Do you every ponder if a deal on an item that you want to purchase is really a deal? As I talk to more and more people, and I hear their experiences, I’m convinced that all deals are not deals.
It’s cricket season in the Caribbean and the Australians are currently in Barbados for a test match beginning on Saturday. Several of my colleagues are avid cricket fans and they were talking about the upcoming match. But one friend, who wants to attend the match, alerted us to an alleged sneaky move by the ticketing authorities.
Tickets to the test match are being advertised at $20 BDS ($10 USD) per day. But if you want “season” tickets for the test match, it would cost you $100 BDS ($50 USD). The season ticket covers four days of the test match.
Here’s where the sneakiness comes in. A test match is a five day game, which means that you should technically be paying $20 per day, which would mean the full five day test match match should cost you $100 BDS ($50 USD). However, they are marketing a season ticket as four days for the same $100. And if you want to attend the fifth day if you went the season ticket route, you have to pay another $20 BDS ($25 USD).
I get very annoyed at tricks and gimmicks which try to take advantage of customers. Granted it could be an error, but it really makes you wonder how many deals are really deals. Just because an entity uses the words “sales” and “discounts, does not mean that you are gaining anything.
I’ve heard of situations where stores advertise sales, but just before the sale, they would raise their prices. And then offer a “discount” to take the prices back to their original prices. I know for a fact that certain retailers do this on a regular basis. They offer what they like to call early payment discounts. They usually set their regular prices way above their competitors’ prices. So, when they lower their prices, it looks like they’re offering what appears to be great discounts. However, when you get that discount, it only takes the prices back to the same level as the competitors’ prices, and you don’t save anything.
I am going to scrutinize all of these “sales” and walk with my little calculator to see if those “discounts” are really worth it.