What fees, that businesses directly pass on to you, annoy the piss out of you?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Ryanair!

I’ve just booked two “free” flights to Italy - final cost £200 ($400)!

Well, turns out the actual seats were indeed “free”, but man do they load on the extras!

The fees include:

  • cost of flights: £0
  • airport tax: £80
  • hold baggage: £32
  • check-in fee: £32
  • infant carriage: £32 (that’s fair enough)
  • car seat carriage: £16
  • credit card fee: £32

So you pay $65 for the privilege of checking a single bag each in the hold, which also means you have to pay another $65 to check-in at the airport (rather than online); then it’s another $32 to pay with a credit card (rather than small change, presumably)… etc etc

It still works out cheaper than any other carrier, mainly because the airport is 10 miles way rather than a 150 mile round-trip to London (plus parking charges).

Still cheeky as f*ck though!

62

[QUOTE=Morbo]
Your confidence is better than mine. It didn’t get that far.
[/QUOTE]
It is their stated policy on their web site.

63

[QUOTE=Shoeless]
My bank will credit your account $5 if you have to go to the window because the ATM is out of order, or if you have to wait in line more than ten minutes. Imagine, my bank paying me money for their problems!
[/QUOTE]
Shit, I got charged a $4 “teller fee” when the ATM was busted. I go up and complain and they say, “Well, since we didn’t SPECIFICALLY tell you the fee was waived, I’m afraid it stands.” Yeah, I walked out with a check for the entire balance in my hand.

My own is parking fees for events. How the fuck do you expect us to get there then? That’s like getting your bill at a restaurant and find out you were charged for the fucking chair.

64

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
That’s like getting your bill at a restaurant and find out you were charged for the fucking chair.
[/QUOTE]
It happens; it’s called a cover charge.

65

[QUOTE=Full Metal Lotus]
I wish that they would institute a restocking fee where I work.

We sell a lot of special use tools, and there are people who blatently take advantage of our open return policy in what we call “free rentals”.

Lets say a person needs a tile saw to complete a single job in their house.
So they come in and “buy” a tile saw, use it and bring it back, dirty, worn blade, damaged packaging and often missing parts.

And then they get a full refund!

We are stuck with an item we will have to open, inspect, clean, repair, replace blade and THEN sell at a discount as it has been used and returned. the labour and materials costs related to this usually kill what ever margin/profit we make on the item before the discounted sale price. I know its stupid, but the business owners insist its required for good customer service.

I would estimate that 1-2% of our sales are “free rentals”!

A restocking fee would help to limit that.
[/QUOTE]

Change “Tile Saw” to “GPS Unit”, “Laptop” or “Digital Camera”, and change 1-2% to 1-5%, and you’ve got the store I work in.

Fortunately, it stops being my problem in a fortnight as I’ve resigned, but otherwise I agree with you completely and have been pushing for a 10-15% Time-Waster/Re-Stocking Fee for ages on all returns over $100, with an exemption for exchanges on identical (or near enough) products.

66

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
My own is parking fees for events. How the fuck do you expect us to get there then? That’s like getting your bill at a restaurant and find out you were charged for the fucking chair.
[/QUOTE]

My favorite part of this charge is I have yet to go to a venue that provides free parking.

67

Ever have to have any part of your car’s exhaust system replaced? Sure, the muffler is $59.95. Oh, but you need a new tail pipe too. Of course there are hangars, and clamps, and labour that also comes into play. But the thing that pisses me off the most is they charge for oxy-acetylene and other consumables that are part of the fucking job in the first place! So, your 60 dollar muffler ends up being $250 in the end.

Yeah, in the end is right.

68

[QUOTE=gravitycrash]
I work in the banking industry as a technician, although I don’t have to work on ATM’s, thank og. They are very high maintenance and I feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to fix them in sub zero temps.
These machines have to deal with heat and humidity and sometimes brutally cold temperatures.
[/QUOTE]

The guys I really feel sorry for are the brave souls that service our ATMs on McMurdo Station in Antarctica. I think they charge more than $65 for travel time.

69

Shipping and handling.
The shipping I get, but it costs extra for you to actually handle the product? You didn’t think about that when you set the price?

70

Wow, everyone talks about rip-off Britain but from these stories it seems we have it quite good (Ryanair and Ticketmaster excepted, of course). I have never been charged “delivery” when buying an item in a shop that I’m going to take home with me, “convenience fees” are rare, and most restaurants that stipulate a service charge specifically say it is optional.

71

[QUOTE=Zebra]
Shipping and handling.
The shipping I get, but it costs extra for you to actually handle the product? You didn’t think about that when you set the price?
[/QUOTE]
I think the Brits are clearer on this: “postage and packing”.

72

[QUOTE=justrob]
My favorite part of this charge is I have yet to go to a venue that provides free parking.
[/QUOTE]

The Tampa Bay Rays provide free parking at their games. So do the Phoenix Coyotes.

73

Yeah, the parking thing gets me too. Similar to an earlier poster’s experience, there is a concert venue around here (Nissan Pavillion) that charges a parking fee on every ticket. Ride with friends? You pay to park. Take a cab? You pay to park. Ripoff.

The **Air and Space Museum ** also has a bunch of gall. Free admission! ($12 to park). Hell, no matter how you slice it, that ain’t free. (At least they collect at the lot so the price is per car, not per person.)

74

[QUOTE=divemaster]
Yeah, the parking thing gets me too. Similar to an earlier poster’s experience, there is a concert venue around here (Nissan Pavillion) that charges a parking fee on every ticket. Ride with friends? You pay to park. Take a cab? You pay to park. Ripoff.

The **Air and Space Museum ** also has a bunch of gall. Free admission! ($12 to park). Hell, no matter how you slice it, that ain’t free. (At least they collect at the lot so the price is per car, not per person.)
[/QUOTE]

This goes way back but it still galls me.

I went in with a couple of friends and bought a partial season ticket package from a MLB team. We opted for the additional fee parking option. It so happened that it was the year that the players went on strike during the season (the infamous split season). I went back to the stadium ticket window to get a refund for the tickets we couldn’t use due to the strike. They refunded the face value of the tickets. When I asked for a refund on the parking charge the ticket window got slammed in my face. True story.

75

[QUOTE=gotpasswords]
The guys I really feel sorry for are the brave souls that service our ATMs on McMurdo Station in Antarctica. I think they charge more than $65 for travel time.
[/QUOTE]

Why on Og’s frozen Earth is there a need for an ATM in Antarctica?

76

[QUOTE=amarone]
It happens; it’s called a cover charge.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve never been charged a cover charge for a RESTAURANT. I understand them for clubs. They have to make SOME MONEY instead of letting you go in, sit and listen to the comedy (or dance) and not buy anything thereby making no money off of your attendance.

77

[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
I’ve never been charged a cover charge for a RESTAURANT. I understand them for clubs. They have to make SOME MONEY instead of letting you go in, sit and listen to the comedy (or dance) and not buy anything thereby making no money off of your attendance.
[/QUOTE]
It is indeed more common for clubs (and restaurants) that provide entertainment, but some restaurants do charge covers without providing entertainment. This is more common in Europe.

78

[QUOTE=Full Metal Lotus]
I wish that they would institute a restocking fee where I work.

We sell a lot of special use tools, and there are people who blatently take advantage of our open return policy in what we call “free rentals”.

Lets say a person needs a tile saw to complete a single job in their house.
So they come in and “buy” a tile saw, use it and bring it back, dirty, worn blade, damaged packaging and often missing parts.

And then they get a full refund!

We are stuck with an item we will have to open, inspect, clean, repair, replace blade and THEN sell at a discount as it has been used and returned. the labour and materials costs related to this usually kill what ever margin/profit we make on the item before the discounted sale price. I know its stupid, but the business owners insist its required for good customer service.

I would estimate that 1-2% of our sales are “free rentals”!

A restocking fee would help to limit that.

Regards
FML
[/QUOTE]
Yep, and that’s why a restocking fee is sometimes waived when a customer buys another whatsit. Someone upthread complained about a restocking fee for a printer. The store has no way of knowing whether the customer used that printer for one job and then returned it, claiming it was defective, unless the customer asks for another printer of the same make.

I used to work in a dress shop, and we had to institute a policy of no exchanges for cocktail and formal dresses. Too many women were “buying” a dress for a special occasion, returning it for credit (we didn’t give refunds) which they’d use on everyday items. It wasn’t worth inspecting every dressy item and then arguing with the customer over obvious signs of wear. And we’d get people who wanted to buy stuff for Halloween, wear it, and return it.

I think that a restocking fee would have curbed this practice enough that we could have offered credit for returns on these items. We did offer credit on everyday items (jeans, work slacks, t-shirts, etc.).

79

[QUOTE=Wallenstein]
Ryanair!

I’ve just booked two “free” flights to Italy - final cost £200 ($400)!

Well, turns out the actual seats were indeed “free”, but man do they load on the extras!

The fees include:

  • cost of flights: £0
  • airport tax: £80
  • hold baggage: £32
  • check-in fee: £32
  • infant carriage: £32 (that’s fair enough)
  • car seat carriage: £16
  • credit card fee: £32

So you pay $65 for the privilege of checking a single bag each in the hold, which also means you have to pay another $65 to check-in at the airport (rather than online); then it’s another $32 to pay with a credit card (rather than small change, presumably)… etc etc

It still works out cheaper than any other carrier, mainly because the airport is 10 miles way rather than a 150 mile round-trip to London (plus parking charges).

Still cheeky as f*ck though!
[/QUOTE]

Hang on, I thought they’d been told to quit doing that shit? by the government? Their card fees are always what used to piss me off the most. I can understand surcharging credit cards, but they used to charge you an extra fee even if it was paid for with a debit card - which since it’s a website meant there was no way of avoiding the fee. Bastages. Over the last few years I’ve found that by the time they’ve finished adding all their shit it’s usually only a few quid less than using an airline, rather than their bus-company-with-wings, so I only ever use them if I really need to get to some tiny place out in the sticks near an airfield no one else uses.

80

[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni]
Yep, and that’s why a restocking fee is sometimes waived when a customer buys another whatsit. Someone upthread complained about a restocking fee for a printer. The store has no way of knowing whether the customer used that printer for one job and then returned it, claiming it was defective, unless the customer asks for another printer of the same make.
.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, they could- oh I don’t know, maybe- plug the damn thing in and see if it works? Instead, I bet they charged the fee and then re-shelved the item so the next guy got a defective item, so another fee, and so forth.

Items come with a warranty.