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Predatory Business Tactics That Should Be Illegal But Aren't

Reddit user jwwin asked: 'What is a predatory business that shouldn't be legal, but is?'

Demonstrator holds sign that reads, "Drop this act of corporate gree!"
Patrick Perkins/Unsplash

Companies are typically in business for profit, and very few have the goal of keeping the customer's interests in mind.

But some corporations go even further to get more out of their customer in exchange for their "quality services" and as a result, the line between general business and scam becomes blurred.

Redditor jwwin asked:

"What is a predatory business that shouldn't be legal, but is?"

Students paying an exorbitant amount in tuition in order to seek higher learning should be warned there are additional expenses to cover for.

A Textbook Example

"College textbooks, they will release an 'updated' edition every semester but the information doesn't change. And then after you spent a fortune on the books the places that buy textbooks will give you like 5% of what you paid for the book."

– teethalarm

A "Double Whammy"

"Former Prof here. I talked with a book rep about this once and learned a lot. It is a bit complicated but worth understanding. Book publishers rely on large quantity sales to make any money on a book because the cost of production is so high up front (author, editors, printing, etc.). So, for a book to be profitable, it has to sell a lot of copies to spread the cost of production across all the books. A paperback in the fiction section might sell 100,000 or more. A textbook might sell as few as 1,000. So, the publisher needs everyone to buy the book to break even."

"Now add colleges into the mix. Somewhere in the 1980s (give or take), colleges saw publishers selling books and making larger profits on them than the college bookstore was making per book. So they got the bright idea to start buying used texts and reselling them. Before that, a text would come out and 97% (making the number up but it was close to that) of the students would buy the book in year one, 85% in year two, 75% in year three, 60% in year four and 50% in year five. A $50 dollar book would cost $25 to make (again, making the numbers up), sell to the bookstore for $40 ($15 publisher profit), and be sold to the student for $50 ($10 bookstore profit). Across the five years, the producer would make a profit."

"Then, college bookstores began offering students $25 for a used book and selling it for $40 ($15 profit - $5 higher than that of a new book). Students would then prefer the $40 used book over the $50 new book. But that cut the publisher's sales from 97% to 50% in the first year. Because they could not sell as many books they had to do two things: (1) raise the initial price of the text to cover the production cost in 1-2 years rather than 4-5 years, and (2) cut the cycle down from 4-5 years to 1-2 years to ensure that they got sales of the book. That is a double whammy. Texts that used to cost $50 now cost $300 or more. And they have a new version out every 18 months or so. Students refuse to pay that price and that cuts the sales numbers even further forcing the price up again. And, with new editions out so frequently, it is harder to sell them back to the bookstore."

"That's why you see so many 'course packs' now - where a professor will pick a few pages from a book to give to the students. I went from having nearly every student purchasing a text in my early career to having zero students with a text late in my career. Your professor probably dislikes the state of affairs as much as you do. I cut down what books I would select because I could not justify students paying that much for what they were getting. I would also recommend students look for older editions on Amazon and the like which got me in trouble with my administration because I was not supporting the bookstore. But, it was difficult to teach from a text that no one had or had access to. The University's desire to generate revenue from texts truly was killing the chicken because it was not producing enough eggs."

"So look for an older edition on Chegg, Amazon, or the like and match it up with what your professor is teaching from the new edition. You are right, it probably has not changed. Be careful for the problems at the end of the chapter - that is often where the changes are."

– BewnieBound

These businesses parade as services but they are notorious for taking more than what you're willing to pay for.

For A Future Owner

"Rent to Own (furniture, appliances, TVs, video game systems, etc.) The mark up on the interest over time ends up costing 4 times the purchase - or more."

– PartyAlarmed3796

"Well the trick is to not pay (seems to be what a lot of people do)."

– Expensive_Ad2695

"Which is why those places are so expensive and why they're actually kinda necessary for some people."

"They're taking a pretty big risk on people with no credit, and if a person with shi*ty credit needs a refrigerator or other necessary appliance, there's usually nobody else willing to work with them. Also, most of them report to credit agencies so you can build your credit through them."

"I'm not a fan by any means and I hate that people are buying video game systems and couches through them, but I still think they're filling a need."

– Pitiful-Pension-6535

Money Sucker

"Payday loan companies – they're like financial vampires, sucking the life out of people with high-interest rates."

– neonliolia

"And yet most of them are owned by major banks... hmmmm."

"Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, JP Morgan/Chase collectively all own the largest payday lender companies."

– Bramtyre

"In Canada, there is an effort to turn Canada Post into a kind of bank that offers basic banking services to the most vulnerable. Not sure what happened to that, but it was an alternative to check cashing and payday loan rackets."

– hobbitlover

Greedy Event Vendor

"Ticket Master."

– LTVOLT

"Agreed. We went to a preseason hockey game the other week. Tickets were $5 each but there was around $8 of Ticketmaster fees for each one and you had to use their app to get in the door because the barcodes change like every 30 seconds or something. It's ridiculous."

– darfus1895

Where can citizens turn to receive genuine care without drying up their financial resources?

Big Pharma

"Health Insurance and over priced perscription drugs."

"Wife is type 1 diabetic. Her pump is over $1000 a month WITH 50% coverage. $177 for just the sensor pack. We have the best coverage we can afford."

– Dukeboys_

"US pays the middle man for health care coverage. The middle man and the health care provider come up with "health packages" you can buy into, just in case you get sick. It's just sick how they funnel money from the middle class into this."

– dcoolidge

"Healthcare insurance industry. They can straight up reject claims you should be covered for and make you jump through near endless hoops to get them to pay for the service that is part of your plan."

– ColdHardPocketChange

All Out To Get Ya

"Homeopathic 'medicine' sellers."

"Psychics"

"Domain search engine registration scams (fake emails or physical mail that shows up saying 'your domain search registration is about to expire' and look exactly like warnings that your domain name is about to expire)"

"Fake homeowner warranty/car warranty scams loaded with so many limitations and exclusions they’ll basically never pay out."

"Multilevel marketing systems like Amway."

– 4wqrewtety

Losing Sight Of Kids' Well-Being

"From my experience working in group homes for youth are awful. The owners only want money and the more kids in care the more money."

– OddReputation3765

Going Nowhere Fast

"Car insurance."

"You get penalized for using it. Even just once in some cases."

– Effective_Sundae_839

"1000% agree. I was rear ended by a hit and run driver while i was stopped at a stop sign. Literally came to a stop for 3 seconds max and got destroyed. Car insurance wanted to give me 4k and shut me up. It’s called the nuisance fee. I eventually lawyered up and got 25k out of it. But like wtf. B*tch that’s what we PAY FOR, following renewal of my policy it increased hundreds of dollars a month and that was even after i switched to a different company. 'A claim is a claim regardless who is at fault.'”

– HitBackZach

Businesses taking advantage of their customers should be a crime, yet here we are.

What companies can you think of that legally continue to look after their own profitable interests above providing a decent service?

We've all experienced poor customer service, even at some of our favorite places.

Though we might think certain places are completely reliable, every now and again we might find our food taking an unexpectedly long time, or be treated less than cordially by a new employee.

In most cases, these unfortunate situations were something of a fluke and won't stop us from going back in the future.

Of course, there are more extreme cases, which see the end of our ever using or frequenting certain businesses ever again.

Redditor OpposedToBears was curious to hear cases of businesses permanently losing customers through their practices, leading them to ask:

"How did a business permanently lose you as a customer?"

Bank Robbery... Done By The Bank!

"I had been a Wells Fargo account holder for 13 years."

"I started with a joint account with my parents as a teenager and later opened my own accounts and closed the joint account."

"My brother also had a joint account with my parents that he later closed when he opened his own account."

"He didn't really use his account with them and it was sitting empty."

"Fast forward to me being in law school and broke as a joke and my brothers account overdrawn because of some fees they were hitting it with."

"Wells Fargo decided to pull money from my almost empty account to cover my brother's overdrawn account."

"The only link between my account and his that we both, at some point in our lives, had joint accounts with my parents even though they were both now closed."

"Wells Fargo was wholly uninterested in listening to any sort of reason and repeatedly stated that this was their 'policy' despite the absurdity."

"My brother reimbursed me but I closed my account and have refused to do business with Wells Fargo on any level since."- kikithemonkey

Their Service Is Ironically Anything But "Direct"...

"Directv."

"They let you buy any movie or channel package online or with a remote, but if you want to cancel something you have to call into their 1-800 number."

"After sitting on hold forever and then having to sit through a bunch of offers on other channels and packages I just cut the cord."- ClassicPatsGamesYT

Tv Guide Satellite GIF by Eternal FamilyGiphy

Corrupt Car Salesmen Is a Cliché. That Just Won't Die...

"AutoTrader Online."

"Bought a car out of state and they never transported it."

"They also never handled the paperwork."

"Seller and I had to do it all ourselves."

"Weeks of phone calls with AutoTrader ending in, 'We promise', 'doing that now', 'just shipped', 'you should hear from them within X hours'."

"2 months.. nothing."

"Never again Autotrader."

"I don't believe your lies."

"Thank goodness seller was a decent human."- hyteck9

The Customer Is Always Right...

"I ordered carryout from a French restaurant in Pittsburgh early in the pandemic."

"The order was around $120."

"I gave them my PayPal debit card number."

"When I got to the restaurant, I added a bottle of water, which changed the amount I owed to, say, $127."

"So they processed the two orders, for a total of $247, which I did not realize until sometime the next week."

"It took over a month to get my first $120 returned to me."

"The owner of the shop could not have been any nastier, saying it was my fault."

"Never have I ever gone back there."- EnlargedBit371

Shocked Night Out GIF by Pudgy PenguinsGiphy

Makes You Wonder How They Ever Turned A Profit...

"SiriusXM called me to get me to renew my subscription."

"Here's how the convo went:"

"Me: I haven't used it in so long I didn't even know I had a subscription."

"You can go ahead and cancel it."

"SiriusXM rep: OK, your credit card on file is expired, so for you to cancel your subscription we need your updated credit card info so we can charge you for the last month of service and the cancellation fee."

"Me: Wait, so you want me to give you my credit card info so you can charge me to cancel your service, which I just told you I'm not using?"

"SiriusXM rep: Yes, that's right."

"Me: And if I don't give you my credit card info you have no way to charge me?"

"SiriusXM rep: Yes, that's right."

"Me: LMAO no. Goodbye."- OuterRimExplorer

People Expecting To Get What They Pay For Shouldn't Come As A Surprise...

"Vivid Seats."

"I purchased a floor ticket for a concert and was sent a mezzanine (2nd floor) ticket and unfortunately didn't notice til I got to the concert."

"Obviously floor tickets were WAY more expensive than the ticket I received."

"Vividseats refused to refund me because 'the seller fulfilled my order' ."

"Apparently doesn't matter if you don't get what you pay for."

"I filed a charge back with my credit card and just found out this morning that I won."

"I won't ever be using them again, customer service was horrible."- evelocityf

Desolation Row Concert GIF by My Chemical RomanceGiphy

Some Might Call This Karma...

"Twenty-seven years ago there was a little Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York City."

"We had a friend who was on tour with an entertainment act, and whenever he would pass through New York, we would all get together with him for dinner."

"He was coming through the city late one night."

"We couldn't start dinner with him until 10:00 PM."

"This was not good for my wife and me as she was in her first trimester and waiting that late for dinner was not good for her stomach."

"My wife and I had an early dinner in the city, saw a movie, and then met our friends at this Italian restaurant."

"We decided that since we were not hungry, we would buy all the appetizers for the whole table."

"There were about 12 of us."

"We also said we would not be ordering an entree."

"We were told that this was unacceptable and I asked to see the owner."

"The owner came over and informed us it was the policy of the restaurant that we must order an entree regardless of how many appetizers we purchased."

"I protested pointing out that I had ordered over $100 in appetizers and I could get 2 entrees for $15 each."

"This idiot would not budge."

"So I canceled the appetizer order and purchased 2 lasagnas instead."

"I then requested that the entrees be packaged for takeout as neither my wife nor I were hungry in the least."

"I was once again informed that the entree MUST be presented at the table before being boxed to take out."

"Neither we nor any of our friends ever set foot in there again."

"I had a client in the village four months later and I walked past that restaurant."

"It was boarded up."

"Good riddance."- Sprocketholer

Lisa Ling Thank You GIF by MaxGiphy

You Can See Right Through Them...

"Glass door."

"They're f*cked."

"Make you leave a review to read reviews."

"On top of that they delete reviews posted by employees."

"I just want to know if the company I'm applying for is a hellhole."

"That's it."- heavenstarcraft

When Communication Is Your Business, You'd Better Communicate...

"AT&T."

"I had the weirdest situation."

"We had to transfer our landline to their new service but still AT&T to AT&T."

"It took over 21 days to get it working and I called them every single day (no joke)."

"They would say the same stuff 'we'll reset the system'."

"I decided to cancel it then said well you need to pay for the cancelation fee."

"I'm like, but you guys lagged so long that it made me cancel."

"Did not budge at all and said well you missed the deadline."

"Cancelled - AT&T internet ,phone, cable."

"Cancelled - AT&T business internet/phone."

"Cancelled - AT&T Mobile."

"I understand I'm just a number and won't bring down their business but you ain't getting another dime."- shocktopper1

Internet Web GIF by Sam OmoGiphy

No matter our profession, we've all had an "off" day at least once in our lives, so it's always a good idea to give people the benefit of the doubt.

But when people don't treat others with respect or compassion, or frankly don't do their job, don't expect any kindness or understanding in return.


businessman straightening tie in dim lighting

Ben Rosett on Unsplash

In the 1987 movie Wall Street, actor Michael Douglas' antihero Gordon Gekko infamously said:

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

Wall Street GIFGiphy

The quote became a perfect representation of rampant corporate greed and corruption prevalent in the era during and after Republican President Ronald Reagan's stint in the Oval Office. The Reagan administration pushed deregulation and elimination of consumer protections.

While the government may not always step in to thwart shady or harmful businesses, consumers have one way to control them—their money.

Money talks.

Keep reading...Show less

Customer service jobs are not for the faint of heart.

Dealing with people at their angriest and rudest does not breed a positive work environment.

Customer service can be a downright toxic job.

And if it's not the customers setting your spirit on fire, it's the companies themselves.

Some companies seem to revel in creating discontent.

That's why these types of jobs have such high turnover.

Redditor Psychological-Name15 wanted the customer service reps out there to give us some truths, so they asked:

"Customer service workers of Reddit, what secret can you reveal from your former company?"

I want to know about the inner workings of Comcast!!

I loathe them!

Oh Dear

Jennifer Lopez Smh GIF by American IdolGiphy

I used to work in tech support for Citi Bank. The people working there are not intelligent. My favorite interaction went like this..."

"Banker - How do I type the upside down I?"

"Me - Ma'am, that's an exclamation point."

slappy_mcslapenstein

The Crappy People

"In every CS job I’ve ever had: we will bend over backward to help a nice person. We will expedite any complaint, give maximum compensation, and harass other areas of the business for you."

"We will do the absolute bare minimum to help a shi**y person and if you’re really bad, we will do everything in our power to make sure you get nothing but what you’re legally entitled to and it will be a process to get that."

11catsinahumansuit

"I don’t work in CS but 100% the same for us in IT a nice person will get new stuff while a shi**y person will get questionable secondhand crap that will take 12 months to fix! I will make sure that you wait as long as humanely possible to have anything fixed!"

Sharp-Demand-6614

Go to Holiday Inn

"If you ask for a supervisor calling Marriott you will just get another person who is not a supervisor, but say they are."

cryptnificent

"Yep. I've seen this done numerous times across multiple industries. Usually, it only involves an actual sup if it's a genuine problem or if they want to make a point."

"The last job I had was in towing junk cars. Two of the inside buyers, one male, and one female, would bounce that sup card around constantly. Idk how no one ever put it together. We'd get repeat callers and repeat sellers so I don't know."

ItsBobFromLumbridge

Heartless

"Worked at a contracted call center for Centrelink. The manager told us to deny as many emergency payments as possible and they would back us no matter what. They were actively working towards a culture that despised the callers and churned staff to get heartless right-wingers who hated the poor."

Rizza1122

"I feel ya. My best mate is a quadriplegic. Centrelink denied his disability pension because he wasn’t disabled enough."

Less-Storage

Go to Home Depot

You Are Dumb Patrick Star GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy

"I worked at Lowes. I didn't know anything about anything in the electrical department yet that's where they put me without any training."

Eattherich187

Not training people is not just a Lowes thing.

There are too many unqualified people doing too many things.

Switcharoo

Drag Race What GIF by TAZOGiphy

"Can confirm it's an unwritten policy for deli departments in Coles Supermarkets to change the written expiry dates on their tickets so they can sell out-of-code products at full price."

REDDIT

A Little Sunshine

"I worked at a call center for the billing department of a major internet and cable service provider. We were authorized to give up to $90 credit per customer on their bill but only as a last resort. Always remember to be nice to all customer service workers. You never know just how much they can help with a friendly attitude."

Axel_Dunce

"Former call center employee here. Highly accurate. Use your manners, and well fix your issue. Anything else, just makes us want to take longer, and you won't get a credit. Just because we are authorized, doesn't mean you'll get the credit for being an a**hat. haha. I've been verbally abused a few times for asking them not to swear at me. Lol."

Ok-Ad-7247

LELU

"I worked for a major telco company for many years in something called a ‘LELU’ which stands for Law Enforcement Liaison Unit. This 'unit' is pretty self-explanatory, but it essentially is a team who worked directly with the police/FEDS to monitor people's information for things such as obtaining communications history of call logs, SMS loss, etc."

"However, most importantly, the software we used, we as agents could directly see all your SMS texts, including MMS and their explicit imagery of whatever you were sending. This would include sexting, naked images, family photos, and everything. There were instances where people abused this position by stalking or 'monitoring' their SO’s comings and going’s."

MidniteMischief

Cookies!!

"I worked at a cafe chain called 'The Cookie Man,' 95% of their cookies arrived in cardboard boxes layered with bubble wrap. The last 5% arrived as pre-made dough that we would bake on-site to make the place smell like fresh cookies."

"I also worked at a cupcake shop. It's literally just packet mix that you add eggs and oil to before baking/piping pre-made icing onto. Don't waste your money on these places, 90% of these chain shops are the same and most are severely underpaying their workers (this is for Australia btw). Just purchase some packet mix from the supermarket and call it a day."

Frequent-Selection91

Look in the Back

"I was a Store Manager for a very large grocery chain and I can tell you that 95% of the time when customers complain to the manager, we may be professional and show empathy, and even resolve the problem."

"But then we usually just make fun of or talk crap about the person who complained to the other employees. And when a customer is really rude when we go 'look in the back' for something, we legit just stand around and talk to other employees, and make zero effort to look for the item."

A_Womans_Thoughts

From the Box

Kaitlin Olson Brunch GIF by The MickGiphy

"I once worked at 'the area's premiere day spa'; the mimosas were made with Sunny D and not real orange juice, and the wines came out of a box."

SailorVenus23

Sunny D and champagne?!?!

What in the name of Lucifer?

Who does that?!

Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.