What is the WORST "value" you ever paid for?

[MJ DeMarco]

In the spirit of the lengthy sister post of WHAT IS THE BEST VALUE...

NOTABLE! - What is the BEST "value" you ever paid for?

WHAT IS SOME OF THE WORST VALUE YOU EVER PAID FOR?

I'll start...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Picazzo's, a specialty pizza joint...

http://www.picazzos.com/

Ordered a couple of specialty pizzas.

Ordered no alcohol. No appetizers.

The bill, with tip, was close to $100.

For freaking pizza.

And it was just OK.

This is not to impugn their food-- it's usually really good.

But $100 for pizza is a reach.

Afterward I was like, "Woah, what just happened?" LOL.

 

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[Kennypaul]

My PlayStation 2.
Back then,I thought it was one of the most "valuable" things to own.
Turned out to be one of the biggest liabilities I ever paid for in my life!.

When I look back,I still ask myself "What the hell was I doing with my time"?

 

[Maxboost]

True Religion Jeans...paid 250-300$ a pair...yup I was a sucker moving with the herd...total waste of money.

 

[socaldude]

I went to Las Vegas a few months ago and stayed at the MGM grand, the food court had a burger joint where I paid $120 for hamburgers for four people. WTF? It wasn't even that good.

Oh, and I lost about $3k gambling at their other syndicate resorts. Horrible slots and table games. But then again their games do have a negative EV, so I can only blame myself.

My college degree was a waste of money. Spent $50k to learn finance and outdated business ideas stuck in the 80s. Dumb. Should of just learned how to trade options.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Best Western in Fredericksberg, TX

I'll never forget my experience there. It's much worse than the 2 star review I left them on Trip Advisor describes -- which you can read here. Or just scroll down. It's one of the only reviews I've left in my entire life that wasn't positive.

Poor management. Old building. Stay at Comfort Inn across the street.

We arrived at 9ish in the morning in Fredericksburg after several hours of driving. We were just passing through to San Antonio for a doctor's visit. We ate a good breakfast and dropped by the hotel on the off chance they might have a room open that early.

No cars in the lot on arrival. Whole place looks empty. Went inside and asked about earlycheck in. Manager looks at me like I'm an idiot and says they were busy last night. She didn't bother checking the computer. I asked if we could check back in a few hours around noon. She says check in is at 3. So come back after 3.

Note: it wasn't what she said that bothered me. It was how the whole situation was approached and how it was said.

So my wife and I, both military members, decided to explore the town since it was Veteran's day and we had a while. We walked the main strip of the town and spent hours killing time until we were finally pretty tired at 2. Now we returned to the hotel hoping something might be ready by now...

Same manager. Same response. Same attitude. Tells us to go find something to do because there's lots of stuff to do in this town. So I double tapped the question because it seemed unlikely they would have 0 rooms by 2 pm. Again she didn't bother checking the computer. Just blew us off.

So now we waited in our car outside the hotel until 3. This time I wore a body cam inside to make sure I document our stay for Trip Advisor. Now it was someone different at the desk and he was much more friendly and helpful. I was able to finally check in and got our room keys.

We went to the second floor with our bags. The first thing we notice is how hot the hallway and elevator are. Then we discover our keys don't work. I try both several times, then ask the desk clerk about it. Instead of taking my word he tries the keys on the side door which is supposed to be locked but isn't so it doesn't work. Then he goes to our room and tries and they don't work so finally he reactivates them.

I took video of most of this and I'll upload when I get back home. Also filmed the parking lot multiple times throughout the stay and there was never more than 2 or 3 cars total.

The room itself was very dated. Old green carpet and old appliances. I also filmed a nasty stain on our bedding.

In the morning we tried to leave around 4 am. The night clerk said he couldn't check us out for another 20 minutes because he hadn't done the night audit yet. He was friendly but didn't seem to know how to handle the situation. Finally he suggested he can finish the process without us and send a receipt to our email. I accepted and we left.

Overall we were not impressed with the service or the hotel. Friendliness goes a long way but management couldn't even manage that. Plus the hotel needs a major overhaul.

When we come through Fredericksburg again we'll stay somewhere else like the Comfort Inn across the street or LaQuinta down the road. Both cost less and had better service. If I were you I would truly deeply consider your options because Fredericksburg has plenty of other places that are happy to go over the top to earn your business.

Also, 5 minutes after we left I hit a deer in our rental. Would I have hit that deer if the clerk hadn't delayed us? Who knows. But I did hit it and it's associated with the memory forever.

From time to time TripAdvisor brightens my day by sending an email that tells me how many people my review reached. That makes me smile a little.

 

[GSF]

In the spirit of the lengthy sister post of WHAT IS THE BEST VALUE...

NOTABLE! - What is the BEST "value" you ever paid for?

WHAT IS SOME OF THE WORST VALUE YOU EVER PAID FOR?

I'll start...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Picazzo's, a specialty pizza joint...

http://www.picazzos.com/

Ordered a couple of specialty pizzas.

Ordered no alcohol. No appetizers.

The bill, with tip, was close to $100.

For freaking pizza.

And it was just OK.

This is not to impugn their food-- it's usually really good.

But $100 for pizza is a reach.

Afterward I was like, "Woah, what just happened?" LOL.

Where do I start ...lol;
Food poisoning from our hotel resorts restaurant on day 1 of our holiday, spent half the holiday sick lol.

Many overhyped boxing fights I got sucked into paying for that didn't live up to the hype,

a few second hand vehicles which weren't as advertised with hidden faults. (Should have checked them over better before buying)

Years ago A diamond necklace of the Internet I bought for a girlfriends birthday that used a nice description and stock photo of a shiny white diamond and when it arrived had a huge black flaw through the middle and its colour was yellow, horrible non existent customer service (lesson learned stick to certified diamonds from known certifiers and if it's cheap its probably cheap for a reason lol)

 

[JAJT]

Almost any children's toy these days.

Seriously - I almost started a toy company because of this.

The BIGGEST disappointment I have felt with a product I've purchased is children's toys. They break the SECOND you try to use them. Some don't work out of the box. Especially electronic toys. It's unconscionable.

Birthdays and random occasions aren't too bad because I can often return those things and exchange for better things, but Christmas is brutal. "Why did Santa give us a toy that breaks?" is a heartbreaking question to answer on what should be one of the happiest days of the year for my kids.

What blows my mind is this is the case at ALL price points. Spending more doesn't seem to get you better quality at all. It's infuriating.

Toys these days are 99% marketing, flashing lights, high expectations, commercials and 1% build "quality".

Honestly, I'm worked up just thinking about this.

I don't know if there's even a market for improved toys but honestly if I was seeing facebook ads for toys that didn't suck I'd be clicking every single damn one of them come Christmas time.

 

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[Dark Knight]

case for iphone 7 dolce & gabbana for 100 $ ... After a week of use, I did not like it anymore

 

[Sagemoney]

The Cartier glasses in my profile picture lol

It's sort of a "tradition" in Detroit that once you've "made it" you go and buy yourself some 2000 dollar Cartier glasses, so you can stunt on those less fortunate and have women falling at your feet or something like that.

As it turns out the fad has become so ubiquitous that people are using their tax refunds, rent money etc to buy them and they're literally everywhere now. Instead of becoming unique you become carbon copy.

I sold them 3 weeks later for 500 bucks. Lesson learned.

 

[Chx]

I once bought a $13 ticket to the Emoji Movie.

The main character is named "Gene Meh".

A prime example of negative value, if you'd ask me. I figuratively had to rinse my eyes out for a few hours afterward.

 

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[ironman150]

prescription glasses for a few hundred bucks...all i use now are the $2 cheaters i get a walmart.

 

[ironman150]

Almost any children's toy these days.

Seriously - I almost started a toy company because of this.

The BIGGEST disappointment I have felt with a product I've purchased is children's toys. They break the SECOND you try to use them. Some don't work out of the box. Especially electronic toys. It's unconscionable.

Birthdays and random occasions aren't too bad because I can often return those things and exchange for better things, but Christmas is brutal. "Why did Santa give us a toy that breaks?" is a heartbreaking question to answer on what should be one of the happiest days of the year for my kids.

What blows my mind is this is the case at ALL price points. Spending more doesn't seem to get you better quality at all. It's infuriating.

Toys these days are 99% marketing, flashing lights, high expectations, commercials and 1% build "quality".

Honestly, I'm worked up just thinking about this.

I don't know if there's even a market for improved toys but honestly if I was seeing facebook ads for toys that didn't suck I'd be clicking every single damn one of them come Christmas time.

and the hunt starts now...facebook ads in 6 months.

 

[Mr.Brandtastic]

All the various get rich quick schemes over the years. From sports betting, to binary options, to Forex trading, making low-effort website, yea, the list goes on.

 

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[Guest92dX]

Man, I'm still laughing at the $100 pizza, but I'm even moreso laughing at that fact that it wasn't a sweat to buy $100 pizza for MJ DeMarco.

The worst value for me ever was paying $25 for a doctor's visit plus insurnace down with $7 spent on ibprofen.

It nearly killed me. I had an easily diagnosable condition that a doctor didn't care to evaluate. He thought I was overreacting.

One collapsed lung and another half collapsed lung later with a possible movement that could have exploded my heart, I received $500 of the best value ever.

It nearly killed me in the process.

I am better now, but it is the first thing doctors check.

Be careful with international flights. Blood clots happen easily.

Seriously, fly first class in sleep pods if possible so you don't have to thank me for telling you.

If you can't fly first class then definitely and most definitely get up and walk around. You need to accept the jet lag so you don't get serious clots that will have you taking blood thinners (aka first gen rat poison) for years.

I'm not on the thinners anymore, but good healthcare is hard to get.

Also, your mileage may vary as I blood condition that is susceptible to high altitude.

 

[BrooklynHustle]

In the spirit of the lengthy sister post of WHAT IS THE BEST VALUE...

NOTABLE! - What is the BEST "value" you ever paid for?

WHAT IS SOME OF THE WORST VALUE YOU EVER PAID FOR?

I'll start...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Picazzo's, a specialty pizza joint...

http://www.picazzos.com/

Ordered a couple of specialty pizzas.

Ordered no alcohol. No appetizers.

The bill, with tip, was close to $100.

For freaking pizza.

And it was just OK.

This is not to impugn their food-- it's usually really good.

But $100 for pizza is a reach.

Afterward I was like, "Woah, what just happened?" LOL.

lmao, that is F*cking crazy

but hey... they've gotten you to talk about it, so... free marketing?

The $100 Cheesesteak

The $100 Mixtape

Contagious by Jonah Berger

 

[Guest92dX]

I don't know about a $100 mixtape.

Call me cheap, but I'm not paying $100 for an official album.

To be fair, Nippsey hustle is a decent rapper. He's decent. Being a successful rapper is harder than ever now. Maybe a $100 mixtape is appropriate.

I could see paying $100 for a mixtape or official album with the concept story of the music and including how you built the album with like music selection etc.

 

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[BrooklynHustle]

I don't know about a $100 mixtape.

Call me cheap, but I'm not paying $100 for an official album.

To be fair, Nippsey hustle is a decent rapper. He's decent. Being a successful rapper is harder than ever now. Maybe a $100 mixtape is appropriate.

I could see paying $100 for a mixtape or official album with the concept story of the music and including how you built the album with like music selection etc.

Point is he didn't need you to.

He only needed 1000 of his biggest fans to give him $100... turns out they were willing to do that.

Bigger than that was to get people talking because the project was different than the norm.

Is this the be all and end all to marketing... of course not.

But worth thinking about how to make your products, services, and even your markting campaigns worth being talked about.

 

[Guest92dX]

I didn't check the link. I just saw the reference. I've heard him on other mixtapes.

He's not the first, which is why I said it is probably appropriate.

Nikki minaj made tons of money off of her mixtapes.

I would love to discuss the music industry further, but I don't want to derail the thread.

Cliff notes:

Mixtapes can be good or bad value.

 

[akTwelve]

I paid about $2k for Ramit Sethi’s Dream Job course a few years ago before reading TMF . It just told you how to search the internet for slow lane jobs and go after one. The worst part is I procrastinated and didn’t take advantage of the money back guarantee. It didn’t hurt me financially, but the memory still hurts.

 

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[csalvato]

Almost any children's toy these days.

Seriously - I almost started a toy company because of this.

The BIGGEST disappointment I have felt with a product I've purchased is children's toys. They break the SECOND you try to use them. Some don't work out of the box. Especially electronic toys. It's unconscionable.

Birthdays and random occasions aren't too bad because I can often return those things and exchange for better things, but Christmas is brutal. "Why did Santa give us a toy that breaks?" is a heartbreaking question to answer on what should be one of the happiest days of the year for my kids.

What blows my mind is this is the case at ALL price points. Spending more doesn't seem to get you better quality at all. It's infuriating.

Toys these days are 99% marketing, flashing lights, high expectations, commercials and 1% build "quality".

Honestly, I'm worked up just thinking about this.

I don't know if there's even a market for improved toys but honestly if I was seeing facebook ads for toys that didn't suck I'd be clicking every single damn one of them come Christmas time.

That's why Melissa and Doug crushed this space.

 

[csalvato]

I paid about $2k for Ramit Sethi’s Dream Job course a few years ago before reading TMF . It just told you how to search the internet for slow lane jobs and go after one. The worst part is I procrastinated and didn’t take advantage of the money back guarantee. It didn’t hurt me financially, but the memory still hurts.

I paid for a Remit course about 5 years ago. His "Earn 1K" Course. I have regretted it ever since, and felt too guilty to ask for a refund. Felt completely valueless.

 

[KLaw]

Hands down. The worst value ever...the cable, land line, and internet bundle. I was scared to death to cancel but it was, by far, the best decision I made.

 

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[NuclearPuma]

I went to a wedding a few months ago and the hotel I stayed at was over $200 a night and it was a total dump. It was hardly better than a $60 per night motel. As soon as I saw the hotel room I wished I had picked differently. Literally there was a strip club next door with flashing neon signs and it was next to a highway. It was a hotel chain I've had good experiences with before so I was not expecting what I got when I arrived.

 

[mike24601]

Before TMF , I once bought an extended warranty from a car dealership. $1200 for 12,000 miles of coverage, lol. Came to my senses a few weeks later and canceled it...got most of my money back too!

 

[ZF Lee]

My worst purchase?
Although it was my parents who ultimately footed the bill, I could ultimately say yes or no. Of course, with a bit of criticism from my parents' part, of course...and arguing.

Badminton classes.
Ruined the sport for me. Around 8-10 years old of age. I'm 19 years old, BTW.

All I wanted was just a simple activity to keep fit. But well, parents taught I was going to become a weakling, as I was a more bookish person, so I got sent to one.

It was more catered for training competitive players, rather than leisure.

Terrible environment. Met lots of hotshots who were more interested in showing off their badminton skills than to engage in progressive training and to offer help to newbies. One of the older kids bullied me all the day by challenging me to matches I couldn't win. Like a jackass, I complied, given that at such a young age, I didn't understand concepts of EQ. But that's another story. However, great programs shouldn't encourage this sentiment in the first place.

Lots of group think among the more skilled fellows of the badminton class. Plus, the coach was too laissez-faire to be of any significant impact to my performance.

If I wanted a leisure sports meetup, I should have gone to a meetup.com event. But well, spending power was up to my parents at that time. And how would they know of such online amenities? They picked the coach based on some recommendations, but I don't think they checked it pretty well.

I made sure in the future that I had my own means to take care of my own fitness.

These days I jog, climb more stairs instead of the lift and swim. Free of charge, and yes, once in a while, I run into great people willing to talk about great experiences in life.

Piano lessons from a regular instructor.
I didn't find many Asian classical music creations. I wondered why. Couldn't we Asians create music on our own, as opposed to doing the same Western classic rehash?

Then I found out the hard way.

Long story short, I had an instructor that drilled me into playing piano, repeating pieces over and over again without meaning. I didn't get to understand why the musical piece was created, based on the context of that era's time and vital arpeggios or scales that made the backbone of the music piece. It was mostly, 'Finish this piece up or you will fail.'

I was strictly taught based on doing 'what' rather than 'why'. Memorise the notes, rinse and repeat. No purpose.

How should I feel the need for music, besides satisfying my Asian parents? I wasn't taught on how music can be related to my goals. Did I really need to be a musician? Or did I need to learn music in order to have it as a hobby? Can my education in music help people? Make them happy, hardworking, concentrated?

I don't think that the instructor was at fault here. I just didn't have the need (or FTE, for a stronger word) to learn up the technical aspects of music.

Later, I found that learning music wasn't supposed to be that restrictive.

I found that I shouldn't have been shoving musical notes down my head. Instead, I have to rely on my ears to learn music, just as a chief relies on his ability to taste to create fantastic dishes. And yes, have meaning and purpose for playing music.

I picked up my piano again when I found meaning and purpose. That meaning and purpose changed across a few years. I played for church briefly, then for band as a trumpeter, and then for my girl, when I got tired of the conventional crap of giving shop-bought gifts to her.

I learned from a church piano training program. I looked up on the Internet and hit up forums. Some YouTube videos. Free or dirt cheap. And minus the instructor pressure.

Lessons learned
I probably wasn't qualified for the value that these courses brought me. My personality, as well as my personal motivations for making those purchases didn't make the cut.

And these things weren't exactly hard necessities like bread and butter. They were more of enrichment programs, and of course, their value can be very subjective.

Of course, though, they also had flaws of their own. Both the value providers and I didn't fit in together ultimately.

Should the value provider adjust itself to provide better value, or should the customer adjust himself to enjoy the product or service better?

Typically in a selfish market, it is the norm for companies to do more of the work adjusting themselves and perfecting gaps in service offerings. However, if the customer ends up screaming that the drink is not sweet when he has not even shaken it as instructed, there might be an issue.

Which brings me to a story I just heard recently on the perception of value:

'There was once a king who wanted to taste the tastiest dish of all. So he asked his adviser, Mugrim, to bring him the tastiest dish of all.

Mugrim said, 'The tastiest dish is hunger. When you are full, no food can satisfy you. But when you are starving, even dry bread is tasty to you.'

 

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[Argue]

Ha, damn this thread gives me bad memories.

A few months back, my normal barber who I've been going to for years, went on vacation.

So I had no choice and got my haircut at a different barbershop. Damn, this barber did a horrible job cutting my hair and gave me the Lebron hairline. It was bad. My girl couldn't stop laughing.

My self-esteem tanked faster then bitcoin.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

Tech Support

I was forced to buy tech support for my point of sale systems at my last business. $1,500 per year per location.

The only techs in my area that were capable of working on them refused to do work for me if I didn't have the tech support, and the POS brand would not sell parts to me if I did not buy it.

Nobody could speak English.
LONG wait times.
Their only solution was to restart it or dispatch a tech.
Often had LONG downtime's due to their incompetence.
They password protected my system with a daily changing password that I was not privy to. (couldn't even restart it without the password)
They couldn't bill me for their own service correctly.
It cost more if I did not pre-pay an entire year in advance.

Horrible service from a terrible company that built a shit POS to begin with. But, they dominate the market anyway...

 

[JAJT]

Oh I have another - my GS1 account.

It costs me $565 per year in Canada for this "privilege" and all they do is give me official account/product numbers so that anyone can look them up to make sure my barcodes are legit.

Things they hilariously don't do:

- Generate the numbers for you (they have a tool that lets you generate them one at a time, after you enter certain information into it, and they give you the math needed to figure it out yourself, but they don't give you any kind of tool to generate all the codes you are entitled to - if you do it in excel you need to figure out the convoluted formula yourself)
- Generate the barcode images for you (they give some links to software and services that either don't work, or cost even more money).
- Tell you ANYTHING about what you should use for what applications (you have a physical product and want to know what images to produce to put on your box? Good luck. With that.) .
- Offer any real help of any kind, whatsoever. Their staff are clueless.

I posted a large write-up on this on the inside in my progress thread because of how annoying the whole process was. The fact that it's one of the most expensive services I pay for in the year is infuriating.

Many larger businesses won't look at you if your barcodes don't match GS1 registration information and all the cheap sites are just re-selling expired numbers that match up to random companies/products in the database so there really is no other options here. I've heard even Amazon is starting to look at this seriously (don't quote me on that - I recall reading about it in my research but don't recall exactly the details).

 

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[Fox]

Two years ago I was trying to arrange for a paid shout out on Instagram to promote an app I had.
I contacted some big pages with 500k - 1 million followers. I also contacted some smaller ones.
I was new to IG shout outs so in my message I said to email me (not DM me back) if they wanted to work with me.

I got one email which appeared to be from the biggest page that had insane engagement. I couldn't believe it. We worked out a deal for 500 dollars and I was counting up all the money I would instantly make back. But...

Turns out it was the smallest page I had contacted since there was a one letter different in their usernames lol. I paid $500 to promote one post (for two hours!!!) on a page with maybe 20 likes per pic haha. I was actually impressed they had the balls to ask for that much. 500 isn't a lot now but at the time this was like half my marketing budget. I was so pissed but completely my own fault.

I think that is my biggest waste of money ever. $500 for 2hours, 12 likes, and no sales.

 

[Argue]

Two years ago I was trying to arrange for a paid shout out on Instagram to promote an app I had.
I contacted some big pages with 500k - 1 million followers. I also contacted some smaller ones.
I was new to IG shout outs so in my message I said to email me (not DM me back) if they wanted to work with me.

I got one email which appeared to be from the biggest page that had insane engagement. I couldn't believe it. We worked out a deal for 500 dollars and I was counting up all the money I would instantly make back. But...

Turns out it was the smallest page I had contacted since there was a one letter different in their usernames lol. I paid $500 to promote one post (for two hours!!!) on a page with maybe 20 likes per pic haha. I was actually impressed they had the balls to ask for that much. 500 isn't a lot now but at the time this was like half my marketing budget. I was so pissed but completely my own fault.

I think that is my biggest waste of money ever. $500 for 2hours, 12 likes, and no sales.

Lmao that sucks. Every marketing dollar counts and that hurts so bad haha. Definitely a great learning experience we can learn from tho.