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Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

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Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#341

Post by FireBeyond »

Bartweiss wrote: post #228
bane wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to one to satisfy the same sort of morbid fascination as well. I really have to hand it to the sales people, it was one of the most incredible sales pitches I've ever seen. They shuttled us to one of their premier properties where they took us to a sales room and served us breakfast. After a few moments they had everybody gather around a large presentation screen and a salesman who spent the next hour not just…

I did one of these also, and I absolutely don't regret it. I think I learned more about (ruthless) sales tactics in two hours than I ever have from books or classes. It was a timeshare tied to a big-name hotel chain, and as far as I could tell they were selling some hotel rooms as timeshare units to finance construction and maintenance. So the deal wasn't good , but it was substantially less of a scam than the stereo…

It's always intriguing to see these things, and how some prey on basic math skills.

My girlfriend's mother dragged us to see a presentation associated with one of the "Flipping" TV shows.

They, of course, wanted to invite you into their program. It was "hugely successful". How successful?

"We've funded $100MM of house purchases for our members! We have nearly 8,000 members across the country!"

Well, $100MM in support sounds awesome for most things. Then you think about it more. And let's be generous to them, say the average house they buy costs $100K. That's 1,000 homes they've funded.

But hang on, they have 8,000 members. And they boast that some of those members have flipped 20+ homes each! That means, wait, less than 1 in 10 of the people who "joined their ($4,995) program" ever flipped a house through them...

That's not the kind of math they like you breaking down at those seminars for the other members during the meal break...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#342

Post by jopsen »

mabbo wrote: post #186
justinclift wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The scam guys eyes opened wide and he had a confused look on his face and asked my dad to show him the scratch card. Obviously it was actually for a holiday, but it was great seeing the confusion in the guys face since he knew there was no car. As a lark, it would've been super funny to create a realistic winning "ticket" for the car and substitute that in place to see the reaction. Obviously it would require some…

Well, now I know what my next side project is going to be

Just be careful it doesn't turn into felony document freud :)

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#344

Post by pm215 »

jsjohnst wrote: post #156
asfdsfggtfd wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the advice given by banks and anti-fraud agencies. NB in some countries landlines can remain on a call for several minutes after the call receiver has hung up. A phisher will play a dial tone etc to make it seem realistic. The advice is to either wait 10 minutes (longer?) or preferably call back on another line if you receive a suspicious call.

> NB in some countries landlines can remain on a call for several minutes after the call receiver has hung up. Source for this? I find it highly suspect from a technical perspective (1-3 seconds, maybe, but not several minutes) and nothing I can find online even remotely seems legitimate / real.

True in the UK; https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/100268/does-han... has a decent description of the history and includes a note that BT changed in 2014 from a several-minute timeout to 10 seconds, because of fraud issues. The link to the BT announcement of that change has bitrotted, but it is at https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/updates/briefings/down...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#346

Post by skizm »

lysp wrote: post #215

About 30 years ago in Australia There was a competition at the local shopping centre. Spend $20 at any shop in the centre, show your receipt and you get a chance to win the displayed car. The chance involved folding a paper plane, and then trying to get it into the car through the sunroof. Which was only open a small crack. A friend of the family tried about 5 times over the day and never got close. They came back qu…

Crumple paper and throw? Or do they have to approve your paper plane design?

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#347

Post by tlynchpin »

My grandfather won a Cadillac, it was the 60's in San Francisco, and Regal gas stations ran a contest, grand prize a shiny new Cadillac. The details are lost, but as far as my dad knows it was a plain enter-to-win raffle, and his dad won! Comin up slammin Cadillac doors, but they "weren't really a Cadillac family" so they sold it.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#348

Post by mrbill »

floatrock wrote: post #292
logfromblammo wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3000 on a mattress? WTF? How is that even possible for such a highly commoditized good?

Freakonomics podcast did an episode on it: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/mattress-store-bubble/ That's also exactly why Casper and a half dozen other upstarts have come out with the memory-foam mailed-to-you-in-a-vacuum-tube online mattress sales.

My current mattress is a $900 kingsize Casper.

It replaced a 10-year-old Tempurpedic that cost around $4K.

The Casper is a better mattress in EVERY WAY so far (had it since 2015).

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#349

Post by mrbill »

rootusrootus wrote: post #323
munificent wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's worth spending money on any product that your spends a third of its life on and which can directly affect your health.

I have the same philosophy about office chairs.

Mattresses (Casper), office chairs (Steelcase LEAP), keyboards (something with Cherry MX Brown switches).

I spend the majority of my life using these bits so I buy quality.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#350

Post by ssharp »

technofiend wrote: post #245
lysp wrote: post #215

About 30 years ago in Australia There was a competition at the local shopping centre. Spend $20 at any shop in the centre, show your receipt and you get a chance to win the displayed car. The chance involved folding a paper plane, and then trying to get it into the car through the sunroof. Which was only open a small crack. A friend of the family tried about 5 times over the day and never got close. They came back qu…

There's a furniture salesman here in Houston who makes heavy use of that sort of promotion. His latest if you spend $3,000 on a mattress and the Astros win the "2018 baseball final championship series" you'll be refunded the purchase price. Not sure why it's worded so formally; must be a legal thing.

Last year, a window company in Cleveland ran a special where if the Indians had a 15-game winning any time after August 1st, anyone who used the company in July would have their money refunded.

The Indians ended up with a 22-game winning streak during that period, resulting in around $2 million in refunds. The insurance for that was $75,000. I remember calculating the probability of winning 15 games in a row any time over a ~55 game period and the insurance company seemed like they were getting a great deal!

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