Tag Archives: scam

The Radio Shack Battery Scam

Posted on by
Reply

I made the mistake the other day to walk into Radio Shack. I needed a specialty battery and wasn’t really thinking. Almost every single battery was $4.99 or $5.99. Each.

Ok, well they’re specialty batteries, I thought. Really, they’re not so special. I needed 2. My options were $4.99 x2 ($9.98) or $11.99 for a 3 pack. That seemed like a deal  even though I only needed 2 batteries. Its actually a common marketing ploy, but I digress.

I got my batteries and walked out, grumpy about the whole situation.

When I arrived home, I decided to research the price of these batteries online. I went to Amazon and did a quick search. A 2 pack of the same batteries cost only $2.49 and a 5 pack cost only $8.50!!! Wait, I just paid $11.99 for 3! In some cases I was even finding 50 packs of batteries for around $10.

This left a bitter taste in my mouth and reminded me that certain “disposable” items were much cheaper online than in any store. Radio Shack has you cornered if you need specialty batteries right away just like Best Buy has you cornered when you need some sort of cable or part for your entertainment system.

The high markup on these types of items is probably the only thing keeping these brick and mortars in business at this point. They’re a dying breed and if they can’t adapt they’ll soon be extinct.

If Healthcare Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is

Posted on by
1

Saw this in Linda Rhodes’ Our Parents, Ourselves column in today’s Patriot News.

Q: My parents saw an ad for a new health insurance plan as a result of the Health Care Reform law, but it sounded too good to be true. How can they tell?

A: The first red flag is that it’s “too good to be true.” Scam artists are savvy at telling consumers what they want to hear. Insurance fraud experts caution that if the deal seems too good — like you’ll get full coverage, no pre-existing conditions, cheap premiums, no medical exam or detailed questions to answer — then you are likely being scammed.

Now, I’m not sure if it was inadvertant, but it sounds a heck of a lot like what the democrats promised. In short, yes, the American people got fleeced.

I wonder why the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has not gone after Lord Obama, Commander Pelosi, Count Reid, et al. for this travesty they call “reform.”