As a guy said one day who was drinking a pastis at 8am in the PMU next to my house: ” The bigger it is, the more it’s acceptable. Here help me little sister. » And today we are going to focus on the first part of his intervention. Because it is true that we tend to swallow anything from the moment we were made to believe that it was normal. As a result, the biggest scams in this world are often those that we were made to pass for completely normal things and that we finally accepted. Maybe we’re stupid, or maybe the world is too perverse for us, or maybe it’s a bit of both.
1. Not being able to cancel a subscription online
You subscribe to the thing in just 3 clicks on a super well done website, but when it comes to canceling your subscription, there you have to send a registered letter or call a service that pretends not to understand anything about your question. All this so that you give up and remain a subscriber all your life to this gym where you have not given a damn for a century.
2. Service charges for anything and everything
Many of the services you pay for charge you “service fees” or “application fees” in a totally arbitrary way, whereas generally everything is automated and your file is processed by a computer. It is excessively annoying.
3. Software that works by subscription
Let’s take a well-known example: before, when you wanted to have software, you paid for the software only once (about 200-300 bucks), and afterwards you could use it at will for the rest of your life. Now, it works by subscription, and you have to spend ten euros a month to be able to use the thing. Which, after 2 years, is no longer profitable at all. Basically, before, you became the owner of your software, and now, you are forced to be the tenant. You pay for a subscription but you never really own anything. If I was vulgar I would say that you are fucked.
4. Technology devices that work by subscription
It’s the same principle as with software, but for machines that you’ve already paid for (often several hundred euros, otherwise it’s no fun). To make them work, you have to rack every month. Limit soon you will have to subscribe for your fridge to work. It is shameful.
5. Devices with non-replaceable batteries
Some manufacturers whose names I will not mention (but you know who I am talking about) have decided to produce devices with non-replaceable elements. That way, if the element in question – often the battery – no longer works, you just have to buy the whole device. Absolutely no one is protesting against that when it’s just outrageous. Come on, let’s organize a demonstration. See you at 3 p.m. tomorrow.
6. Health insurance that does not cover dental or ophthalmology care well
Ok, in France we are not the worst off in terms of health insurance. All the same, we still have mutuals that make fun of us by offering us services that don’t cover much, all to make us rack up even more for the service that covers everything. It’s not as if health was something super important that shouldn’t depend on our wealth… BUT HELL, we’re going to play it nice and remember that the CMU exists in France and that’s already not bad.
7. Printer cartridges that cost a fortune
You have to change them very often when 3/4 are not even empty yet, not to mention that your printer generally breaks down just after having exceeded the warranty date. Frankly, it’s often better to find a cheap printer near you than to own this machine of anguish.
8. Insurance companies that do everything to find a loophole and not pay you what you insured yourself for
We’re paying you a hell of a lot to assure us goodnight, so at least fulfill your part of the bargain instead of kicking us out. “Ah no, sorry you can’t be reimbursed because that day it was 12°C, and in addition it was an odd day so that if you read the small lines carefully you will notice that you are only guaranteed the even days in case of good weather…” Raaaah it makes me want to take ceramic dishes to throw them against a hard and vertical wall type surface.
9. Free trial subscriptions with automatic renewal
We offer you to try something for free for a month, then the following month we take money from you because, without knowing it, you had subscribed. Oh no, sorry, we had written it to you but in very small form at the bottom of the offer. How clever.
10. The price of a divorce
When everything goes well and the consent is mutual, you have to drop at least 1000 balls, and when things go badly, prices soar. Knowing that divorce is already in itself a more or less big family drama, and knowing that it can sometimes save some people from the grip of which they are victims, making a business of it is simply crazy.
11. Video games that come out while they’re not finished
The video game business has become so huge that you get big titles filled with bugs that will only be fixed a few weeks or even a few months later. On the other hand, the game, you will pay full price anyway, because you are taken for a big pigeon.
12. Micro-transactions in video games
Let’s stay in the wonderful world of video games to talk about micro-transactions. Before, when you bought a game, you got the whole game at once. Yes yes, the product was finished, as incredible as it may seem. Today, most of the time, you have to pay DLC to have all the levels, and in addition you are more or less forced to drop money to be able to unlock certain characters, certain bonuses or certain clothes. Really ? Paying for virtual clothes?
