No matter how savvy you may be , you’re not immune to falling for a classic bait-and-switch from time to time. Yes, we’ve all been duped, cheated, swindled or bamboozled before. It’s happened before and, unfortunately, it’ll probably happen again.
These pics might not be a safeguard against future bait-and-switch chicanery. But at the very least, they show us that paying for something and getting something else is a universal part of the human experience.
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“Had a BOGO subway coupon and decided to try their ‘premium’ $9 steak sandwich.”
Subway has the most restaurant locations of any chain in the world . On one hand, they offer a filling, relatively healthy product at a reasonable price. On the other hand, they also offer stuff like this.
“LITERALLY FOUR PIECES OF CHEESE LMAO.”
It isn’t strictly necessary that penne and meatballs has cheese in the first place. If the company wants to skimp to this extent — four tiny shards of cheese in the bowl — they should just forego the cheese to begin with.
“Wanted crab cakes, but I got chicken.”
You can just tell that the chicken patty is the cheapest of the cheap — yes, the type you’d see in a middle school cafeteria. And that’s all before getting into the fact that this is supposed to be a crab cake.
“You know it’s gonna be a bad day when you see your Dunkin’ looking like this on the counter.”
Clear your slate, because pumpkin spice is officially back on the menu at Dunkin’. Actually, maybe try the pumpkin spice from somewhere else, because this looks awful.
“Oatmeal with a generous amount of blueberries!”
The packaging here shows, like, thirty blueberries. Maybe expecting dozens of blueberries inside a small sachet of oatmeal is asking a bit much, but surely it isn’t unreasonable to expect more than one.
“Going to teach my baby colors!”
On one hand, the dyes they use to give food products those vivid colors are sometimes harmful . On the other hand, if you’re paying for bright colors, you really ought to get some bright colors.
“Reese’s cups I bought from a gas station.”
Packaged products like Reese’s are usually a safe bet, even from the sketchiest gas station. I mean, they’re packaged and sealed at the factory, right? I don’t know what happened to this misshapen, weirdly sweaty pair of Reese’s cups, but it can’t be good.
“My son turned 1 yesterday. This was the topper to his space themed cake.”
I’m not getting astronaut vibes from this cake. I’m getting dead explorer buried in the Arctic permafrost vibes from this cake. I guess it’s whatever you want to make of it.
“Dog park on my apartment’s website vs IRL.”
This one’s interesting because the real photo on the bottom doesn’t look that bad. Obviously it’s dishonest of the company to lie about their amenities, but it’s also tough to keep the grass green in a dog park.
“My family recently moved to Florida so I wanted to protect them from the sun.”
There’s a fine line between floppy sun visors and super-floppy sun visors, and these visors, well, just flopped right over that line. They need a little more rigidity.
“Heavy duty combat boots.”
Everyone’s fallen for a too-good-to-be-true deal on Wish at one time or another, but I think this one takes the cake. Those boots not only aren’t big enough, they’re probably not big enough for any human of any size.
“This cake will haunt my dreams.”
This is a seriously unforced error. Anyone who’s made a few cakes probably recognizes that this person didn’t let the cake cool before putting the icing on. It’s a rookie mistake, and it’s ruined what should be an amazing Gremlins cake.
“My poor mother in law got bamboozled by a fake website, the delivered Charlie Brown ‘tree’ is so pathetic looking I honestly love it.”
The whole point of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree is that it looks sad and pathetic, and this certainly looks sad and pathetic. I can’t believe that the ‘tree’ is literally just a two-dimensional plaque.
“The AirBnB Vs the Ad!”
These buildings are similar on a surface level, but they’re quite clearly not the same building. I’m not sure why the Airbnb hosts would do this, as the real thing doesn’t really look that bad.
“Only a lil more work to do.”
This isn’t quite the worst tattoo I’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty close. I especially like how the top of the anchor looks more like a faceless person wearing a big gaudy sombrero.
“Looks like Freddy Krueger’s distant cousin Eddie.”
Freddy Krueger masks are tough to do well, because they’re inherently gross and splotchy looking…but if you don’t take care to get it looking right, you come up with something like this. It’s scary for all the wrong reasons.
“Where’s my wiener??”
I would try to keep my expectations in check if I was buying a box of frozen corn dogs, but one of my expectations would surely be that the corn dogs contain an actual hot dog. These ones fall just a bit short.
“Shmedium at its worst.”
Buying clothes online is awesome: you don’t have to deal with crowds, there are some great deals, and they get delivered right to your home. The big downside, of course, is the fact that you don’t get to try them on before buying.
“Hidden leak found after auction purchase. The old owner stuffed the compartment with rags to slow the leak from dripping out.”
This is everyone’s biggest fear when buying something used: did the previous owner mess around with the item to make it look like a better deal than it actually is? Whoever bought this, uh…big piece of equipment is surely going to be disappointed.
“My tuna sandwich….”
The sandwich is the perfect food format in many ways. Unfortunately, the very bread that makes it a sandwich in the first place can also obscure what’s inside, which can make for a very disappointing eating experience.
