11.
Viagogo are just corrupt, straight up. Not a little thing here and there, they are just a criminal company.
They will take your money for tickets even if they have none of those tickets, assuming they will eventually have tickets to sell you. If they don’t get them, you get the ticket money back. An example of this was when a guy in the UK bought tickets to the Superbowl in 2013, booked his air travel, flew to the states, booked his accommodation, was staying in a hotel he paid for, and was calling us every 15 minutes to ask where his tickets were. We were told to lie to him and say someone will meet him at the stadium. We let him know 30 minutes before the game started that he wouldn’t be receiving any tickets. Viagogo refund the ticket cost, but the travel, accommodation and time wasted? Nothing at all. And they never had the tickets.
Same for festivals: I took loads (LOADS) of calls from people who were told to get to the middle of the wilderness in Eastern Europe for a dance festival, having booked time off work and prepared for a 5 day festival. When they got there they were told there were never any tickets. Just go home, write off the time off, write of the ticket costs, write off the transport, write of the preparation and deal with feeling s**tty for 5 days because they were ripped off by a company…except it isn;t that simple, because now they are in the middle of a field in Eastern Europe for 5 days, the bus that took them there has gone and they have no admittance to the festival…so essentially Viagogo were responsible for just dumping around 100 people in a field in eastern europe with no provisions and no way of getting back.
Far from discouraging the practice, they LOVE scalpers and give them preferential treatment (‘super sellers’). They get discounts, skip phone queues, and get a higher price for tickets than honest customers with a ticket to sell.
If an event is coming up soon, the seller can meet you at the venue to pass the ticket over. What this means is if you show up and the seller isn’t there for whatever reason (illness, decided to use ticket themselves, just can’t be arsed etc.), you have paid and have no proof they did not meet you. Byebye money.
If you buy a ticket from Viagogo, I would honestly say you have a 40-45% chance of getting it.
12.
Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) throws away literally tons of edible produce, deli and bakery food every day at individual stores. Mainly because it doesn’t look picture perfect. Most wasteful company I’ve even seen. We have homeless people stealing food everyday and being prosecuted when we could just give them the food. But no,It all goes to the garbage compactor.
13.
Worked for a private school. Grades were definitely bought. We were discouraged to give anything lower than a B. Had one principal that told a teacher to take the final for a student that went on summer vacation early. She called it a shadow final and said nonchalantly that it’s no big deal, just answer how you think the student would answer.
This school is expensive, and these kids go on to fancy colleges because of these grades.
14.
Our secret sauce is just Thousand Island dressing.
15.
Reality TV is anything but.
Ever seen House Hunters on HGTV? The couple “looking for a house” actually already bought and live in one of the houses that they’re “looking at.” The other houses are usually friend’s houses, or houses that have sold but not closed or moved in yet.
16.
I guess it’s not really that dark or a big secret just something very few people know about. In the 70s and 80s most commercial beekeepers in Canada poisoned all or almost all their Hives to death every fall. The hives were then replaced by packaged bees in spring from the US, used for the summer and then killed again in fall.
This was done just because packages from America were cheaper than the medication and labor involved with over wintering your hives. Especially as you can lose anywhere from 5% to 50% of your hives over winter.
This doesn’t happen anymore as the price of packages now vastly exceed the cost of wintering your hives. Even if it did become economically feasible again I can’t see it happening as the public out cry would likely be huge if people found out this was happening.
Like I said not really a secret. Just something few people remember.
17.
I work in a public library. Sadly, since we’re open to all, we get a lot of indigent customers. In this day and age, that means a lot of opiate users, many of whom shoot up in our restrooms.
We’ve had many overdoses, most of which are treated quickly and effectively by administering Narcan. However, that’s not always the case, and some people are either beyond saving, or are found too late.
In 2019 alone, we’ve had 13 deaths. Security and the EMTs are always careful to make it appear that the body being wheeled out is only ill, so as not to freak out the patrons. The actual number of deaths is even ‘hidden’ from the staff. (I’m friends with a few of the folks in security, which is how I know about it.)
18.
I worked at Whole Foods. Your cookies and bread were heated in store, not baked. Oh. And in AM meetings, you’re referred to as “basket size”, not customers.
19.
A “high class” spa I worked at used epsom salts and vegetable oil for their $65 salt scrubs.
20.
I worked at a car dealership. The $1200 car care system that we would discount to $900 was “applied” with about 15 squirts of a spray bottle. Many times I’d hang out with the detail guys so the customer wouldn’t get suspicious at a quick turnaround.
