Updated: May 28, 2019
I can think of a few and they fall into these categories of anything:
- that locks you into an ongoing agreement arbitrarily
- when you couldn’t really afford it
- that afterward felt like you significantly overpaid
- subscription based that you wasn’t using for months (with no credit/money back option)
- that doesn’t do what you expected
- that is hard to get rid of or cancel
Whenever I buy something thinking I’ll make a hobby of using it, I know it might very well sit on a shelf and collect dust or since I’m obsessed with info products in a folder labeled “training” on my comp.
As buyers we develop these little frameworks for making purchasing decisions. They’re informed by good and bad experiences. As we get older we get to know ourselves better in some ways – or when we don’t we develop bad purchasing habits.
I’ve been doing some light research on this.
Here’s current order of “hurts brand trust” type purchasing I have so far (in progress)
- Things that don’t live up to what you expected: 1 gigabit Verizon connection – pretty sure its slower on wifi for me
- Things with high carrying costs that are hard to get rid of: boats, pool/hot tubs, timeshares, car lease, annual gym contracts
- Anything with hidden fees/penalties: bank accounts, credit cards, gym memberships, cable bills, phones
- Things you don’t need but someone “sold” you on: upsells on new cars like extended warranties
- Things you prob should have bought a cheaper comparable version: house, car, TV
- Things you aspire to use but then fail to do so: Smart watch/fitbit, fitness tech, dieting/gym memberships
- Things you won’t use enough to justify the price: kayak, boat, jet skis, one trick kitchen tech
- Things that become quickly outdated or out of style: CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, printers
- Trends or bad investments that drop in value almost overnight: Beanie babies, bitcoin, baseball cards