Which industry has the biggest laugh at their customers' expense?

Ubbquittious

*Mobile gaming companies with pay to play / pay to win model. They can acquire some game as it's starting to become popular on and "monetize" it through selling custom skins for players, upgrades. Endless amounts of passive income to be earned from selling pixels and all they need to do is keep a couple of servers running.

*The sunglasses industry - sell cheap bits of plastic for 100s of euro and get away with it. The pieces of plastic only last a few years so plenty of return customers

*Car insurance - the vast majority of customers just shovel 100s a year into them and all they want in return is a piece of paper with a date and a green strip printed on it

*Banks - Pull 300,000 euro from a magic bankers hat and watch some eejit paying interest on it for the next 30 years. Once you are able to set yourself up as a bank there really isn't any fear of you seeing another poor day once you don't do anything ridiculously drastically stupid.

*Paid car parks - Nobody ever complains to say the boiler in their parking space is broken, no problem evicting users, pay some fella to have a look at the ticket machine once a week or two and if your car park is in a popular spot you can throw your two legs up on a sun lounger in Barbados for the rest of your days

any more to add?

ancapailldorcha

Bile-spewing tabloids and social media.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119712430#Comment_119712430

Social media yes but the bile spewing tabloids are under pressure to constantly look for new sources of bile to spew and their customers are quick to flake once there's an interruption in the bile supply

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119712448#Comment_119712448

They're not though. The same drivel about single mothers, cyclists, foreigners, Muslims, the unemployed, etc always sells. They're under pressure from social media and the internet.

Addmagnet

If you don't like the goods or the company, don't be a customer ...

McGrath5

The gambling industry - its insidious, ruins lives leaving people destitute all the while advertising their friendly football bantz betz everywhere.

Vitamin Supplements probably. So many millions spent in that industry and most people taking them likely either A) see no benefit whatsoever past mere placebo and B) piss most of what they take in the tablet down the toilet and C) in places like the US are probably getting pills that contain absolutely zero of the vitamin or mineral the box claims they are taking in the first place.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119712509#Comment_119712509

This is what I do. But car insurance/banks are hard to avoid as they've been elevated to a position of power by our government overlords

RobbieTheRobber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058266400/which-industry-has-the-biggest-laugh-at-their-customers-expense

You are spot on with the sunglasses, one company dominates the sunglasses market.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica#:~:text=Luxottica%20Group%20PIVA%20is%20an,is%20based%20in%20Milan%2C%20Italy.

And absolutely takes the piss with pricing.

Quote from the founder of a retailer the brand bought.

In 2019, LensCrafters founder E. Dean Butler spoke to the Los Angeles Times, admitting that Luxottica's dominance of the eyewear industry had resulted in price markups of nearly 1,000%. In the interview, Butler noted "You can get amazingly good frames, with a Warby Parker level of quality, for $4 to $8. For $15, you can get designer-quality frames, like what you’d get from Prada." When told that some eyeglasses cost as much as $800 in the United States, Butler remarked, "I know. It’s ridiculous. It’s a complete rip-off."

MOR316

All of them

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119712485#Comment_119712485

I'd say your posts on boards give tabloids a run for their money - I see more rants about rants about foreigners, muslims, the unemployed etc from you than I do actual rants about those groups!

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119712509#Comment_119712509

I'm not as much as I can. Easy to not buy a newspaper. I used adblock for social media and consume as little social media as I can.

SuperBowserWorld

Alcohol industry.

They should have to show car crashes, sucides, broken families, destroyed communities, utterly wasted human potential ... in their advertising.

BrianBoru00

the "Legal Profession" - in particular the cottage industry that is the district court.

Free Legal aid courtesy of the tax payer

Dodge

Builders and assorted tradespeople. Currently in week 15 of a “4 to 6 week” job

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119712514#Comment_119712514

Yea I would have put gambling at the top of the list.

The clown industry.

Strumms

I’d agree with social media. Look at how YouTube has gone for example. Just bombarding people with advertisements now, it’s such a fûcking pain in the hole to use… you often have to watch a portion of an advertisement before they’ll allow you to watch a video… now the adds are popping up too in the middle of a video…in the middle of watching…a piss take.

some you can skip after watching xx seconds, some you can’t…

in 2021, YouTube posted revenue of 28.8 billion. 74.7 billion in revenue over 4 years from 2018-2021…if you don’t want to watch the advertising you have to pay for YouTube premium. So either way, they win..

Just went to Facebook, in my feed, 5 out of the first 11 posts are sponsored advertisements..a healthcare charity, Irish water, sword’s pavilions, 1 news sports and Disney plus… I don’t follow or have an active interest in any of them and I’m not following them on any social media portal..

it will probably get to the stage now in future where in education, in a third level college you’ll be sat down on time for a 14.00 lecture and.. a message….“The Benefits of Cereal. Packed with energy and nutrients, a bowl of Kellogg's means a great start to the day”… advertising is just everywhere…

but social media over the last couple of years, annoying ..

Larbre34

Telecoms industry - mobile phone, broadband. Zero f**ks given.

Heighway61

To make a profit, the profiteer must fool his neighbour into giving of himself for less than his true worth.

One Who Waits...

Alcohol industry and whatever showers are involved in building the new National Children's Hospital.

Strumms

Certain corners of the aviation industry…

Beauvais, is not IN Paris, or on the outskirts of Paris. Vatry is not IN Paris, or on the outskirts of Paris. But a certain airline markets them as.. Paris Beauvais & Paris Vatry.

be like building an airport in Dundalk and marketing it Dublin Dundalk airport…

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119713005#Comment_119713005

But isn't it some international body that determines what airports can call themselves, not the individual airlines making that decision.

Sleepy

Has to be the Fashion & Beauty industry... they make billions every year out of convincing women that they're ugly.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119713155#Comment_119713155

Before the certain airline began flying there, Beauvais and Vatry airports were long in existence. Beauvais was called Beauvais - Tille, Vatry was Chalons Vatry…. The airline hooked up with the airports to change their name for marketing.. IATA and ICAO both have codes for airports .ie. DUB & EIDW for Dublin that don’t change but airports names can..

a second airport was built here, Dublin North could be the marketing name of the Dublin we know today.

hawley

The welfare industry. People paying tax at fifty percent to support people who never want to contribute anything.

lawrencesummers

The manufacturers of “premium” baby wipes

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119713280#Comment_119713280

Don't complain too hard about those. Rural ireland would be in a lot worse state without them and they spend their money stupidly in a lot of cases. They buy a lot of booze and fags so most of that money goes straight back to the government. They keep the publicans and local shops in business in places where there's little employment available.

bullpost

Porn Industry - They view their customers as a bunch of w:{nkers 🤣

DavyD_83

Insurance, especially the ones that are mandatory. Car, mortgage. As pratchett explained it's basically betting on bad things happening to you.

And then spending the rest of your life trying to avoid winning the bet

Eoinbmw

sky and Vodafone!