Most ridiculous 'add-on' you've ever had to pay?

pulliptears

Clive_Woody said:

Legoland parking fee (which I see is now £10) - they are situated in the middle of nowhere so driving is required.

You have already paid a ridiculous amount for park tickets and will be fleeced for every drink and item of food while there, and kids will be looking at Lego sets that are much cheaper on Amazon...but the idea of delayed gratification is an alien concept.

I know you can save up vouchers, use Tesco points, etc....but the parking fee is just the final insult.......rant over 

See Alton Towers for similar.

Murphybear

Paully28 said:

Seats on planes where you have to add extra £ to sit together, even with small children. 

I haven’t travelled on a plane for years but did so a lot back then.  From what I remember there were no “extras”,  you were always placed next to your travelling companions.  There were 6 of us on one holiday, we were close enough to talk without shouting 

With my cynical hat on, do the airlines charge extra because it is a highly competitive market and they need the extras to make a living?

Murphybear

Brie said:

Higher costs for women's clothing, hair cuts, everything.  If a woman buys plus size clothes they cost more than the smaller sizes but the same doesn't normally happen for men's plus sizes.  Hair cuts can be twice the price even if you are both getting what essentially is a barber shop cut.  Things like razors will be in pink or pale blue and there'll be 3 in a pack for the same price as a pack of 4 or 5 black ones being marketed for men.  

Weirdest one though was when I questioned the difference between 2 prices for an airline.  They had Jazz and Jazz Plus with the plus one being about 20% higher in cost.  I rang them to find out what extra I would get by paying more.  Nothing apparently.  It's just people assumed by paying more they were that bit closer to being in business class when in fact the seats, meal, baggage allowance, everything was identical.

That’s not my experience.  I was a size 22 for a long time and everywhere I shopped the prices were the same.  I’m now a 14 and don’t pay less.  My ex father in law was in the clothing trade for many years and he told me there is very little difference in cost for the material and  no difference in the labour for making different sizes,  

hugheskevi

jmkennedy said:

MSE_Laura_F said:

What is the most ridiculous add-on you've been made to pay when buying goods or services?

Did a gifted experience voucher come with a particularly steep service charge?

Did an airline's mandatory extra charges really take the biscuit?

I'd love to hear any and all examples. Thanks.

I called into a Morrisons cafe for a cup of tea.  When I asked if I could have some fresh milk instead of UHT, I was told I would have to pay extra!  I walked out and have boycotted them.

Reminds me of a roadside place I went into in Arizona last year - it had the largest price difference for 'Vegan Shakes' I have ever seen - and despite costing almost twice as much they only had two-thirds of the calories. 

The Kid's Meal didn't look very attractive either - I dread to think what goes into their 'Small Fatburger (Baby Fat)'...

ElefantEd

But the difference between non-vegan and vegan isn't the number of calories, it's in the ingredients used to make the shake.

"Baby fat" does indeed sound utterly revolting (at least it wasn't puppy fat)!

Mnoee

A pub near me has a steak and wine deal, with a £2 surcharge to swap the meat for a vegan cauliflower 'steak'. That's a large slice of grilled cauliflower, for anyone unaware. In no way does that cost more than steak. 

Can't comment on the ingredient cost for the American milkshake place, but it seems very odd they don't do a vegan oreo shake! 

Paully28

Murphybear said:

Paully28 said:

Seats on planes where you have to add extra £ to sit together, even with small children. 

I haven’t travelled on a plane for years but did so a lot back then.  From what I remember there were no “extras”,  you were always placed next to your travelling companions.  There were 6 of us on one holiday, we were close enough to talk without shouting 

With my cynical hat on, do the airlines charge extra because it is a highly competitive market and they need the extras to make a living?

I have travelled on a plane most recently last summer and was given the option to pay for choice of seats, an offer which I didn't take Jet2 up on. We were then sat apart from one another, myself and my son about 6 or 7 rows apart, and my other half and daughter about another 5 or 6 rows in front of son.  I totally have the same cynical hat on. 

GrahamLM52

German Tourist Tax.

Whilst traveling in Europe on business I stayed in a nice lakeside hotel in Germany. This is back when the UK was still in the EU.

When leaving I saw an extra on my bill "bettensteurn". This is a local tax added to the hotel bill for all tourists (actually the hotel clerk said it applied to all auslanders (foreigners) but that's another argument).

I was aware of the tax and that it was supposed to only be levied on tourists and as I was a business traveler I was exempt.

The check-out clerk said that he knew I strolled around the lake every evening and as that was after work hours I must have been a tourist at that time, so should pay the tourist tax.

Despite his slightly skewed logic I paid up, but still grumbled about it.

It was a lovely hotel in a picturesque location and I stayed there many times. It became a running joke between us. I'd check in, making sure he knew I was a business traveler. On leaving he would point out the "bettensteurn tax" and with a smile tell me that was the charge for my "evening strolls around the lake".

Why there was a tax for tourists and not for business travelers I never understood.

oscarward

Paully28 said:

Murphybear said:

Paully28 said:

Seats on planes where you have to add extra £ to sit together, even with small children. 

I haven’t travelled on a plane for years but did so a lot back then.  From what I remember there were no “extras”,  you were always placed next to your travelling companions.  There were 6 of us on one holiday, we were close enough to talk without shouting 

With my cynical hat on, do the airlines charge extra because it is a highly competitive market and they need the extras to make a living?

I have travelled on a plane most recently last summer and was given the option to pay for choice of seats, an offer which I didn't take Jet2 up on. We were then sat apart from one another, myself and my son about 6 or 7 rows apart, and my other half and daughter about another 5 or 6 rows in front of son.  I totally have the same cynical hat on. 

There was a rumour/suspicion some years ago that a certain low cost Irish airline had it programmed in to the booking system to split multiple seat bookings as far apart as possible to encourage the purchase of the sitting together optional extra. The idea was sell the seat for as low as possible then charge extra for everything else such as hold baggage, airport check in, using toilets 😎

TripleH

Last time I flew that Irish airline, the 2 ladies in the seats in front of us (who had paid for their specific seats) got moved to make way for a party of 3 adults and 3 small children who were the last ones on the flight and 'needed to sit together'.