Biggest Rip Offs

[Sticks.]

condor said:

P-Jay said:

.... I would imagine someone from the 3rd world would be more envious of the taps in our kitchens than they would be by our flat screen TV's and central heating....

A few years ago I visited someone's apartment who came from Niger and was surprised by how much bottled water there was in the kitchen. Even though I said the tap water was fine to drink and cook with, they just wouldn't believe it. Perhaps a lot of people from the 3rd world think similarly.

Actually I think my tap water is a rip off as it's not fit to make tea or coffee with - unless you like scum on the top. Yes, my kettle's clean, because I use bottled water - cheap stuff, not the rip-off names.

[hedgefinder]

Happy82 said:

Perhaps they feel ripped off because if they were not working they'd get it for free? Just a thought

or perhaps because of the MASSIVE profits raked in by multinational pharmaceutical companies... and prices that in no way equate - in reasonable terms - to production costs.

[sjc]

Happy82 said:

KrazyIvan said:

sjc said:

My mum having to pay to have the TV on in hospital for 5 weeks, when it's free in Prison.

so the thousands a day she was no doubt receiving in medical care and attention(and rightly entitled to do so), was not enough, you think the NHS should also have to pay a 3rd party for her entrainment while she is in hospital as well. 10 years ago people in hospital used to get by with visitor, book and magazine all paid for with out complaint by themselves, funny how times change.

And years ago prisoners used to get by with basic food and a cell, funny how times change

Cheers, my point exactly, but someone tried to be a smug pseudo intellectual.Ironic thing is,she hasn't had the tele on at all, not once.

[GroundEffect]

Happy82 said:

KrazyIvan said:

Daily mail said:

14. Prescription charge - £7.65

If people had to pay the true cost of most prescription medicines they might not feel so ripped off.

Perhaps they feel ripped off because if they were not working they'd get it for free? Just a thought

Or the fact we don't pay prescriptions in Scotland...

[GroundEffect]

oyster said:

doogz said:

iphonedyou said:

Takeaway pizza really is a massive rip off.

This. A pizza must cost them a couple of quid to make, yes they'll ask £15 for it.

How is it £2 to make?

There's probably about £2 of ingredients, £2 of labour and a few pence for the box.
Then there's pizza oven, fridges, delivery vans/bikes, delivery fuel, shop energy costs, business insurance, accounting fees, business rates and so on and so on.

Then how do you explain that you can go to a local 'indy' fast food chain and get more for half the price? That can't be purely ingredients cost...

[Murcielago_Boy]

Facebook IPO

[iphonedyou]

sjc said:

A couple of quid ....And business rates,and staff wages,lighting,heating,phone,building insurance,employers/liability insurance,packaging,equipment maintenance,corp tax,etc etc etc etc. Oh and if they make a few quid after that, they might take on another premises creating more jobs and paying more taxes to the treasury through their gains.
Profit is a hell of a dirty word in this country.

Eh? I can sit in, in a lovely restarant with waiter service, and have a beautifully cooked steak in lovely surroundings for literally a fiver more.

Business rates, staff wages, lighting, heating, phone, building insurance... yada yada... are built into all foods. It's specifically pizza we're talking about here; for the price charged, it's a rip off. Relative to other food prepared by others.

Nothing to do with profit being a dirty word. Nothing at all.

Also love the post by some wag who stated it's not a rip off because you don't have to eat it. Jesus Christ

Edited by iphonedyou on Friday 3rd August 13:30

[KrazyIvan]

sjc said:

Happy82 said:

KrazyIvan said:

sjc said:

My mum having to pay to have the TV on in hospital for 5 weeks, when it's free in Prison.

so the thousands a day she was no doubt receiving in medical care and attention(and rightly entitled to do so), was not enough, you think the NHS should also have to pay a 3rd party for her entrainment while she is in hospital as well. 10 years ago people in hospital used to get by with visitor, book and magazine all paid for with out complaint by themselves, funny how times change.

And years ago prisoners used to get by with basic food and a cell, funny how times change

Cheers, my point exactly, but someone tried to be a smug pseudo intellectual.Ironic thing is,she hasn't had the tele on at all, not once.

Not smug at all, like you I have had several family members in hospital over the last few years, and one who didn't make it out, and am sick an tried of whine people like you complaining that you might have to pay for a service while in hospital. Perhaps you would like our hospitals to be more like prisons.

[toasty]

[Tyre Tread]

P-Jay said:

iphonedyou said:

P-Jay said:

Bottled Water is something that really gets on my nerve. Both from the rip-off price of it, and because it's possibly one of the most environmentally wasteful products in the world.

Why? I'd have thought there are a huge number of products that are more damaging to extract / refine / produce / manufacture / distribute / dispose of.

Oh no doubt in terms of extraction and disposal I doubt it would break the top 100, it's the sheer bloodyminded waste and marketing BS that goes into it.

In the western world we're fortunate enough to be surrounded by almost endless supplies of fresh clean drinking water, it's collected, cleaned, and pumped to our homes and pretty much every other place people congregate - and I know we moan about water bills, but in terms of pence to litre it is staggeringly cheap considering the infrastructure in place. I would imagine someone from the 3rd world would be more envious of the taps in our kitchens than they would be by our flat screen TV's and central heating. We've got some much of it in fact when we're asked not to spray it from hose pipes we're up in arms.

But despite this, the bottled water industry is booming, and it's total bullst. There are no health benefits to it, it doesn't give you the power of a volcano or make babies rollerblade. It's collected from one place that has lots of fresh water, treated, bottled, marketed to death, transported 100's or 1000's of miles to another place with lots of fresh water and we're asked to pay, what? £2+ in a service station for half a litre of the stuff.

I know Environmental Issues are as popular as turds on PH, but no one can argue Oil has become a finite resource, and growing demand means we're all paying fortunes for it. Why would anyone want to be ripped off for water we can get for next to nowt at home, when the end result is increased oil prices because off all the oil that's used treating it for shelf-life, making the plastic bottles and shipping the crap from one source to another?

Amen to that! (or +1 if you prefer)

Bottled water and parking charges!

[Funkateer]

Any tax on owning/running a vehicle - wouldn't be bad if it was ringfenced into the roads, or transport in general (like subsidising a nationalised rail service). Still we'd rather fund wars and Olympics before the lifeblood of the economy.

The M6 Toll.

[PeanutHead]

toasty said:

Knowing there is limited areas and spaces, boosts up the charges.
Very similar to my kiosks post.

[vonuber]

Another one for bottled water here. The most pointless product to be sold in the UK - you might as well just burn your money in the garden.

[richardxjr]

Everything in Motorway Services.

[voyds9]

Adrian W said:

My council tax, it should be the same all over the country

They tried that and got riots because apparently it was unfair to the breeders.

[oyster]

iphonedyou said:

sjc said:

A couple of quid ....And business rates,and staff wages,lighting,heating,phone,building insurance,employers/liability insurance,packaging,equipment maintenance,corp tax,etc etc etc etc. Oh and if they make a few quid after that, they might take on another premises creating more jobs and paying more taxes to the treasury through their gains.
Profit is a hell of a dirty word in this country.

Eh? I can sit in, in a lovely restarant with waiter service, and have a beautifully cooked steak in lovely surroundings for literally a fiver more.

Business rates, staff wages, lighting, heating, phone, building insurance... yada yada... are built into all foods. It's specifically pizza we're talking about here; for the price charged, it's a rip off. Relative to other food prepared by others.

Nothing to do with profit being a dirty word. Nothing at all.

Also love the post by some wag who stated it's not a rip off because you don't have to eat it. Jesus Christ

Edited by iphonedyou on Friday 3rd August 13:30

You have missed the most important point which is that pizzas almost never cost the £15 you quote because there is a myriad of offers available.

[iphonedyou]

vonuber said:

Another one for bottled water here. The most pointless product to be sold in the UK - you might as well just burn your money in the garden.

But an awful lot of people like bottled water. As in, they enjoy the taste. Like I enjoy the taste of beer, or coke.

[iphonedyou]

oyster said:

You have missed the most important point which is that pizzas almost never cost the £15 you quote because there is a myriad of offers available.

I've missed nothing. I'm quoting the price used as the basis of the study in the quoted article. To quote any other price would be misleading, and akin to comparing apples to oranges.


ETA: apologies; £16.99

The article states people think £16.99 for a pizza is a rip off. No point discussing whether it's also a rip off with some random offer attached that the study doesn't take into account. Mind, if they're virtually never sold at at full price, there's a strong argument that £16.99 is artifically inflated to make the half price offers more attractive. Thus leading me to the same conclusion.

Dominos. Like DFS, but with pizza.

Edited by iphonedyou on Friday 3rd August 13:43

[Deva Link]

vonuber said:

Another one for bottled water here. The most pointless product to be sold in the UK - you might as well just burn your money in the garden.

We buy it by the case from Costco and it's about £2.50 for 24 bottles. Handy to have around.

Having it taken me off me at airport security so I have to buy one airside makes me want to cry though.

[10 Pence Short]

Happy82 said:

KrazyIvan said:

sjc said:

My mum having to pay to have the TV on in hospital for 5 weeks, when it's free in Prison.

so the thousands a day she was no doubt receiving in medical care and attention(and rightly entitled to do so), was not enough, you think the NHS should also have to pay a 3rd party for her entrainment while she is in hospital as well. 10 years ago people in hospital used to get by with visitor, book and magazine all paid for with out complaint by themselves, funny how times change.

And years ago prisoners used to get by with basic food and a cell, funny how times change

It may have changed now, but TVs in cells used to cost each prisoner 50p a week from their accounts. Their account money can come from either their earnings for work done in prison and/or postal orders sent in on their behalf. The TVs are typically 14" CRTs (though new ones more likely to be LCD) and I'd imagine the cost of each to the tax payer would be somewhere in the region of £75 or so. If you imagine most cells in closed prison are doubled up, so that's £1 a week towards the cost of the TV. That means that each TV is paid for by the prisoners in less than 18 months, either through their own work (at considerably lower cost than employing outside people to do it) or from their own money sent in by PO. If each TV only lasted 3 years that would mean you were doubling your money on each one over its lifetime.

Let's not get facts in the way of internet ramblings, though.