Jump to content

The Biggest Scam Profession


Recommended Posts

Posted
7 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

 I think I've seen 6 curriculum changes in reading in 13 years of teaching.  I.E. new books, new training, and new materials that need to be purchased.

Wife is in year 6 of teaching and she's on her 6th change in curriculum (she's self-contained so one year it might be math that changes then one year it might ELAR). The worst part is that you can never reuse your lesson plans, so she feels like a new teacher every single year.

  • Like 1
Posted
18 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

Car extended warranty or home warranty companies. They tell you everything is included but when you try to file a claim there's always some fine print to disqualify your claim. 

I tend to agree, but a buddy of mine recently bought his daughter a used Porsche Cayenne. Something broke in the AC "plumbing", and it was buried in the dash. To get to it, they had to remove the dash, and to do that they had to remove the windshield, and Porsche won't reinstall a used windshield, so they had to order a new one...from Germany. His final bill was north of $18,000 and all he paid was the $100 deductible and his extended warranty covered the rest. 

 

Auto repair shops have been covered, but a very specific type of fuckery happens with shops that are close to big college campuses. The assumption is that mom & dad are hours away and won't put up much of a fight. My daughter was having overheating issues on her car, so I checked yelp and sent her to a highly rated place in College Station. I knew when they called me and spent 10 minutes telling me about their warranty and "quality" parts that I was about to get a fucking, but even with all that I was shocked to get a $2,800 quote to replace a part I found brand new online for $260. I ended up buying the part in Georgetown and driving to College Station and doing it myself in her apartment parking lot in 15 minutes. 

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Mo Horn said:

Car extended warranty or home warranty companies. They tell you everything is included but when you try to file a claim there's always some fine print to disqualify your claim. 

This so much.

But also, the tetrad of insurance, provider, pharmacy benefit manager, and pharmacy.

Try and shop healthcare. I dare you. 
Try to find the cheapest place to buy a drug that isn’t for blood pressure, cholesterol, an SSRI, hair loss, or a wonky dick. If Mark Cuban ain’t selling it. Good Effin’ luck.

Daughter needs ADHD meds…. Or so the wife says. Idk. But whatever.

Ive got a high deductible HSA. So I have to shop. No problem I think. Costco prices are badass usually.

Attempt 1.) With insurance- $300. Yeah fuck no.

Attempt 2.) Costco and Costco discount price - $79…. Ok whatever I’ll pay that know and find something cheaper later. I’m cheap and I’m kind of irritated so here we go:

My Journey:
1.) Call insurance for prices around town. They can’t give it. Huh? Why not? Diff pharmacies / diff manufacturers all diff. Only can give a ‘estimate’. Is that the real price? Is it close? All they can say is it’s an estimate and they can’t even say if it’s good for the today or if it’s within 10%. Total useless BS. Told to Call the pharmacies. They should help me look up prices.

2.) Call pharmacies. They can’t. They need a script. Huh? Just look it up right? Nope. Can’t. Have to have a script. Don’t want to even try to run it through insurance. Why not? Because they could be investigated by the insurance for … get this…. Fraud. Why would the insurance company tell me to ask you to commit fraud? Pharmacy says tough titty. Go away and talk to your doctor. Huh? Have your doctor write the scripts to the medicine you want us to look up the price for then we can do it. Now go away.

3.) call doctor. We aren’t writing you 5 scripts for a controlled substance. Nice try buddy. Me: I need to shop it. Doc says to call insurance. 🤦‍♂️ I explain the whole story. Doc is on board. Doc: So which pills did you want me to write a script for? Me: uhhh. All the kinds just like hers? Him: well IDK all the kinds. I just write usually for that one. Me: let me ask Chat gpt. Yep. That happened. Calls in the scripts.Hurray!

4.) Call back to Costco. So how much are they? Costco: we don’t have any of those meds in stock. Me: NP. She’s got a months supply anyway. But how much if they were so I can tell my doc which is the cheapest. Costco: we can’t say. Me: what? Why? 
Costco: it’s out of stock so we don’t have a price.

Me: But what WAS the price. 
Costco: there’s no way to know sir.

Bill Murray Film GIF

Edited by Dnaguy
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
33 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:

This so much.

But also, the tetrad of insurance, provider, pharmacy benefit manager, and pharmacy.

Try and shop healthcare. I dare you. 
Try to find the cheapest place to buy a drug that isn’t for blood pressure, cholesterol, an SSRI, hair loss, or a wonky dick. If Mark Cuban ain’t selling it. Good Effin’ luck.

Daughter needs ADHD meds…. Or so the wife says. Idk. But whatever.

Ive got a high deductible HSA. So I have to shop. No problem I think. Costco prices are badass usually.

Attempt 1.) With insurance- $300. Yeah fuck no.

Attempt 2.) Costco and Costco discount price - $79…. Ok whatever I’ll pay that know and find something cheaper later. I’m cheap and I’m kind of irritated so here we go:

My Journey:
1.) Call insurance for prices around town. They can’t give it. Huh? Why not? Diff pharmacies / diff manufacturers all diff. Only can give a ‘estimate’. Is that the real price? Is it close? All they can say is it’s an estimate and they can’t even say if it’s good for the today or if it’s within 10%. Total useless BS. Told to Call the pharmacies. They should help me look up prices.

2.) Call pharmacies. They can’t. They need a script. Huh? Just look it up right? Nope. Can’t. Have to have a script. Don’t want to even try to run it through insurance. Why not? Because they could be investigated by the insurance for … get this…. Fraud. Why would the insurance company tell me to ask you to commit fraud? Pharmacy says tough titty. Go away and talk to your doctor. Huh? Have your doctor write the scripts to the medicine you want us to look up the price for then we can do it. Now go away.

3.) call doctor. We aren’t writing you 5 scripts for a controlled substance. Nice try buddy. Me: I need to ship it. Doc says to call insurance. 🤦‍♂️ I explain the whole story. Doc is on board. Doc: So which pills did you want me to write a script for? Me: uhhh. All the kinds just like hers? Him: well IDK all the kinds. I just write usually for that one. Me: let me ask Chat gpt. Yep. That happened. Calls in the scripts.Hurray!

4.) Call back to Costco. So how much are they? Costco: we don’t have any of those meds in stock. Me: NP. She’s got a months supply anyway. But how much if they were so I can tell my doc which is the cheapest. Costco: we can’t say. Me: what? Why? 
Costco: it’s out of stock so we don’t have a price.

Me: But what WAS the price. 
Costco: there’s no way to know sir.

Bill Murray Film GIF

I wasn't quite as thorough or persistent as you but I have been through that ringer for ADHD meds for my youngest.  My wife and I have talked about how, if it is this difficult for both of us combined with 5 degrees between us (and no ADHD) to get the correct meds in a timely manner, how the hell is the average adult with ADHD getting it accomplished for themselves. 

image.gif.4178e00d788962e32b16a2cbfa4a065f.gif

  • Rage+1 1
Posted

I wonder how many of y'all who are disgusted with healthcare vote for the people who profit from the fuckery or work to make it even worse for us. There IS a solution, an obvious one, that every country but ours seems to have figured out already. 

Anyway, televangelists has got to be the right answer here.

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
11 minutes ago, Ghost of NMAS said:

I vote vote for televangelist dentist whose wife is a realtor, and they own a used car lot

I hear he’s related to that Joe the plumber guy…. And also his lessor known brother in law, Mark the HVAC repair guy.

Posted
12 hours ago, Dnaguy said:


How is dentistry a scam? 
 

 

My old dentist retired. We liked him a lot. The dentist next door bought/merged the practice. On our first visit he told us that my wife, my 3 kids and I all needed sealant on a bunch of our teeth for the low-low price of $100/tooth and, wouldn’t you know it, it wasn’t covered by insurance. We politely told him to fuck off, finished our visit and switched dentists. The new dentist didn’t mention sealants or developing cavities. 

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
9 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

Car extended warranty or home warranty companies. They tell you everything is included but when you try to file a claim there's always some fine print to disqualify your claim. 

 

Posted
6 hours ago, luke duke said:

My old dentist retired. We liked him a lot. The dentist next door bought/merged the practice. On our first visit he told us that my wife, my 3 kids and I all needed sealant on a bunch of our teeth for the low-low price of $100/tooth and, wouldn’t you know it, it wasn’t covered by insurance. We politely told him to fuck off, finished our visit and switched dentists. The new dentist didn’t mention sealants or developing cavities. 

went to a new dentist when i moved and she told me i needed deep root scaling on all 4 corners.  wouldve cost a couple of thou OOP even with insurance. i declined. 

15 years and countless dentist visits later, thats never been mentioned by any other dentist again.

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
13 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

pussy is the biggest scam profession ever

undefeated 

Office Space No GIF


Pussy as a profession is the most honest thing on earth.


Free pussy is a scam. 
Love pussy is a scam.
That pussy is the precious; it’s the one true ring to rule them all.

 

  • Haha 1
Posted
On 10/14/2025 at 7:28 AM, Dbeasy said:

Unnecessary dental work. It’s huge. Sorry that you’ve got mouth full of fake cavities. 

My SIL was a dental hygienist for years. She was always pressured to "upsell" procedures. Her dentist would send her to seminars that had nothing to do with dental work. It was all about selling additional treatments.

My current dentist quoted me $2300 for a crown. I refuse to pay that much. He can retire at 50 on someone else's $$$. I called a friend who has been a dentist for 35 years and runs a small single dentist practice. He quoted me 1/3 that price. 

And the biggest dental scams are places like Aspen dental. They pressure the unsuspecting public into unnecessary dental work worse than time share salesmen. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
15 hours ago, ztejas said:

On page 2 and GCs haven't been mentioned?

I have worked with some really good GCs, but I've also worked with a couple of really shoddy ones, and one who has, to my knowledge, never completed a project.  And do not ever, under any circumstances, expect a contractor, general or sub, to read the specs that you and your engineer worked so hard, and the engineer charged so much, to come up with.  Ain't nobody got time for that until their submittals are rejected.

Posted
21 hours ago, Bama Llama said:

I never intended to practice law for an occupation but in 1981 I was faced with a decision: go to law school or dig ditches for a living.  I said to my dear bride, Mrs. Llama, “But there’s a lawyer on every street corner and we’ve never known a good one.”  
 She said, “Law school is three years.  Med school is six years, and a lot longer before you’re earning any significant money.  Tell me, big guy, if you don’t ho to law school, where will we be three years from now?”

I went.  I discovered that if I pronounced my clients’ names correctly, showed up on time for appointments, and was honest, I would never hurt for clients

I don’t think of myself as a lawyer but I do practice law as an occupation. I’ve never scammed anyone but I have bern scammed by vendors of equipment, supplies, and phone/internet/email services.

 


You’re so close…..


ea employee GIF

Posted
17 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

As a teacher, I'd have to add "Big Curriculum" and standardized testing companies.  I think I've seen 6 curriculum changes in reading in 13 years of teaching.  I.E. new books, new training, and new materials that need to be purchased.

That’s been going on since the 1960s.

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
4 hours ago, Crapinon said:

My SIL was a dental hygienist for years. She was always pressured to "upsell" procedures. Her dentist would send her to seminars that had nothing to do with dental work. It was all about selling additional treatments.

My current dentist quoted me $2300 for a crown. I refuse to pay that much. He can retire at 50 on someone else's $$$. I called a friend who has been a dentist for 35 years and runs a small single dentist practice. He quoted me 1/3 that price. 

And the biggest dental scams are places like Aspen dental. They pressure the unsuspecting public into unnecessary dental work worse than time share salesmen. 

25 years ago, I moved and found a new dentist near my house. I have a very small chip on one of my front teeth, I don't even know how I got it. But the guy would mention it every fucking time I saw him. "Say, you wanna get that chip fixed? We can take care of it!!". After 2-3 visits with this guy, I ditched his ass. Just clean my teeth, FFS.

Not one of the dentists I've seen since then have mentioned the chip.

Posted
4 hours ago, Crapinon said:

My SIL was a dental hygienist for years. She was always pressured to "upsell" procedures. Her dentist would send her to seminars that had nothing to do with dental work. It was all about selling additional treatments.

My current dentist quoted me $2300 for a crown. I refuse to pay that much. He can retire at 50 on someone else's $$$. I called a friend who has been a dentist for 35 years and runs a small single dentist practice. He quoted me 1/3 that price. 

And the biggest dental scams are places like Aspen dental. They pressure the unsuspecting public into unnecessary dental work worse than time share salesmen. 

Why didn’t you just go to your dentist friend in the first place 

Posted

Chiropractors. The ones who stick to back stuff are probably fine.  Too many of them claim they can cure cancer and shit.

  • Like 1
Posted
6 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

Office Space No GIF


Pussy as a profession is the most honest thing on earth.


Free pussy is a scam. 
Love pussy is a scam.
That pussy is the precious; it’s the one true ring to rule them all.

 

And yet 95% of this board would rather skip that and go to butt stuff.  Whatever floats your boat. 

Posted

I never got my wisdom teeth taken out. One came in fully, but it didn't fuck up my other teeth, and they never hurt, so I never took them out. Every dentist I've ever been to tells me that I urgently need to get them removed (and they just so happen to know a guy who will give me a great deal) as soon as possible. I tell them I've been told that for 30 years now and the speech is beginning to lost its impact. 

Posted
25 minutes ago, nnm said:

And yet 95% of this board would rather skip that and go to butt stuff.  Whatever floats your boat. 

The brown eye of Sauron?

Posted
On 10/14/2025 at 12:53 PM, smuggs said:

GettyImages-2148777252-e1723671135327.jp

Oh damn, I can’t believe I forgot this profession. Winner. By a mile. 

I’ve told the story many times of meeting this particular charlatan and talking with him one on one for quite some time. He’s a giant pussy. 

Posted (edited)
On 10/14/2025 at 2:25 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

As a teacher, I'd have to add "Big Curriculum" and standardized testing companies.  I think I've seen 6 curriculum changes in reading in 13 years of teaching.  I.E. new books, new training, and new materials that need to be purchased.

have an in-law that is a sales rep for M-H so I understand and completely agree. 
 

Hell of a scam. Mandatory buys and very limited approved options, especially for core. 
 

I’ll add that it’s such a scam that PE bought M-H a few years ago and barely changed anything. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
20 hours ago, Ghost of NMAS said:

I vote vote for televangelist dentist whose wife is a realtor, and they own a used car lot

and has a funeral home for when they kill you

 

Posted
1 hour ago, irishtexan said:

I never got my wisdom teeth taken out. One came in fully, but it didn't fuck up my other teeth, and they never hurt, so I never took them out. Every dentist I've ever been to tells me that I urgently need to get them removed (and they just so happen to know a guy who will give me a great deal) as soon as possible. I tell them I've been told that for 30 years now and the speech is beginning to lost its impact. 

I thought this as well.  Then I started teething at the age of 50 like I was a baby.  Hurt like hell.  Wish I'd had them out before I had to have them out.  

Your mileage may vary.  

Posted
14 hours ago, 52-80 said:

went to a new dentist when i moved and she told me i needed deep root scaling on all 4 corners.  wouldve cost a couple of thou OOP even with insurance. i declined. 

15 years and countless dentist visits later, thats never been mentioned by any other dentist again.

I had never had a cavity in 46 years.  I went to the dentist. Said he found a cavity.  He left the room and the DA shook her head and quietly said "you dont have a cavity." 

  • Rage+1 3
Posted
2 hours ago, irishtexan said:

I never got my wisdom teeth taken out. One came in fully, but it didn't fuck up my other teeth, and they never hurt, so I never took them out. Every dentist I've ever been to tells me that I urgently need to get them removed (and they just so happen to know a guy who will give me a great deal) as soon as possible. I tell them I've been told that for 30 years now and the speech is beginning to lost its impact. 

This. I've been told since I was 18 and every 6 months after that I must get my wisdom teeth removed. I'm an old man with straight, coffee stained teeth and nary a one has ever bothered me. 

Posted
On 10/14/2025 at 7:13 AM, TwiceHorn said:

Pretty much all "service" companies, a/c, plumbing, etc. are shit now thanks to private equity.

Ding, ding, ding!   Winner Winner.  

I own a service company.   AC, plumbing and electrical.  You just nailed our value proposition.  

PE has ruined so many of these companies.  But, it's created opportunities for companies like mine.  They buy AC equipment for 30-40% less than me and sell it for 50% higher than me.  And spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising annually.  They literally build their model around taking advantage of people and moving on to the next one.  It's a numbers game for them.  They'd rather gouge a customer once than take care of them for years.  I just refuse to do that.  We can charge a fair price, build a loyal customer base, and pay our people well without being held hostage by the PE overlords.  

Buried somewhere in our reviews from a few years ago was the perfect example of how these sheisters operate.  

Customer had big PE-backed company install a new AC unit in the fall.  The next summer, they notice their master bedroom isn't cooling off.  They call the same company back out to look at it.  That company tells them, "It's Austin and it's summer.  You need more insulation!  Here's a quote for $25,000."  They decide to get a second opinion and call another big PE-backed company.  Their "tech" (and I use that term loosely) tells them "The unit that the first company installed was the wrong unit.  Here's a quote for $15,000 for the RIGHT unit.  That'll fix you right up!".  They call us.  We go into the attic to discover that the supply duct feeding the master bedroom was never connected to the plenum after the unit was changed out the previous year.  We reattach the duct, charge the $250 service fee, and now we have a customer for life.  Swapped out their other unit the following year and did it for under $10,000 (though prices have gone up a ton since then).

 

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

I'll also throw software "consultants" into the mix.  Especially anyone selling an enterprise, subscription based product.  The sales guy wows you on the front end with promises of easy install, training and immediate ROI.  Their support teams suck, and it's a revolving door of personnel so they can always blame the last guy.  

I'm getting ready to cut half my tech deck.  I'm tired of paying stupid fees for no results.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
On 10/14/2025 at 4:52 PM, Dnaguy said:

My Journey:
1.) Call insurance for prices around town. They can’t give it. Huh? Why not? Diff pharmacies / diff manufacturers all diff. Only can give a ‘estimate’. Is that the real price? Is it close? All they can say is it’s an estimate and they can’t even say if it’s good for the today or if it’s within 10%. Total useless BS. Told to Call the pharmacies. They should help me look up prices.

2.) Call pharmacies. They can’t. They need a script. Huh? Just look it up right? Nope. Can’t. Have to have a script. Don’t want to even try to run it through insurance. Why not? Because they could be investigated by the insurance for … get this…. Fraud. Why would the insurance company tell me to ask you to commit fraud? Pharmacy says tough titty. Go away and talk to your doctor. Huh? Have your doctor write the scripts to the medicine you want us to look up the price for then we can do it. Now go away.

3.) call doctor. We aren’t writing you 5 scripts for a controlled substance. Nice try buddy. Me: I need to shop it. Doc says to call insurance. 🤦‍♂️ I explain the whole story. Doc is on board. Doc: So which pills did you want me to write a script for? Me: uhhh. All the kinds just like hers? Him: well IDK all the kinds. I just write usually for that one. Me: let me ask Chat gpt. Yep. That happened. Calls in the scripts.Hurray!

4.) Call back to Costco. So how much are they? Costco: we don’t have any of those meds in stock. Me: NP. She’s got a months supply anyway. But how much if they were so I can tell my doc which is the cheapest. Costco: we can’t say. Me: what? Why? 
Costco: it’s out of stock so we don’t have a price.

Me: But what WAS the price. 
Costco: there’s no way to know sir.

Yep it's true I can't process a prescription on your insurance without a valid order. What your insurance is asking me to do is called a "test claim" and they're highly discouraged in the industry. Whoever you spoke with is a bozo. But I gotta say something about point 2, I never realized how much I spoil my patients until I did an amateur investigation on a bunch of pharmacies in Texas. I won't bore with the reason why I was doing this investigation/research but I was really shocked at how some of the chains are resistant to giving prices over the phone to patients who don't have insurance. I called a Kroger in Houston and asked for the price of 90 days of sertraline 50mg. This was the gist of our conversation

Me: hi I have a prescription for 90 pills of sertraline 50mg. How much would that be at your pharmacy?

Kroger: are you a patient here?

Me: no.

Kroger: are you local?

Me: Yes I just moved here (actually not really I'm in Dallas but what the hell does that have to do with anything?)

Kroger: you'd need to call your insurance for the price

Me: I don't have insurance I just wanted to know your cash price.

Kroger: Do you have the goodrx app? You can just look it up on there

Me: I don't have a smartphone. But I don't want the goodrx price, I want your price.

Kroger: Well I don't know what to tell you. I would need a prescription first before I can tell you the price.

Bizarre. I do prescriptions all day every day for patients without insurance and I can give them a price with no issue. Kroger can't do what I do? Seriously?

  • Rage+1 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...