Question of the day - Thursday 16 July (the late edition)

[GemsGem]

Hey everyone.

I’m so sorry I’m so so late with Thursday’s question. It just completely slipped my mind
Anyway, better than than ever .......

What is something you resent paying for ?


For me it parking charges. Now I don’t mind paying something to park, it’s just the extortionate parking charges I hate.

 

[Xraystyle]

This is a very specific thing:
I used to pay for a subscription to listen to the radio broadcasts of the soccer team I follow in England. I loved listening while I worked, especially when I was in America and games were happening in the afternoon my time.
But then they changed the global service so that you could no longer *just* get the radio feed. You had to pay 100 pounds to get live video (with no commentary) and the radio (which is not synced). I don't want to watch silent video, but I didn't feel like paying 100 pounds for something I used to get for 5 quid a month.
So I didn't pay.
And I basically had to stop supporting the team because of it. I still follow the accounts on Facebook and Instagram, but it's not the same. I tried sending messages to the service provider but it was a service being implemented across the league, not just one team, so they couldn't make any changes.
So yeah.

Another thing, much broader and simpler: Why is stadium/theater food so expensive??? Why do they charge 5$ for popcorn that would cost you less than $2 at the convenience store?? I guess it's a "captive" market. Here in Korea you are allowed to bring in outside food so people turn up to baseball/soccer games with entire pizzas and boxes of fried chicken.

 

[Mia6]

I wish health insurance in America was free for everyone.

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

My iPhone. Not sure why I even bought it as I've been having issues with Apple products since the old 4S phone.

 

[mani]

A cat license. My cats are indoor and it's just a revenue raising thing for our Council. They introduced it a few years ago and I stupidly admitted to having a cat. I refuse to pay until they threaten to take legal action. Then they ring me up say 'you really need to pay it now', and I say 'ok, but it's a ridiculous license'. They probably draw straws.. 'who's going to call her this time?'
It's just my own little protest.

 

[Roxabelle]

A £40 app for my phone that I used for a week!
The last £150 I spent on clothes.
£100 on roller skates that I have nowhere to practice...

I could go on and on and on, but the things I regret spending money on are all physical things I don't need. I've learned my lesson, and I'm slowly getting rid of everything I own. Eventually, I'll just live in a calm, minimal house, with everything either painted white or left natural, and the only things in there will be cats and house plants.

 

[NY cat man]

A $10 annual 'enforcement fee' on my vehicle registration- as though the State Police weren't already funded through my tax dollars. That's why NY is known as 'the Vampire State', because they will bleed you dry.

 

[posiepurrs]

Our HOA fee. We were stupid when we bought our house. The realtor told us verbally that the fee was a one time thing (stupid because we didn't get it in writing and believed her). We get absolutely no benefits from it. I was told it was to help with cleaning of wetlands in the development since we border conservation land. However, we weren't stupid enough to buy one of the lots with the bogs on them. Why should we have to pay for keeping up a neighbors yard? A few years ago they had a vote to increase the fees to install one street light since there had been a break in. Our development is 3 streets, approx. 20-25 houses. One street light isn't going to help. We have been here 28 years and every year when I write the check, I write ransom money in the note part of the check. Just my way of grumbling.

 

[Willowy]

Why is stadium/theater food so expensive???

I don't know about stadiums, but movie theaters don't make any money from actual movie tickets. It costs $x to get a movie, and they charge just barely enough to break even (or sometimes even take a loss), or nobody would buy a ticket. The real money is in concessions.


I HATE paying interest on anything. Just hate it. I can mostly avoid it by not having debt, but the mortgage is unavoidable. I hate looking at the statement .

 

[Jem]

Like W Willowy mentioned, interest is a good one that I resent paying for. I mostly avoid it but of course mortgage and car payments can't really be helped.
The other is when I have to pay for repairs or services due to something out of my control. Just recently, I had to pay for an exterminator for carpenter ants...we've been trying to figure out where they came from and recently the neighbor's garage partially collapsed...I think they came from there, but I don't feel comfortable going over to investigate and he's not a "good neighbor" so talking to him is useless. It was a small satellite nest so the "main nest" is somewhere nearby, but nowhere to be found on my property. His makeshift, not to code, half collapsed garage is only about 10 feet from my house...

 

[DreamerRose]

Fees for a game on my tablet. It was free to download, but it's getting more and more difficult to win, and you have to buy things to make it to the next level. I realize this is the way they make money, but it's getting to be too much. I play less and less; maybe will stop altogether.

 

[Talien]

Hughesnet for the 2 years we had it. Absolute, total, utter garbage. The guy who talked my dad into the 2 year contract promised that there was no rain fade and weather in general would not cause any service interruptions....yeah right. The slightest bit of rain and it was like we were back on AOL dialup if it didn't drop altogether. Snow and cloud cover played hell with it too.

And that's not even counting the constant 1,000+ ms (1 full second) of latency.

 

[susanm9006]

The odd bits the cable company sticks in for fees, like broadcast TV fee, access fees, technology fee, sports fees etc. There are so many, the total is so high and I think they are all made up just increase revenue.

And when I used to fly a lot the extra fees used to really annoy me. Fees for advance seat assignment, comfort row, early boarding, baggage check. Ugg.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

Other than the obvious student loans, I hate having to pay for Microsoft Office. It used to just come with the computer for free. Now you have to pay yearly or something. My work was offering the non-subscription Microsoft Office to employees either for free or cheap (I can't remember) before they had to switch to the subscription, so I got one because the version on my computer stopped working and I don't really care about frequent updates. I just want to be able to open documents and spreadsheets without a lot of problems.

 

[Talien]

Other than the obvious student loans, I hate having to pay for Microsoft Office. It used to just come with the computer for free. Now you have to pay yearly or something. My work was offering the non-subscription Microsoft Office to employees either for free or cheap (I can't remember) before they had to switch to the subscription, so I got one because the version on my computer stopped working and I don't really care about frequent updates. I just want to be able to open documents and spreadsheets without a lot of problems.

There's a freeware program called Open Office that does what MS Office does.

 

[denice]

I hate the Microsoft Office subscription as well. I don't use it very often but when I need it I really need it so I continue it. I know I don't really use it enough to make it worth what I am paying but as I said when I do need it I really need it.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

There's a freeware program called Open Office that does what MS Office does.

Open Office was more work than I wanted to deal with and caused a lot of issues. I tried it for a while a few years ago and I just wanted Microsoft Office back.

 

[Norachan]

Contributions to the Japanese Pension Fund, commonly known as the Daylight Robbery Tax.

It's ridiculously high, every one who lives in Japan has to pay it, even if you're only going to stay for a year, and the government gleefully admit that even though they make you pay your pension contributions they won't refund any of it if you leave Japan before you're old enough to receive any pension cheques.

Oh, and the government recently told all Japanese residents that they should be prepared to get a part time job after they reach retirement age, because there won't be enough money for them to get a pension.

So, what are we paying money into the Pension Fund for?

 

[aliceneko]

My secondary school. It was fee-paying, and I hated it and actually learnt more academically at the state/public school I ended up going to for sixth form, and now as a result I'm strongly against the private education system. (Finland doesn't have any private schools and has the best education system in Europe!)