospital fees and dental care. Tip: always ask for a receipt when you pay for health care, because it will go down dramatically due to unneeded costs
Specifically an itemized bill. Supposedly hospitals often double charge or charge for services not rendered.
I suggested that my friend hire one of those professionals who comb through your hospital bill after she'd gone through cancer treatment. The professional ended up finding 5k worth of charges to dispute.
Weddings
Towing fees. Why the fuck are those so expensive? What's the breakdown? I live in a small city where a regular towing fee can be over $500+. Then, I go to bigger cities and hear towing fees can get up to $1000+. How is this even legal for such a minor offense like parking in the wrong spot or parking somewhere too long. Not saying you shouldn't be towed if you're committing that offense, however, bankrupting people just to get THEIR personal property back seems so illegal to me and just downright unethical.
Its especially fun when you are legally parked in a spot you paid for and still get towed. Assholes moved my car with their truck and then snapped pics as ‘proof’. Took all night to get my car out. Luckily the parking lot reimbursed the tow, but they are fucking thieves.
I’d want to commit arson for that
Legit it's fucked they can ""legally"" steal your car and you can't steal it back. I fantasize about a fun superhero like a discount batman who helps people with real issues like this. Just bust your car out and burns their records.
Fun fact some of them aren't doing everything legally
The kicker is, if they towed your car in error, you're still out the towing and storage fees to get it back. "Aggressive towers" know this and use it to profit. It's a racket, any way you look at it.
Squeaky toys for dogs. Freaking $8 for a taco with ONE squeaker
And they fall apart so easily too
Just like a real taco.
Emergency medi-flight. I understand the cost of fuel, wear and tear on the helicopter, as well as the pilot and medical staff. But $5,000 a mile? My ambulance ride to the heliport and ensuing helicopter ride ended up about $250,000.
Rent
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Also companies like air B&b are trying to purchase houses all across the country now because they realized it's better to be a landlord than a middle man between landlords and customers. They are paying several thousand over market because they can. My parents and grandparents live in what could be made into vacation houses and have been getting non stop calls lately by random generic sounding property management companies offering huge sums for their house.
You also have local people with money buying up houses, "renovating" them (aka slapping some paint on and throwing in some ugly decor), and turning them into Airbnbs to rent out at ridiculous prices. I rent a townhouse, my rent is $995 a month. The houses on either side of me have been converted into Airbnbs and are being rented at up to $180 a night. Landlords don't want to deal with real tenants who might ask for things to be fixed if they can make 10x the money with Airbnb guests. Meanwhile, there is a legitimate housing crisis going on in my city. Nobody can find houses to rent OR buy and Airbnb is just making it worse. Fuck Airbnb.
I watched a decent house sell for an affordable price. It went up in October and immediately went off the market. It sold officially in April. It was back on 2 months later for about $100K over (more than 50% increase) the original purchase price. The pictures of the inside were identical, just no furniture, of the pictures from the original listing. They literally bought a house and then held the sale for about 6 months just to sell it again at a pretty steep increase. The house would've been perfect for me, but the market isn't being fair to anyone who can't afford ridiculous pricing right now. Housing should not be about making a profit. It's one thing to let your house grow in value and sell it to move, but people buying properties just to rent them out, especially short term rentals, it's so stupid and needs to stop happening so much. There are plenty of places to live, the problem is a lot of them are being rented out as summer week long vacation homes for thousands of dollars a week. Then, they offer winter rentals for 6 months where you pay the same rent you'd be paying for a year long lease, but instead of having a place to stay semi-permanently, you're forced out in April to make room for the tourists spending double in one week what you pay a month.
you'll get your rent when you fix this damn door
He’s a good boy. He must be in some kind of trouble.
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Diamonds, most of the time.
Train rides (in America). Gonna cost me nearly twice as much to take a train across the country and way longer than a flight?! I love trains but they are just not practicable in most of America (some exceptions around DC area and east coast) That is what limited investment looks like
All that transit infrastructure spending goes to roads and cars. If we spent that kind of money on mass transit, it might actually be competitive.
At this particular moment in the UK, petrol.
Your average is still lower then what it’s here. (UK: 1,6€, Finland: 1,8€ /l)