I always love learning about little tricks or "lifehacks" aka loop holes or just general knowledge when it comes to business, products, or services. Here's a few that come to mind, some of which I've picked up from others. - No food or drinks allowed? One way to get past this is to claim you are diabetic. In many cases, they will not turn you away (too many negative repercussions). - Many software companies intentionally release unpolished software early. This makes the consumer the "bug tester" and saves the company a lot of money. - The average cost to a company for receiving / handling a non-outsourced customer service call is roughly $8. Because of this, persistence often eat away at their bottom line, and they are more likely to offer you some sort of incentive to essentially stop calling. - In stores where employees make commission, it is common that the price tag will have a code on it that will show them what commission they will earn, and thus how much flexibility they have. ie: V4Z3U4L9 means they will make $43.49 on the sale. - Next, cable cords have an unbelievableeee markup, sometimes higher than 900%. Buy your cords online or off eBay. - Finally, when buying a TV, the store will usually have one affordable model (often advertised in an ad) that will be placed next to more recognizable name brand that looks clearly better for around 20% more. In many of these cases, that's because the affordable TV is connected through a poor source feed while the model next to it is connected to a high quality HDMI plug. Do you have anything you've come across personally or heard from others?
The TV lifehack that you just posted is amazing. Walmart's wall of TVs has some affordable models that look like they have a terrible picture quality, while the more expensive models next to them have great picture quality. I didn't know that they were purposely connecting them through a poor source feed to make people buy the more expensive TV. Marketing is scary sometimes because we're always being manipulated and don't know it.
*raises hand* I worked at a electronics store awhile ago and that bad feed thing never happened. Some TVs just look terrible on there own. It still might happen, but there is a difference in quality..
My favorite Starbucks Hack is to purchase a larger size cup than your drink order so that you can fill it up with cream, sugar and even ice to make it a larger size drink. Also, you can get a lot of free stuff on 'sample' websites. My one girlfriend has a place in her closet where she has different baskets that have labels for things like pantry items, beauty products, and cleaning items. This way when she gets a free item she can put it in a categorized place so that it is easier to find. I tend you try and use my item right away so that it is not just sitting in a junk drawer somewhere for 5 years until I finally throw it out. I am currently using little mini bottles of mouth wash which is perfect since I have been traveling up north a lot this summer. The free samples came with a 2.00 off Listerine coupon so my next purchase will be cheaper.
Ooh I know a lot of them, but this one is definitely one of the best ones I know of, and people always gets extremely surprised when I tell them this, yelling "OH MY GOD WHAT A SMART GUY YOU ARE!" when I tell it to them. You know these metal things that sits on top of soda-cans, that you press up to open the can? Well, if you remove this from the can, you can put it "on" a hanger, and then you can hang another hanger in the other hole of the can-opening-thing. It basically doubles the amount of shirts you can fit in your closet. Okay, not really doubles, but it makes you able to put a LOT more clothes in there, saving you both space and money (in case you would buy another wardrobe or anything just to fit more shirts, that is)
I don't know if this is a secret and I don't know if I mentioned anything about this before but I certainly did not know this. I think cell phone companies intentionally make it easy for you to use your data up which can be a huge problem if you're not on an unlimited plan. I ended up using mine on my library. You have to remember to turn off the data when you're not using it.I've never heard this one before and I'd be interested in knowing more things like that to maximize your storage space. I do know about floating shelves and that you can put a storage container of your shoes under the bed but anything to make my bedroom have more room would help.
If you need to cancel a service by calling into what is obviously a call-center type of place, they have things called "trigger words" where they should immediately cancel or at least help you faster when you say them, instead of giving you the sales pitch. Words like "scam, trap, bait-and-switch, Better Business Bureau, attorney, lawsuit, fraud" etc. You can't just call in and say them, but you should incorporate these words into your conversation about why you're wanting to cancel.
To piggy back off the initial post in addition to cable cords phone chargers are also marked up a ridiculous amount. I was out once and left my charger at home and needed to buy one because I had a conference call coming up, went to Verizon and spent $30 (could have kicked myself for leaving my charger at home) I went home and searched Ebay and the exact same charger was $3.00/free shipping. I bought it and it works just as well as the one I purchased for $30.
Those are all really great tips. I did not realize a lot of them. I will have to share these to others. Let me see I have a few that I do to make things easier or just to make things cheaper. They may not be as great as yours, but they are somewhat useful I suppose. Haggle. Most people are too embarrassed to haggle. But for cars, yard sales, even places like appliance stores, if you can talk to a manager or the sales person there are times you can haggle. Especially if you have cash. I got a washer for 500 dollars because I had cash and was willing to ask questions. He talked to his manager to "see what he could do". I don't know if it works in chain stores, I did this in a local shop and it worked.
One of the cooking websites I frequent did an interesting article on pizza's. Basically they did the math on ordering a large pizza vs. a couple of smaller pizzas and their conclusion was that you always get a much better deal in terms of the overall volume of pizza you get buy buying the larger sizes. They worked it all down to something like a cost per square inch and showed how the smaller pizzas are actually much more expensive in terms of how much product you are getting for your money. This is relatively well known, but at most restaurants, the "tall" glasses often only contain as much of the beverage as the "small" glasses. In fact, I think some sports stadiums are even getting sued over this, because their "large" beer is actually the same amount as their less expensive "small" beer. It's all visual trickery with the shape of the glass/cup. When shopping for electronics at places such as Best Buy, ask if they have any returned items they are selling at marked down prices. I scored a great deal on a basically brand new camera this way. The customer had bought it then quickly realized it was way too complicated for them, and immediately returned it. I knew what to inspect it for to make sure everything was OK, and aside from the container being opened, everything else was still in it's bags and plastic wrap. I think they knocked something like $50-$75 off the total price of the camera just because it was returned. As for dining out, if you are a difficult customer who is always complaining and frequently stiff the server on a tip or leave a measly tip, the servers do talk about you among each other and they will remember you any other times you come back. You will basically be blacklisted and the servers will all do whatever they can to avoid you sitting in their section - from keeping their current tables there a little longer, to not clearing their tables, to giving your table over to a new, less experienced server. In some cases they will just flat out tell the hostesses to not sit you at any of their tables. If you find yourself waiting longer than usual to get seated, and notice others getting seated ahead of you, that's likely why.
