Do I have "sucker" written on my forehead? {Listography 2011}


A post from the other half...

First, let me introduce myself.  I am Ryan, the husband who reads many versions of every post, sometimes gives input, but never comments (I need to get better at that).  I am the one who watches Torrie fall asleep sitting upright on the couch with her laptop - in the middle of obsessing over spacing or the mysterious self-changing font. 

Some of you may be aware that it is my lovely wife's birthday tomorrow, so I thought I would start my gifting a couple hours early by giving her the gift of time, taking over one of her posts.  Granted, I am not as gifted a writer as she is but I will give it a go. 
 
 
Each Wednesday, Emily, @ Notorious MLE, Danielle, @ Elleinad Spir, and Torrie are working their way through the lists of Listography 2011.
   
 image via
 
I saw this week's topic, List all the scams you have encountered and thought, "This one is right up my alley."  It is as though I am a magnet for scams, as I have fallen for many things that were 'too good to be true.'


1.  Columbia House - 10 CDs for a penny.  This is the first one I can remember.  They made it extremely difficult to send back the Kenny G. CD I didn't order and near impossible to get out of the program.
 
2.  The 'Free' year subscription to a magazine.  I was just trying to make a purchase and be on my way, but the salesperson told me that as a loyal customer they were offering me a subscription to "Food & Wine."  Who knew they were linking the subscription to my check card for automatic renewals?  Three years later, I finally went through the complicated process for canceling the subscription.
 
3.  The '0% APR' credit card.  Didn't read the fine print on this one.  Apparently there was a line in microscopic legalese on page 76 that informed me that if I was 45 seconds late on a payment my rate would go up to 29.99%.

4.  "I have an exciting business proposition for you"  I don't know how many times an acquaintance wanted to set up a business meeting so they can tell me how I can quit my job, be my own boss, and enjoy 'financial freedom.'  Really???  How many suckers would I need to take advantage of to make this a reality?  Sure... sign me up, pal.

5. "Do you wanna buy some speakers?"  Seriously, I don't know why these guys come after me.  As I am walking to my car in the Target parking lot, a couple of guys pull up in a van telling me that they have overstock high-end speakers that they need to sell dirt-cheap for cash.  Where did they get these speakers?  Are they stolen?  Are they defective?  Why do they always approach me?  Do I look like a guy that needs new speakers?  Because of this I have learned not to make eye contact with anyone in a parking lot.
 
I am curious to see what you've fallen for.  Let us know with a comment or head over to Emily's and add a link to your post.

Now, I am off to get some rest for a big day (or week, if you ask Torrie) ahead of us.  I'm looking forward to it.  Happy birthday to my gorgeous, talented, adorable, sweet wife!!!
 

22 comments:

  1. Ryan....I'm so excited to see a post from you! Colombia House, that's classic. I always wondered who signed up for that ;) happy happy happy birthday Torrie. I wish I was there to help you celebrate! I will be thinking of you all day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy almost birthday Torrie! Hello, Ryan!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the SWEETEST gift of all! I'm choking up over reading the last line. Happy early birthday, Torrie! I love the list of scams, Ryan. The speaker thing cracks me up because my roommate in college fell for that one and we had 4 HUGE speakers in our apartment (they never came out of the box) for about 6 months. I've definitely fallen for the magazine one. They're still automatically renewing my Glamour magazine every year even though I've tried to change that multiple times.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you guys (gals)!! Yeah... he's a pretty sweet guy. I got lucky :).

    Valerie- your comment made Ryan so happy, because when I read his post (although I loved it) I told him that the speaker thing's never happened to me. He said it's happened quite a few times when he was younger, and then said, "Maybe it's a guy thing." So, when I read him your comment- he said, "Someone gets it!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is so sweet and funny. I also fell for the 10 CDs one when I was 15. And it is impossible to get out of. I probably STILL owe Columbia House another CD purchase.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice to 'meet you' Ryan! I learned young when I was scammed by ordering those damn sea monkeys (against my parents' advice) and was DEVASTATED when my order arrived and I didn't have my own cute monkey family to care for. :(

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is so sweet! I hope you have a fantastic birthday Torrie!!! I definately run when anyone approaces me in a parking lot :)....and magazine scams, dont even get me started!

    ReplyDelete
  8. omg, Ryan this is so fantastic. I had totally forgotten about Columbia house. I always wanted to do that, but my paranoid mom always said no. Wonder why?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well what a sweet gift :) Happy Birthday Torrie!

    ReplyDelete
  10. The gift of time is a most excellent gift! Happy bday T!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Loved the post... cracked up telling my sister about Columbia House, since she is no stranger to that one!

    Torrie, hope your birthday is special in every way! :)

    Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well well well. We finally meet! How much fun it was to see this post from you. I was kinda giddy to hear from torrie's other half! Your wife is one special lady. I am thinking I might need to advisement "show" this to my husband so he might "accidentally" do a blog post for me on my b-day in June! He might be calling you for tips! Lol! Serioulsy though you did a great job. You for sure made torrie proud. Now I must leave because envy us overcoming me bc try as I may I don't my hubbu can write a recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ok, I have to say that this is just the sweetest, most unique gift. You have a keeper, Torrie. :) The Columbia House thing made me laugh! Those mailings are one of my main memories of college. I was stupid enough to sign up for that one *and* one from from something like BMG...so I was stressed about sending back *2* crappy CDs a month!

    Hope you have a wonderful birthday tomorrow, Torrie!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love this cameo post from Mr. Torrie! And yes, it's called BIRTHWEEK, so rest up. Happy Happy Week, Torrie!!!

    xoxo

    p.s. i totally spaced on wed's listography!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Like the hubbie blogging, cute! and Happy Birthday!!
    I forgot about the year subscriptions to magazines, I think i fell for that years ago :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Happy birthday to Torrie! Love that you posted for her, she's such an incredible woman and you are one lucky guy ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is awesome! What a great gift and a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Torrie!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow, this is fabulous! I am sending this to my husband toot sweet - he will be so happy that he gets to blog on my b-day. You are a brilliant hubby! (Plus Happy Birthday Torrie!) You must have an endearingly sweet face, I am such a hard old scowly cynic I don't get the free mag offers. Plus we don't answer the phone ever...drives my family in NZ crazy. Sea monkeys...I haven't thought about those little guys in ages!

    ReplyDelete
  19. well hello ryan!! nice to hear from you!! i totally wanted that cd deal, but my mom wouldn't let me! :( guess she was right...

    and HAPPY BIRTHDAY torrie!!! hope it was fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I think what you posted made a ton of sense.
    But, what about this? suppose you added a little content? I ain't saying your content is not good, but what if you added a headline that grabbed a person's
    attention? I mean "Do I have "sucker" written on my forehead? Listography 2011"
    is a little vanilla. You ought to look at Yahoo's front page and see how they create post titles to grab viewers to click. You might try adding a video or a related picture or two to grab people interested about what you've got
    to say. Just my opinion, it could make your posts a little livelier.
    My website - click the next internet site

    ReplyDelete
  21. Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Firefox.
    I'm not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I figured I'd post to let you know.
    The design and style look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon.
    Kudos
    Feel free to surf my blog Erotic

    ReplyDelete
  22. My relatives every time say that I am wasting
    my time here at net, but I know I am getting familiarity daily
    by reading thes good content.

    Look into my web-site :: markkinointi sosiaalisessa mediassa
    my website :: hakukoneoptimointia

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...