It’s “buyer beware”, or maybe it’s “the joke’s on you”, or perhaps it’s…
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Half Dollar’s Update (Monday morning, April 25, 2022)
So, the price of platinum is still falling, and the price of platinum has fallen over a hundred bucks since I began thinking about making a purchase:
Anybody wanna guess what’s happened to the price of the two platinum pendants?
(hint: there’s a reason why the words “Sucker Punches” and “Rips Off” are in the title of this article)
End of Half Dollar’s update.
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(by Half Dollar) I’ve made a lot of purchases from Mene over the years.
I know, right?
And they say I’m just some shill for the best gold & silver bullion dealer in the entire world.
I’m not.
But I feel like since I call out everybody and every thing, I need to call out what can only be called “sucker punching your customers at best”, or “something far worse at worst”, because believe it or not, Joe Deplorable actually spends his few hard-earned dollars with care and precision.
The point is, “buyer beware”, I suppose?
Perhaps it’s “BOHICA”, or maybe it’s “the joke’s on you”, but whatever the point is, it’s just plain wrong.
First things first: Again, I have placed many orders from Mene over the years.
Indeed, here is my latest personal purchase, which was a selfish, greedy purchase for myself and a Christmas gift for Wifey, if you really must know:
Again, that is only my last purchase.
Not my only purhcase.
I’ve made many purchases with Mene.
I don’t just say, “buy platinum”, you know.
I actually do what I say I do.
And I do say, I like the ring a lot:
It looks like silver, so it’s “Gray Man tactics”, for the win!
Wifey likes her ring a lot too.
Although it’s not like we haven’t had our many problems with Mene over the years, including the abysmal customer service that time Wifey somehow snapped one of her brand new platinum necklaces the very first time she ever wore it.
But I digress.
I could also talk about all sorts of Mene’s questionable practices, such as allowing customers to review purchases for store “credits” (think “coupon codes”) before the jewelry is even delivered, but I don’t want to bog everybody down in the nitty-gritty, so I won’t talk about all of the other downright sketchy things I’ve experienced with Mene over the years.
Oh no.
For today, I’d just like to talk about one specific issue I have with Mene: Confidence.
Or Trust.
Or something.
You see, Mene sent me a juicy coupon code that I couldn’t resist.
In fact, ten percent off of my purchase of select items is awesome, especially considering the free shipping Mene offers with the purchase of five hundred bucks.
That’s basically like free money, and who doesn’t like that?
So on Monday evening, I remembered the email that I received from Mene:
Since Mene’s so-called “fees” are so sky high, only people who like overpaying for things should buy gold & platinum jewelry from Mene while paying Mene’s full asking price.
Said differently, the 10% off coupon code can really sweeten the deal, and as my luck would have it, for once in an extremely rare and fleeting blue moon, I also have some of those $5 credits available to use on my next purchase.
A deal on top of a deal.
Woot!
Shoppin’ time.
Wifey is a Libra, so why the heck not, and in a Backyard Gardner kind of way, I like bumble bees for Wifey, and I especially like them when they come in the platinum pendant variety, so I did a quick check of the price on Monday evening to see if I would qualify for free shipping with the purchase of those two particular pendants:
That was at 6:49 p.m. EST on Monday, April 18, 2022.
Now, when it came to this specific purchase of platinum from Mene, it should come as no surprise that I have been holding out for a better price.
Only, there’s a problem, so see if you can spot the difference when I fired up my trusty computer this Wednesday morning:
Oh geez.
The price for the two pendants is even higher this morning than it was less than two days ago!
What, inflation can make its way into Mene’s supply chain in less than 38 hours?
I may be an idiot, but I wasn’t born one.
I mean, the price is lower, but the price is higher.
That’s doubleplusungood.
Like, do you even chocolate ration, bro?
Because sure, it is normal for prices to fluctuate, which is why I was holding out for a better price.
But instead of getting a better price, I get the sucker punch:
Ouch.
OK, “Hey Half Dollar, yeah, yeah, we know, we know, you rule in the Kingdom of El Cheapo, but that shiny Mene stuff is weighed to exact weights, so the items you are trying to purchase this Wednesday morning are probably a lot heavier than the items you were trying to purchase on Monday evening you Big Doofus!”.
Uh, that kind of makes sense.
Only in this case, it doesn’t make sense at all.
For the email from Mene on Monday gave me the exact weights:
The libra medallion even has three digits to the right of the decimal point!
Three digits!
And I may not be some Fancy Mathematician, but I’m pretty sure that in this specific case, 7.399 equals 7.399, just as much as 5.69 equals 5.69.
Is that even math?
I don’t know.
I’m not smart enough to know.
I’m asking.
But don’t take ‘Ol Half Dollar’s word for it.
See the weight of the Libra pendant I was trying to purchase this morning with your very own eyes:
Sam Ting.
Here’s the bumble bee pendant:
Sam Ting’s identical twin!
Meh.
Doesn’t matter.
I have come up with a new economic term that nobody cares about: Scamflation.
Costco is the King of Scamflation, of course.
But Mene looks like it’s willing to go to war for the title.
Stack accordingly…
