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puerto rico vacation rip offs

Apr 22 2011 12:00AM

Just came from Puerto Rico, so here are some of my lessons learned. Puerto Rico looks like a inner city ghetto but prices are high like upscale towns. I got some amazing deals on priceline.com, but there were always extra fees at the hotels, so the price I was bidding was far from final. There either a "service fee" or clean up fee, at the hotels where I was staying. I mean I don't care that you charge me extra, but be upfront about it. Dont trick me in, and then set "fee landmines" all around to lure money from me!

geico house insurance: not reasonable

Dec 18 2010 12:00AM

So I wanted to save some money and decided to get another house insurance. Coincidentally, I was on the phone with Geico updating my car insurance, so I decided to switch, since they were offering a special discount for those who have both of their insurances with Geico. This deal saved me almost $50 per month, so I thought I was getting a deal. Not until I get a letter few moths later from Geico, telling me that I have to do 10K worth of house improvements getting new roof and that I have three weeks to do this, otherwise they cancel my insurance. By the way the letter comes two weeks before christmas when it's 30 degrees outside. Even if I really tried and was willing to spend 10K to make my house "safe" there is no way I can find a contractor to get on the roof in this weather.

Geico: you are really out of your mind, and it looks like you will not be getting much of my business any more!

Realtors Are Rip-Offs

Nov 30 2010 12:00AM

I have been doing some light house hunting lately, and realized again how that the realtors are just pack of wolfs trying to snatch a bite. In addition, the stick together with their National Association of Realtors (NAR) basically preventing healthy competition in the market. You are pretty much out of luck trying to sell your house with being in MLS and in order to get there, you have to agree to 5% commission on the sale of your house.

Here some facts:

Realtors spend most of their time marketing their services and hunting for other clients, rather than marketing your property and thus increasing your changes for selling your house for more and quicker.
Most listing agent does is tell you what your house is worth, and enters (often incorrectly) your house in MLS
There is conflict of interest when you are buying a house: despite of your agent's BS, she really wants you to pay the most for your house, because that means she gets the biggest paycheck.
There is a conflict of interest when you are selling your house: despite of your agent telling you that it her best interest to sell the house for as much as possible, the reality is she would rather sell quicker than higher, so you will get pressured to sell at the first offer.
I read this one in New York Times: the main reason realtors do open houses is not to sell your place but to get more clients. Becoming a listing agent for your neighbor is pretty much free money.

Here is an example of my recent experience. I found a great looking apartment (found it myself). I took my whole family to look at it (I mean packed the baby, drove an hour, found the what I thought was the listing agent). The listing on www.zillow.com said two bedroom apartment for 370k, when we got to the office the realtor could not find it, and it was actually selling for 500k. Then we walked with him to the listing agent's office, got the keys, walk 2 miles to see that place and to our surprise, there was one bedroom missing! So after we get in the office, he reads in the footnote (could be converted into two bedroom). Whoever is responsible for all this misrepresentation just wasted half day of our precious family time.

I am not what the stats are, but this is how I buy a house: I find it online, go drive by to get a feel for the area, and then try to find the listing agent to show me the property. I am very picky, and finding the right property takes hours, which no realtor will devote to it.

Fortunately, there seems to be some light in the end of the tunnel. There is not way to get into MLS for a flat free, so anybody can give it a try to sell their home themselves. Average prices in NYC tristate are are in around 400K and so 20k is a hefty fee for little bit of paper work a lot of BS sweet talk...

online college degree ripoffs

Nov 16 2010 12:00AM

Recently, there has been an article in the New York Times on how certain online colleges rip trick their students into pursuing degrees under false perception, that they will help them get jobs with very high earnings. The online education industry in general has long been overheated bubble that deserves to be more strictly regulated, so I am glad that at least some colleges get now the exposure. As the article points out, the for profit education has become a huge industry mostly financed by government money, and 30% of those profits go into advertising which has build another huge industry around generating potential student leads. What needs to be mentioned here is that companies like yahoo.com or google.com also highly profited from these huge advertising budgets, as the advertising market size in started to reach even to the levels of credit card or mortgages.

Prague Airport taxi (cab) drivers are rip-offs

Oct 12 2010 12:00AM

Here is an article about how bad the taxi services are in Prague, especially to clueless visitors that just flew in. In general tourists are the most common targets for scamper in any country, so make sure you read all the local tips you can before you travel. New York City is full of such rip-offs. If you are being offered something too aggressively, don't take it!

iphone 3g without at&t data plan

Sep 21 2010 12:00AM

Two months back, I got the new shiny iPhone 4G and gave my wife my old 3G iPhone, thinking she does not really need the data plan so I will not renew her contract just yet, to save some money. Yesterday I am looking at my phone bill and see that at&t automatically charges me $25 data plan for her plan. What a screw over, at&t! First, you did not even bother letting me know that you are adding service, second you automatically sold me the most expensive one data plan you have! So After calling customer service, I was told that there was a letter send year ago, that "informed" all customers that they cannot have "smart phones" without data plan.

Fortunatelly, I googeled arround and found this tutorial that let's you trick AT&T. This is what you do.

Insert the AT&T Sim card in the already activated iPhone.
Turn on WIFI and connect to the internet.
Go to unlockit.co.nz. Click “Continue To The Next Page”.
Click Disable Data (Fake APN). The Install Profile window appears.
Click Install. Another Install Profile window will popup warning you that authenticity of this profile cannot be verified. Click Install on this window too.
You should now see a message stating “Could not activate Cellular Data Network; You are not subscribed to a cellular data service.

Here is another tutorial how to hack iPhone first generation.

Hope this helped!

IT consulting rip-offs for immigrants

Sep 10 2010 12:00AM

The IT consulting/contracting business is in many ways an exploit to the US worker as well as to the foreign national. This is how the system works:

US corporation wants to save money on IT development, and after realizing that outsourcing may be not an option due to a complexity of the project, it asks an IT staffing company to provide "consultants" that would work on a particular project. The staffing company is an international company with offices in India and US, so it is allowed to transfer workers between the offices without any special visa provision (visas are granted almost automatically), so now the Indian company can ship as many workers as they want. Now since these "consultants" are Indian employees of an Indian company, they are paid "Indian" wages (with some extra bonuses + living expenses), but still being very cheap compared to local US consulting rates. The Indian company usually offers the consultant to the US client with a discount while still making a huge profit of them, so both the client (US company) and the Indian consulting company are very happy; moreover, even the consultant is very happy because she is living in the US and making more money than at home. Sounds like a win win win... so who is here to complain? Well, first it's the team of local IT professionals that lost their job before the US company decided to use "foreign" workforce to replace them. This situation also drivers the rates of local IT people down, who got their expensive education in the US. Mainly, this is really exploring an immigration loophole, where normally, in other industries it is impossible to have other people work in this country without going through a complicated immigration process. The US Immigration is aware of this, and tried to crack down on the inflow if these "consultants" checking if the immigrant has a first level working relationship with their US client (what was literally happening that these consultants were even being "sold" to other staffing agencies creating chains vendors, and why not, the margins were so large that even if a few companies take took a cut, there was enough money to be made.

In the end, there is one last person who might feel exploited after a while. After the foreign consultant lives in the US for a while, she might start feeling more like a an immigrant than a business visitor working on a project, but since they are bound to their employer through various "immigration law dependencies" they have to first "work off" their "freedom." Yes because of the immigration laws it takes years to become US resident, and the longer it takes, the money can an Indian consulting company make of a person who depends on it, and that is definitely a screw over. Why should another country make money, I mean big money off US immigration laws and backlogs?

hawaii vacation discounts for locals

Sep 8 2010 12:00AM

It appears that no matter how you try getting a Hawaii vacation deal online, the locals beat you by just simply showing up with their driver's licence. I have been on Maui recently staying at Mandara Spa At Wailea Marriott, and for some reason there were a lot of people that looked like they were local hanging out around the pools. First, I thought they just sneaked in from the outside, but as a talked to a some, they were actually doing their "stacation" (home vacation). I could not helped asking about what type of deals they get at this place since there are so many of them, and one person mentioned that at any hotel on Maui, the get around 30% off for just showing a driver's licence, one lady also told me that she has booked hotels for "out of state" friends before, so if you know somebody with a Hawaii driver's licence, most forget pliceline.com, that's your best discount right there....

Chase Perfectcard Visa Credit Card rip off

Aug 26 2010 12:00AM

I am pretty well organized with my finances and like to read articles about how to be financially fit. Some time ago, I read somewhere that in order to build your credit better, you should not pay your credit cards to zero like I always do, but should leave a couple dollars left, and you will get your credit improved. Well, this is exactly what I did with my Chase Perfectcard Credit Card, and next month I am checking my fees, and see that for "borrowing, $20" for one month I am being charged $80 in interest. So I call the customer service, and they tell me that if you don't pay your balance to zero, you are charged an interest for the full amount of the balance... and what made me really mad was that I would be charged the high interest for the full end of statement balance for the next three months, even if I paid it off... not this my friend is a total RIP OFF, and advertising 10% or 20% interest rates on the credit card is totally misleading. Let's say you make a mistake when paying your online bill by a couple dollars, and you spend a few thousands dollars on the card every month... so this typo will cost you a few hundred dollars, and has nothing to do with any interest rates. What's wost is that the way it's hidden from a ordinary customer is a total rip off.

Word of advice: have a few credit cards, so that you can quickly switch if something like this happens to you. Use mint.com to get alerts whenever you are bing charged fees, and really apply for credit card in person at the bank, and have the banker explain to you exactly how to use this card, and what the fee structure will be.

shopping online

Aug 23 2010 12:00AM

I have been around web development for a while, working in various industries, and also have worked at a few very large eCommerce shops, and the more I know the less I actually trust online shopping, which is really ironic. My experiences have finally piled up that I decided to write a post about it.

Here is a few rip offs that I have experienced over the years:

Out of stock item: you are looking for a certain item, and you see that some stores have it and some don't, so you buy it from the one that has the item "in-stock" and few days pass by, and you get an email that item is back-ordered, and come in 3 weeks. Now you are screwed because you already placed an order, so you have to pick up the phone and call to cancel the order, in the mean time you just lost a few days, so you have to do the whole think over again. This happened to me whey I was shopping for a digital camera.

Up-sell call: this is a trick that the Brooklyn based camera stores are famous for: you do a product search on google, and find the best price of a camera you want to buy, you order it and later on that day you get a phone call from the store, trying to sell you some accessories. You know this store had the best price on the camera so your guard is down, and since you just saved a few hundred dollars, you go crazy with buying accessories like extra lances or camera filters. Ater you hang up, you check the prices and find out that the items that you bought where totally over priced. You call the shop again, that you don't want these the extra stuff, and after a long argument, they agree and cancel even your original order saying that they are actually out of stock.

Over priced shipping: This "rip off trick" is actually used by majority of online stores that sell low priced items. You are looking for an iPhone cable, and you find it for $0.99, add it to the cart and after you go through a few pages, you final charge is $6, because the "shipping and handling" is where the guy makes money of you! The initial price was to SPAM the product search engine.

More than 1 week delivery: if an item than more than 1 week to ship, that most likely means it is coming from China. The online store might even be US based, but it's using Chinese drop shipping company. This is not really a rip off, but you might just as well go on http://www.chinavasion.com and order it from china yourself, without a middle man.

My advice: unless it's amazon.com or similar size eshop, that actually has a QA team, server admin team, security team, and customer service, do not place orders online. There are just too many traps, and it's not worth the trouble. The solution, look online, order on the phone

contract to hire: you can get fired

Aug 23 2010 12:00AM

It is very popular these days not to hire employees, but just contractors. The companies for some reason think that short the can save money in short term by not making long term commitments.

A popular way to sell this to job candidates is by telling them that this is a "contract to hire" opportunity, but really hides under this word may be totally different.

There are a few red flags you should be looking for when offered a contract to hire opportunity.

First, the employer is trying to be cheap, and don't want to pay recruiter's fees, so they have this deal, where they let the recruiter have part of your hourly rate for 6 or so months, and then decide what to do. Do you really want to work for a "cheap" employer? Might there be more budget cutting surprises down the road?

Second, the employer is cheap and picky, so they already wen through a few contractors, and nobody is good enough. Smaller companies or start-ups usually fit the bill here. When offered such position, make sure you ask about the history of this role, and looking for any red flags of high turnover, or situation where the project might be so messy, that it is impossible to complete.

The employer is desperate, but cannot hire full timer yet. This is a pitch to those who would not consider a contract role otherwise, and so it's being wrapped into this BS. The reality is that if the employer cannot hire full time people now, they will not be able to do this later either, so when your "to hire" date approaches, you will hear things like "The HR is working on the paper work... but the process is taking a long time." The longer this takes, to more you are vulnerable to any changes in the organization, that may end your project, and you end up on the street.

Final advice: Most contract to hire positions do not end with a hire, and in general there are a lot of red flags when a contract has a "to hire" suffix so be aware of that!

online shopping red flags in ecommerce

Aug 23 2010 12:00AM

Here is a list of thighs you should be check for before you order from an online store:

Physical address, and full contact information:

If a website that you would like to order from does not have a physical address in the contact info section, but just a contact form, DO NOT order here! It's most likely somebodies side business, where you have no grantee that this site is still operating, and if something goes wrong... might take a while till you get an answer. Again, this is just the first red flag, and most likely there more things wrong under the hood, which you do not see. If somebody is not brave enough to put their own address on the site, maybe he is scared that you show up at his door, if your item never gets delivered, or you get something else than you ordered.

Don't order from non US online stores

The ecommerce world is enough of a wild west even in an country that in general has more honest people than the other ones, so don't increase your risks of being ripped off!

PayPal only payments

Another big red flag: this means that the owner was so cheap that they did not even want to pay to get regular ecommerce store front set up (which is not that expensive), or even worse, the person is not in the US.

No SSL in checkout

This is not really the issue that you would be exposed to identity theft while processing you credit card, but again, most likely the owner does not even have a business set up, so they could not register the SSL, or they were really cheap to do so. Either way, this is not somebody you should order from.

Final advice: When ever I see any of these red flags, I usually run away, but there are cases when this might be the only place to buy something, so don't be lazy, and just pick up the phone, and make a phone call instead. Ask questions about name, location, delivery, and the product, and if you still feel comfortable then google the name of the store, and the phone number for any "SCAM" keywords, make the order.

Multi-level marketing MLM pyramid rip offs

Aug 23 2010 12:00AM

I thought that Multi-level marketing was a scam of the 80's but to my surprise, this rip off business model is well and alive these days. Of course, the businesses got smarter, lowered their rip off margins, so that they would be just categorized as border line Multi-level marketing networks, but still, it's still the same old scam!

Here is a quote from The Times: "The Government investigation claims to have revealed that just 10 per cent of Amway's agents in Britain make any profit, with less than one in ten selling a single item of the group's products." so 90% people fail!!! You might be better of with a lottery ticket in some cases! And here is nother quote: "The vast majority of MLM’s are recruiting MLM’s, in which participants must recruit aggressively to profit. Based on available data from the companies themselves, the loss rate for recruiting MLM’s is approximately 99.9%; i.e., 99.9% of participants lose money after subtracting all expenses, including purchases from the company."

Final advice: before you get involved, use the power of google. Put the name of the company and the word rip off, or scam, like this. If you get any results, stay away!

green card lottery websites

Aug 20 2010 12:00AM

One of the biggest rip offs out there have for a long time been different green card lottery websites. They charge a fee for submitting a form for you which you can do yourself for free. The worst of all is that there have been cases in the past where these "agencies" have collected fees and ever made the submissions. Since the green card lottery applications are made to a US government website, there is actually no way to check if an application was submitted, therefore no acceptability. There is only one website where you should make your green card lottery submission: www.dvlottery.state.gov (must end .GOV) all other are money making businesses!! so don't...

Here is a quick list of what I have found:

usagreencardlottery.org

hdmi cables rip off

Aug 20 2010 12:00AM

Most HDMI expensive cables are rip off! The signal is digital so there cannot be any difference in quality. I am not sure how to the retailers were able to get away with this one for so long, but I suppose human stupidity knows no limits.

dropshipping membership fees are a rip off

Aug 18 2010 5:07PM

When you hear "you have to spend money to make money" please be alert. This is a well known pyramid multilevel marketing trick that have been used for years, where the majority of money is made through "subscriptions" on new members, rather than sales of products. Why should I pay money to sell your products? Are tehse people nuts?

SEO small business marketing services

Aug 18 2010 12:00AM

If somebody calls you to offer SEO (search engine optimization) services to you small business, be aware. SEO is a very funky service and most likely, companies that can afford a phone sales staff are just ripping off people.

Your alternative is either manage your traffic to you website yourself, through either, adwords, and writing a lot of good content, or buying leads directly, from a good lead provider. You can first buy a few leads to see how good they and see if you can make money of them. Never pay any monthly subscriptions, until you test a particular marketing channel and know that you can make your marketing money back. When somebody tells you that it takes time (few months) till you start seeing any results, be alert. Don't ever buy anything for somebody who calls you. Do the research yourself, and find your own marketing provider. You can usually get good intro information from a local web designer, who usually have at least some knowledge now internet marketing works. Be aware that there are areas where internet marketing just does not work at all, so make sure you get specific advice before you spend any money on a fancy website, and monthly traffic plan.

emergency (ER) room bill dispute: how not to pay the bill

Aug 18 2010 12:00AM

Emergency Room Bill Rip Off

In last few years as the recession hit, many of us with families were laid our great full time jobs and thus lost our benefits, and health insurance.

Sooner or later something goes wrong, and you have to visit an emergency room without having insurance and you get hit with a "fine" big fine.

So why people that lost their jobs have to pay 5 times the amount that the hospital pays to the insurance company? To me this is just wrong! Rich business give either big breaks, and crash the little guy without job and heath when she is the weakest... this is really wrong. I don't think the hospital deserves to be treated ethically for doing this to the poor and sicks, and if they want to play hard ball, let's play it with them.

This is what I propose to do:
Don't ever go there, but if you really have to, don't ever give them your social security number. Let them you are from Canada, or another country just on vacation here, and that you don't have any SSN. Give them a wrong name and wrong address. They will have to treat you even if they know that you are laying because every doctor has to take an ought before they become doctor, so don't don't worry. I really think that laying is wrong, but in such harsh situation, I have a justification. This practice just makes me angry, and I don't mind playing tricks on those who play tricks on me!

One of my friends got a ER bill from the hospital that had a breakdown of the different charges. Later, however, another bill came that treated him at the ER room, which had just a flat amount $900. The doctor spend 10 minutes looking at the patient, about the time of a regular visit which the would normally be $70 at the doctors office, but since this took place at the hospital (where the doctor does not even have other costs like rent or nurse's salaries) he is charging $900!!! Please, Mr. doctor, stop ripping off poor unemployed patients!

Good Cop Bad Cop

So the doctors have a good system figured out: they are the good cop who help the people, and hire the bad cops billing departments (really outsourced companies) who are the bad cop, and who then hire the really bad cop: the collection agencies.

Negotiate ER Bill

I mean if you are really a super honest person, and want to pay, please make sure you negotiate the bill down! Nobody pays the retail price of the ER bill. Call the hospital right away, ask them to give you a detail breakdown, ask them what they normally pay for this to the insurance company, and make an offer. Also, make sure you look for any mistakes, and have the billing rep explain to you every single charge.

Just the Hit

Despite how the collection agencies scare you, unpaid medical bills don't really damage you credit score that much. Yes unpaid balance will not go away, but it will not kill you credit.

ER Bills for Kids or a Wife

Legally, you are responsible for bills of your dependents, but the reality is that the collection agencies are a mess, and often, they don't make the connection about kids debt and parents credit score. They ofter buy large lists of names, and all they have is name address and social security number. The collection agencies are business, so they play the numbers to make profit. They buy the dept for fraction of the face amount, and just run the "collection campaign" using automated phone systems, automated mailing... and as soon as any of the "leads" shows movement, then they send a chase dog after them.

priceline.com not always to cheapest hotel deal

Aug 18 2010 12:00AM

First I must say, I live priceline.com. I have gotten some amazing deals on this website at fancy resorts, where I paid fraction of what other guests did, but recently I have discovered some discrepancies which made me question my previous belief that priceline.com's price negotiate will always get me the best deal. Few weeks a go I booked a hotel in Hawaii, and when I was checking in I realized that I would need another room for my in-laws, since we could not all fit in the same room, and guess what, I got a better "walk-in" price than I got through my rigorous bidding. When I asked the desk person, he responded that priceline.com charges a hefty fee for the booking, so that's why the his direct price is better. Hmm how interesting.

electronics camera sores manhattan rip off

Aug 13 2010 7:07PM

Don't ever buy anything from small street electronics stores around broadway in New York City. These Manhattan shops are nothing but scan rip offs! The cameras, computers, electronics they sell are overprices and often outdated modes! There is no warranty, no return policy. The sales men play hardest sales tricks on you. I was once buying a video camera from my in-laws to take back to europe, and after hard negotiation about the price, the sales man handed me the video camera in a garbage bag... after I demanded a receipt and original box, he gave me something that was not original, but at least fitted the camera.

LDW CDW rental car insurance rip off

Aug 12 2010 12:00AM

Unless you are from another country, or and old man that does not believe in credit card, don't ever buy this LDW CDW when renting a car. ALL credit cards have some kind of insurance that covers damages on your rental vehicle, and if you actually buy LDW from the rental company, this can cancel out the insurance that you already have from your credit card company. So offer LDW CDW when renting a car, I would call a rip off! There is no need for this for 99% of those who use credit card, and only by not knowing you are paying more for getting actually less coverage! A friend of my worked at a well known rental company, and told me that they were instructed to use scare tactics on the customers to sell them into the insurance, in order to make profit... yes profit... because a big chunk of the profits comes from all the extra stuff they are able to sell...