Scams, rip offs & stupid mistakes - Share yours so we can all learn

[Wifezilla]

Inspired by poor Damu's sheep and goat experience.

Share your stories of how you got ripped off or what dumb things you did that you now regret. It will be a learning experience for all.

My stupid move was letting hubby talk me in to selling our rental next to our house. The people we sold it to were friends so hubby felt it necessary to sell it for way below market value . These friends then sold the house and used that extra equity to buy a bigger, better house and stuck us with a neighbor with a black thumb who killed all the landscaping and then defaulted on the loan.

The friends have since gotten a divorce and now the newer bigger house is going in to foreclosure

Steady income from a paid off rental property would have helped us a MILLION times!!!

This happened many years ago but I still kick hubby every once in a while just to let him know I haven't forgotten.

 

[Wannabefree]

I regret not saving more money when we had it to save. Could be living in a paid for house right now if we would have managed better when the economy was better when DH actually had a JOB Now neither of us can find steady work... Live and learn :/

 

[hillfarm]

If you advertise on craigslist beware. the money orders they are offering are fake. But the bank wont catch it till they credit you with the money and then the other bank processes. So you lose the listed item and the money, not to mention the overdraft fees, etc. I ahve been approached twice for these scammers.

Cash and carry. Only way to do craigslist.

 

[patandchickens]

I will not comment on relationship type scams/ripoffs/mistakes, you don't want to get me started LOL

In terms of financial/business-affairs things, though, I would say one of my big lessons has been to never, ever, no matter what, sign a contract with something crossed out or otherwise-amended without checking that it's been amended the same way on ALL carbon copies of the contract; and in a similar vein, never ever no matter what sign something with potentially-damaging statement on it that someone assures you vigorously is just pro forma and will have no practical consequences.

(Story #1 involved buying a horse, I'd originally been going to trade an old saddle for part of purchase price but due to vet findings I negotiated the purchase price down to 'not throwing in the saddle', or so I thought until about 6 months post-purchase the horse's former owner [sale was thru a dealer] tracked me down after I moved interstate and demanded the rest of her money. What rest of her money? Apparently the weasel horse dealer only crossed out 'and saddle' on MY copies of the contract, and I did not check all pages to make sure they were identical before signing. Dealer then kept her fee, on the larger price, out of what I'd paid and told the *seller* to hound me for the difference. I sent the horse's former owner a xerox of my copy of the bill of sale and she realized who she should ACTUALLY be mad at, but it could have been a lot more unpleasant)

(Story #2 involved moving out of an apartment on a Sunday, under strict time pressure due to rental of moving van and distance to drive, where the apt complex manager made me sign the 'ok I agree with the inspection that's been done' form despite his having written on it 'kitchen needs new countertops and appliances'. He told me over and over and over that this was not something I'd be billed for as damages -- since there *was* no damage whatsoever! -- it was just a memo type thing indicating that it was time to replace them due to age. After about 15 min of arguing, I signed because I could not think of any other recourse and I *had* to hit the road. Of course a year later I get a large bill from the apt complex parent company, "damages" plus interest plus penalties. I spent TWO YEARS fighting that, and ended up making a deal where I paid $400 instead of the $1600 they wanted and we called it good. Although I never DID manage to shake a WRITTEN statement outta them that it was then ok, and spent years thereafter waiting for it to come back...)

Also some other miscellaneous narrow escapes that can be summarized as "always read every word of the fine print and make sure you find out what it really means in terms of real-world consequences, do NOT believe the sales representative no matter how sincere and well-meaning they may be".

Pat

 

[savingdogs]

We feel our biggest rip off was going for a "short sale" in the selling of our last home.

That benefited the bank and the realtor and not us, and actually hurt our situation. Eventually no one profited, but it was a huge mistake and we lost so much money we don't even like to calculate it.

I also had an employer years ago that "hand calculated" our tax withdrawls and scribbled it on a little sheet. It looked a little sloppy but I never questioned it. However, he never took out enough taxes and I had to pay it BACK later, when I could ill afford it.

I always double check stuff like that now.

 

[lorieMN]

marrying someone when literally 5 minutes before the wedding I am still telling myself "I have time to get out of this"..he is a X now,hmmm,no kidding right.

 

[AnnaRaven]

We were renting a house. There was a hottub. The hottub stopped working. I called the landlord and asked if he would call or I should call for a repairman. He said I should call and let him know what they say. They said the thing was old and cracked and not worth replacing. They offered to take the whole thing away for $200. I called and told the landlord. He said he wanted it left there. I said that the hottub was part of the advertising for the place and we wanted to have one. He said he wasn't going to replace it. We asked if it was okay to buy a replacement and put it on a temporary pad where the old one was. He said sure. So we did. Presidents day weekend. End of March, we get the notice from him that he's not renewing the lease and wants us to move out because his mother's moving in to the place in May. I have finals the first week of June. I called to negotiate to stay until after finals. He okayed that.

I luckily had gotten nervous about the rental place and so I pushed DH into buying a townhouse. We had just closed a week before we got the notice. So we had a place to move to. I hired a company to come in and do the cleaning for the old place after we moved out.

A month after we moved out, we got a letter refusing to refund our damage deposit, with pictures of the old hottub. ARGH!

So, I guess I would say, when negotiating anything with a landlord, make sure it's in writing.

 

[Henrietta23]

Ours was an Ebay learning experience. DH was selling a camera part. He got an offer to sell it privately off Ebay and went for it because it was an unusual piece he didn't think anyone would want. Turns out many people wanted it and he could have gotten much more $$ if he'd let the auction run its course.

 

[Kim_NC]

Hmmmm....which do I regret more....

- having married the abusive X, listening to his BS, in spite of the warning signs?
- or having stayed with him for 7 disgusting yrs, listening to more of the BS before giving up?

The other...leaving corp america in 2000 (good), but DH & I not buying our farm until 2007 (regret). I sure wish we'd those 7 yrs here!

All's well that ends well.

 

[mlynd]

Letting my Dh work for a friend, to make a long story short Dh got fired and friend didn't stand up against accusation that was made so needless to say Lost two good friends or so I thought they were and Dh lost his job and that is where we are today