See, this is why they get away with it.

In the 1950s, before I was born, my dad was a child of about 8 years old.

My grandfather was a traveling vacume salesman. He'd travel the country, and sell vacumes door to door. There's 365 days in a year, and he was generally home for about 14 of those days. Never together. Just an average of about 1 day a month he was home. Sometimes 2 days, but not back to back.

My grandmother wanted to spend some time with her husband, whom she loved deeply. So she requested he take a vacation with her, and their 4 children. So he put in the time off request, and was granted a 3 week break in the upcoming summer.

Now my family, both grandparents, and all 4 of their children are all white. But our last name is a name that you would assume is a black persons name. I still think it seems like a name that can be any race, but I've been consistantly told by black people, that I shouldn't have my name, because I'm white. So I guess the common consensus is that my name is a black name.

Back in the 1950s, the way travel worked was very different. Today, you log onto a travel website, you book your own hotel, you compare deals, ect. Back then, none of that. Instead you could use a real estate agent which cost more, or you could do what my grandfather did. He went to the library, requested information on books about Myrtle Beach resorts. Then from there he called the hotel directly. When he talked to a hotel in Myrtle Beach City, they told him they would sent him an information packet in the mail. He would need to select the dates, the number of rooms, and number of guests. Which would be 6. Then the information packet would tell him how much his stay would cost, and he would use the postage included envelope to mail back his check, and a letter written to the hotel manager requesting stay. He mailed it off. A week or two later he gets what he thinks is his acceptance letter in the mail confirming the reservation. Instead he gets his check back, with the word "VOID" stamped on it. And a letter from the hotel manager.

"Dear Mr (our last name), I regret to inform you that we do not accept (n-word)'s at our fine establishment. We are a strictly whites only establishment."

My grandma says she never seen fury in his eyes like that. This normally quiet, calm, individual who just wanted peace and quiet got a burning red rage in his eyes, and screams at the top of his lungs.

"KIDS, GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!!!! (Grandmas name), GO GET MY FUCKING CAMERA!!!

Couple things. First, my grandfather never raised his voice. He never demanded anything. He never cursed. And he NEVER NEVER NEVER ordered my grandma to do anything. If anything he felt it his responsibility to ask what she needs.

My grandma, nor my dad, nor my aunts knew what just happened. They just knew he was pissed, it came out of nowhere, and they were now scared. They didn't get a chance to see the letter before he snapped. So you can bet my grandmother just ran to get the camera, and the kids came barreling down the stairs thinking they were in trouble.

ALRIGHT! EVERYBODY ON THE FRONT LAWN!!!! WE'RE GOING TO TAKE A NICE HAPPY FAMILY PHOTO FOR THESE BASTARDS!!! I DIDN'T STORM NORMANDY FOR THIS SHIT!!!

I've seen the photo. The best way to describe it was an angry man, and 5 other terrified indivuduals all fake smiling. In the background was the house they lived in back then. Big beautiful house. Not a mansion, but big enough that some poor people might think it's a mansion. 5 bedroom with 2 living rooms.

They take the photo and without saying a word my grandfather stormed inside to find this old timey quill and ink. He hand writes a reply. In cursive. Using a quill and ink which is VERY apperent that it's not standard cheap ink pens.

Dear Mr (hotel managers name). No, I regret to inform YOU that we will not be entertaining the idea of ever staying at your resort. I will happily share a hotel with any man or woman of any race before I ever settle for enriching a racist. Our family will still be visiting Myrtle Beach for the dates previously requested, but at this time we will be seeking other arrangements for lodging. Enclosed you will find our family photo. Sincerely, (grandpas name)."

And a week later, he sent them that hand written letter, and the photo. They went on that vacation at a different hotel.

That hotel was torn down in the 1970s. My grandpa said his three greatest accomplishments in life were 1) Marrying my grandma 2) Sending that letter 3) Living through Normandy. In that order.

My point is, you can always seek alternatives. By still buying the product anyways, you're actually doing harm by writing the letter now. At this point it only serves to prove to them that it's worth it. They can trick the majority, but also even the people who aren't fooled may not take the $2 worth of scam....but they'll still buy the product. This just proves there is no downside for them.

Will you alone make a difference by not buying the thing? No. But you also have no principal in the situation. You're mad, but still giving them money, so why would they stop? Maybe if more people in this world still held to their principals, collectively we start telling the world that they don't run the show. They can stop scamming, or go out of business.

But by still buying the product, you give all that away.

Scummy as fuck

For people asking what this is - for my small biz, adding insurance via ups would be about $25 per package, and 3rd party protection is about $11. I don't make any money off this, it's strictly to cover lost / damaged shipments.

I offer default protection on during checkout but call it out in a big obvious box, and warn that if you remove it and the package is lost then you're out of luck. Most people leave it on, and I have about a 2% package loss rate (thanks ups) that has all been covered so far.

If I didn't offer it via 3rd party then that $25 would be rolled into the shipping cost, so the customer is forced to pay. This way they get the option, and it saves them money.

I wish more companies would just be up front about it though, it feels deceptive when they shove it in without explaining why.

I'm gonna start a competing "package tailing" service. I'll sneak from shadow to shadow and always stay two cars (or bicycles) behind the courier, wearing a dark trenchcoat and report any updates to you. When your package arrives, I'll show up at the same time, surprising the courier/carrier with fresh polaroids taken through a tele-lens.

It won't be cheaper, but helluva lot cooler.

When ordering, you get to choose which hat I wear.

Interesting, they try that here in the EU too. I find it particularly egregious because until I take delivery of the package, I'm not responsible for it if it's lost or damaged.

WTF is "Packet Protection"? Insurance? Extra padding? Or "Without it we just slap an address sticker on the original packaging"?

Its not your until it is received, what is package protection?

I don't think this is even legal in some jurisdictions. Many places have regulations that restrict/prohibit drip pricing, and I'd argue that automatically preselecting options that cost more is a dark pattern that's adjacent to drip pricing.

I hope you responded by cancelling your order and sending them an email/message explaining your cancellation due to unacceptable business practices.

Related: suggested tips “for the team.” I don’t even know if I like your product yet. This ain’t a service. Don’t swivel the virtual iPad.

Or websites that use Shop as a payment provider.

Some of them automatically sign you up with a Shop account. You can opt out, but you have to notice the tiny check box with the fine print that says "sign me up for a Shop account" that's checked by default.

If you click "pay now" before unchecking that box, they send all your personal information including name, address, email, phone number, and debit card information to their third-party payment provider who then stores it, likely permanently, with no clear option for account deletion.

And now whenever I check out on a website that integrates with Shop, even if they don't do that scummy trick to try to sign you up with them, as soon as I enter my email address it sends a confirmation code to my phone trying to auto-fill my payment info. It's so fucking annoying.

Sucks that they tried to hide it, but I definitely recommend getting it. Of the 10 times I ordered from them so far, 2 of them arrived with a broken bottle. When a bottle breaks, you don't want that box in your house... I let the delivery guy know right away what he likely got on his hands from touching the box, so he didn't touch his eyes or anything before cleaning them. With a picture of the broken bottle, they let me toss the entire box and resent the whole order. Both times. I wouldn't bother if it was just a tier 1 or 2 that broke, but one of those times it was da bomb... and the other, it was that years last dab.

I wonder what they do for replacements when people don't get that, do people need to send it back? That would suck for everyone.

I've always opted out of package protection, it's a fee, a scam fee at that. I've never had an issue getting my packages.

How about just package surveillance... secret surveillance. You know, they'll watch the package but if something happens they do nothing and don't tell you anything about it.

Sure would be a shame is something happened to your package. You never know.