Companies That Rip You Off

at some stage we've all been ripped off after purchasing something while some companies are just trying to make a profit other companies morph their ambition into flat-out greed you might not be aware of here's a shocking list of companies that rip you off the most number 10 De Beers the controversial De Beers company are behind the extortionate prices of diamonds you may not know but before the 1930s no one gave diamond engagement rings in fact Jim quality diamonds aren't even that rare it was only until De Beers came up with their famous marketing program that the trend started they convinced people the more money that's spent on a diamond engagement ring the more you love your spouse even today people on average are spending $3,000 on an engagement ring that should be a fraction of that cost the De Beers company has monopolized the diamond industry through governmental deals holding back the supply of diamonds like a cartel to fix the price of diamonds in fact they were even fined for price fixing by an Ohio Court in 2004 over such accusations without their manipulation the market would be flooded with cheaper diamonds that would be relatively affordable not only that De Beers have been accused of instigating blood diamonds or conflict diamonds these are diamonds mined from slavery or any form of aggressive means but if you're looking for a diamond that's conflict free there's not much hope unless you opt for a lab-grown one you may have heard of the company brilliant earth which claimed to track their diamonds from the Canadian diamond mine to you brilliant earth make the claim that no harm comes to anyone on the way however the internet news outlet The Next Web released an investigative article on brilliant earth they claimed that a lot of the information brilliant earth provided was falsified these claims were supported with a YouTube video from diamond insider Jacob worth which has since been taken down brilliant earth did file a lawsuit against the allegations and the case was settled in 2017 overall the diamond business is a shady one number 9 bottled water companies the United States goes through a mess of fifty billion water bottles per year costing around a ha billion dollars taking into account that the vast majority of US households have access to clean tap water why are they splashing the cash on the bottles Jackson spa Boston was the first recorded place to sell bottled water in the US and 1767 it was marketed as having therapeutic properties it seems that belief has wormed its way into the people's perception sense even though tap and bottled water is virtually identical unless you live somewhere problematic like Flint Michigan a 20-17 poll from Gallup helps explain while we're flocking to tap water it's found that 63% of Americans were worried a great deal about pollution of drinking water from the taps this belief that bottled water is healthy and tap water somehow dangerous has unfortunately meant that we're getting ripped off whenever we purchase a bottle of water in fact bottled water is 2,000 times the cost of tap water and most of the time it's tap water anyway deciding for instance is just tap water from local municipal water supplies it's just filtered in bottled you'd be better off bottling your own water at home he'll be around 2,000 times cheaper number 8 pharmaceutical companies making medicine is expensive you invest lots of money into research and development without a guarantee you'll find anything of value that's why pharmaceutical companies should be able to charge lots of money for drugs that are relatively inexpensive to make but some take it too far with price hiking take the case of daraprim an anti-parasitic drug as an example in 2015 Martin shkreli the CEO of turing pharmaceuticals purchased the license to the medicine daraprim which is also known as pyrimethamine shkreli 'he's company drastically raised the price of each pill over 5000 percent from $13.50 to 750 dollars making it now unaffordable to most patients shkreli stated that the profits from the price hike will go to their research and development and if someone can't pay he said he'd practically give it to them these claims have since been disputed but he isn't the only one doing this as many pharmaceutical companies do the same thing it just proves that without some tougher regulations pharmaceutical companies will continue to extort insures and ultimately consumers with the drugs they're being held ransom by well we have to accept the prices of branded drugs that are patented there comes a time when the patent runs out and competition swaps the market with generic drugs to keep the money rolling in Big Pharma has found ways to continuously rip you off they'll slightly alter the product before the patent expires but not enough to require new clinical trials for FDA approval but just enough to preserve its exclusive patent protected status this way people keep requesting the drug they're used to even though alternatives exist this happened with the Alzheimer's drug namenda IR which was replaced by namenda XR which costs more than double that of its generic alternative post patent number seven car hire companies there are a number of ways car hire companies rip us off the consumer website which found that customers are regularly billed for repairs that they insist they didn't cause from car hire companies they used abroad to protect yourself from these false claims you should take pictures or videos of the car's condition prior to hiring as well as that the fees for the repairs are often massively inflated for example they found one customer was charged in exuberant 1154 pounds or one thousand five hundred and ten dollars for a window chip that should have cost around seventy eight pounds four hundred and three dollars to fix car hire firms may even slyly add in extra charges also one way this is done is by claiming the car you pre-booked is unavailable when you go to pick it up but you can get an upgraded car for a price consumer sites suggest to stand firm that you should be given the upgraded car for the same price not only that but hidden in the terms and conditions may be some further hidden charges one in particular is in relation to fuel note is that full to empty policy you'll be paying a hugely inflated price to have fuel in the car when you collect but you'll also need to return the car with the agreed amount of fuel if you don't you can expect a heavy charge add it to your pill so next time you hire a vehicle make sure to read the fine print and carefully record the vehicles condition number six travel websites when you buy flights or book hotels online you're almost certainly not paying the same price as everyone else that means it's highly likely you're being ripped off let me explain companies use browser cookies and a variety of other information they've gleaned from your computer to learn about your spending habits and willingness to shop around for lower prices using this information they'll offer you different personalized prices for the same flight in rare cases you may be offered a lower than usual price but often it's the other way around and you end up paying more to check for the lowest deal you can use another device to check and clear your browser cookies to find out the original price this tactic is used by most online retailers but research published by Northeastern University confirmed that travel sites show price inconsistencies in a higher percentage of cases one travel company Orbitz was even found to be pointing Mac users towards higher priced hotel rooms than PC users number five printer companies printer ink can cost $13 to $75 per ounce that's at least three times more expensive than Tom Perry on champagne and around $5 per ounce with those prices you'd expect to get a lot of use from that inky liquid but that's not the case consumer report tested hundreds of all-in-one inkjet printers and discovered that in intermittent use most of them use less than half the actual ink in the cartridge for printing the rest is wasted on printer maintenance such as running maintenance cycles to clean printer heads when the printer is starting up after sitting idle for a while what idea to save money is to use third-party ink cartridges they tend to be less than half the price of genuine cartridges nice saving right well HP doesn't like the idea and 2016 HP printers were found to display a message on the printer after a certain amount of time if third-party cartridges were used stating the printer is damaged and can't be used HP felt that third-party ink was infringing on their intellectual property this forced consumers to fork out for another printer or have to get HP created Inc HP later reversed their action after the backlash but only after disappointing thousands of customers HP claims the higher prices on their cartridges helps them invest a lot of money into research and development but still really cost more than one of the world's most expensive champagne brands number for funeral companies the funeral industry exploits grief for profit the average funeral cost around eight thousand dollars but you could easily have one for a fraction of that cost if these exploitative dynamics didn't exist first up there's the expensive useless process of embalming which is rarely compulsory by law but costs hundreds of dollars have you ever thought about why you need to be preserved before buried underground you don't the funeral companies might sell it to you as a way to give dignity to the deceased or required to keep the body safe and sanitary but it's really just a pointless waste of time refrigeration is cheaper and just as effective as embalming the who reports dead bodies post almost no health risk to the living but ironically formaldehyde which is used during the embalming process isn't safe it's a carcinogen on top of that your love for the deceased may be tested by the funeral homes upselling tactics their casket room will be filled with overpriced caskets while the cheaper ones are hidden to encourage you to spend they can cost upwards of $10,000 which is pointless when you think about it since it's just going to be buried underground you're better off buying one online from places like Walmart for 1/10 of the cost and that mom-and-pop funeral shop yeah think you're supporting is most likely owned by a mega business called s CI that bought the local company but kept the old name so no one noticed what's disturbing is because they owned thousands of funeral homes all around the world they practically have a monopoly over the industry in most areas giving them significant pricing power to rip you off number three chip companies the tasty potato chip was introduced in 1882 and William Kitchener's recipe book since then it's become one of the most popular snacks in the u.s. so much so that 7 point 1 billion dollars was spent on the treat in 2009 but we may be purchasing more air than chips analysis by CDA appliances revealed some chip packages range from 18% air with watts 'it's to 72% of air from pop chips barbecue flavor these companies justify the air for being used as cushion to protect the chips and transport but it's more likely just to increase profits by decreasing the amount of products sold we're terrible and accurately perceiving size so even the most discerning shoppers among us will automatically assume that larger packaging means more product if they don't look too closely at the label number two sneaker companies you've saved up money to buy some Nike sneakers for $100 but how do you feel to know that it costs Nike roughly twenty eight dollars and fifty cents just to make them well that's what the research from Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal estimated it's been reported that the Air Jordans one of the most desirable sneaker brands cost Nike around sixteen dollars to make in China and then the shoes are sold from anywhere between two hundred and fifty to five hundred and fifty dollars while the price must be inflated to account for retail costs it's understandable why people think these shoes are a ripoff when compared to their raw production costs but they aren't the only ripoff shoe brand adidas Yeezy ZAR also made in China and cost seventy six dollars to produce yet are sold for three hundred and fifty dollars of course marketing research and development costs all need to be taken into account but ask yourself if you really think they're worth it before buy number one beats beats headphones were bought by Apple in 2014 which may come as no surprise Apple products are so expensive Android users continually claim they're a ripoff because they retail for more than double the value of their production cost so is the money going into their research and development nope only three point five percent of their income in 2015 went into R&D Facebook on the other hand spent 21 percent less be a great Christmas party they have an Apple but Beats Electronics with its headphone brand beats by dre maybe the biggest Apple ripoff of all these amazingly marketed headphones can set you back three hundred and fifty dollars but according to the New York Times headphone designers estimate a fancy headset like this cost as low as $14 to actually make we'll never know exactly how much they cost to make but going by reviews from audio fanatics it likely isn't more than other headphones they're popular studio 3 model was rated with a 7.1 sound score by a comprehensive list of head reviews by our team scoff alternative headphones with a higher sound score like this one made by JBL cost 1/3 of the price even so beats take up over 46% of the US wireless headphone market in terms of dollar sales the reason beats are so popular is down to celebrity endorsements and not sound quality they've regularly been trashed by competitors and quality rankings so unless you're happy to pay the huge markup for those celebrity endorsements their products aren't worth your money so do you agree with this list or do you know of any other companies are products that are ripping off customers more than the woods in this video if so let me know in the comments down below thanks for watching and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: BE AMAZED

Views: 556,411

Rating: 4.8642383 out of 5

Keywords: beamazed, be amazed, top 10, rip off, ripped off, 10 ways you are getting scammed, tricked by companies, companies are ripping you off, secretly tricked, how to not get scammed, how to not get ripped off

Id: RXr_6HcqP2A

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 13 2019