Long story short, our wallets got completely mauled trying to deal with a plumbing emergency at 4pm on a Friday night.
We absolutely knew we were being bamboozled, like there was NO question about that (not the tech's fault, he agreed and mentioned how the owner is richy-rich and doesn't GAF).
But he was here ready to work and we had already paid the "emergency fee" (which locks you firmly into a dollar and time commitment while my place is turning into a boat house and it's about to freeze outside).
Took him 20 minutes to fix the problem and I am just livid and kicking myself for letting it all happen. Final cost including emergency fee was a hair under $800.
In my mind (aka how I am trying to forgive myself):
-
Severe damage (we are fairly certain) was avoided and the problem was fixed
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We are fortunate enough to have been able to afford the emergency at the time (it'll be a TIGHT month or two but it didn't put us in the red)
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This is the first time since buying this house last year we have felt truly bent over the stump with predatory pricing on services
In hindsight I wish we had just turned the water off and capped the line until we got hold of a better business to use, but live and learn, right? Being panicked absolutely influences your decision-making. We're not super confident with plumbing or electric, so we leave that stuff to the pros because it can be dangerous and/or escalate quickly.
Going forward I'm going to try to pad my list with few more emergency service folks that aren't going to exploit a bad situation for money gain, but outside of an emergency how do you even do that? No one can guarantee availability + pricing for an unknown time and problem. I guess it's just one of the possibilities when you are now your own landlord.
Anyway, thanks for listening. Story time!
*Edit: Not sure how to interpret my comment downvotes, lol, maybe I should reflect on my own thinking around this situation. I appreciate everyone's feedback! I am still making a lot of mistake and meeting a lot of mental challenges as a first-time homeowner, so your words and experience are very valuable to me while I continue to grow.
*Edit 2: Thank you so much for your kind words and gentle corrections of my perspective on everything. I appreciate it a lot. And thank you to that kind redditor who privately gave me a good LPT. I'm going to step back and let this marinate a bit while I appreciate everything the situation wasn't.
Assume my only goal is to have these guys run out of business. Don't care about profit or anything. Could I legally set up a business right next to this other business, undercut prices to the point the other business definitely won't be able to survive, and then if I just maintain those prices will I still be in trouble for price skimming?
Yes my only goal would be to actually make this business go out but the way I see it is the whole illegality of predatory Pricing or monopolies in the first place was so buyers don't get screwed. But in this case this will still be better for the buyers. So legal or not?
I want to offer Matterport tours to customers, but the company is so difficult to work with.
First - they have terrible customer service.
Second - the pricing structure is predatory.
They should charge you a 1 off fee for each house and be done with it.
Instead you have to buy monthly packages that include a certain number of spaces (houses).
Eg.
- $69 / month - gives you 25 active Spaces
That means if you only have 5 active spaces (houses) - you're paying $69 a month for just 5 spaces.
And what happens if you pass 25? You have to upgrade to the next level which costs a whopping $309 a month.
And this set up constantly forces you to be trying to REDUCE / remove your spaces so you can save money. Which creates a lot of headache.
Do you ask your clients every week "hey have you sold the house yet? so i can take the matterport offline"
If you have 300 houses up, how do manage figuring out which ones are sold or not. It just creates a ton of headache and that's why I can't offer it.
The other option is to pass on a hosting charge (month by month) to the agent/client, but this is complicated to set up and monitor too. So I don't think it's an option.
How do you guys deal with this?
I've heard this terms many times inside any gaming sub. However, I confused the most at how this terms applied in gacha games. Some people mentioned it to be applicable in Pokemon Unite lately.
My question is, what is the definition of predatory pricing? What is the reason that it is predatory? For example in Pokemon Unite, parents can just ask the kids to uninstall...
What is the reason that some people just pay it if it is abnormal, instead of leaving the game and find the other?
I was looking at Full Stack course I really liked.
19.99 Sale Price - Regular 134.99 when accessed from facebook advertisement
16.99 Sale Price - Regular 74.99 when accessed from browser
14.99 Sale Price - Regular 74.99 when accessed from incognito mode
Not to mention "sale" durations that are completely random. I absolutely can't stand feeling toyed with. Do people actually tolerate this?
Am I correct in assuming everything seems on "sale" right now but once I'm signed in the discounts all disappear?
I heard from my vocal instructor today that Voices.com hasn't been playing fair with the industry and has actually moved to monopolize their hold on things. Basically the fees that you see quoted aren't the actual fees that are being charged, Voices.com takes a lot of the cut.
This took me a bit aback, but I'm too new to VAing in general to really know what's what. I doubt my teacher is lying, she was very professional and said if you want to go to P2P services, that's up to you. Clear boundaries and all that, not naming any names.
I know Voices.com is a big player in the industry, and I wanted to solicit more than one opinion because you know, critical thinking and all that. I had a Voices.com account for a month, was shortlisted twice but then stepped back because I wanted to really make sure I had a better setup and more voice training before I started actively auditioning.
So yes, always looking to learn more and improve.
If you know you know
Its sometimes used as an argument against capitalism.
Say a company sells something it costs $5 to make at $7. To put someone out of business, they sell at $4 for a while. But after they have put the other out of business - while giving customers great value - suppose they now price at $10 - won't this encourage new competition? Why would companies use this strategy at all?
Pricing < AVC or Pricing below cost
The only small shops to survive are corner shops and newsagents, and their selection of fresh food is tiny compared to the range offered by supermarkets.
Hey guys, average Joe here trying to spend some money on the game. My trouble is there is nothing in the shop priced towards me, it's either big fatty whale packs in the 100's or over priced bundles for people who don't realize how common the items they are trying to sell you are.
First time i saw the cash shop i burst out laughing and thought "well, this obviously isn't priced for me" The pricing in there is insane and imo it's kind of disgusting how openly the pricing is aimed at whales and unknowing players.
I understand these games feed off of the top percent of payers and that is where the money is made but would one decent deal for the average dude be too much to ask for? I mean, you're not even selling a product, you're selling a CHANCE at it.
TLDR: Average dude wants to swipe but there is nothing in the cash shop but whale bait and bad deals.
Assume my only goal is to have these guys run out of business. Don't care about profit or anything. Could I legally set up a business right next to this other business, undercut prices to the point the other business definitely won't be able to survive, and then if I just maintain those prices will I still be in trouble for price skimming?
Yes my only goal would be to actually make this business go out but the way I see it is the whole illegality of predatory Pricing or monopolies in the first place was so buyers don't get screwed. But in this case this will still be better for the buyers. So legal or not?
