Top Ten Retail Ripoffs Exposed, from TrampolineSales.com. If you have often been to the shopping mall, these techniques shouldn’t be too foreign to you. These are the ones that shoppers should definitely watch out for. However they are not uncommon amongst the online shops either.

1. The “Bait and Switch” Fraud — a lot of online shops actually don’t stock everything they have in their catalogue. It makes perfect sense to them, but some used same trick to get you hooked, and forced you to buy lower quality / higher price products.
2. The “Keep You Waiting /Wear You Down” Ploy — fortunately keeping people waiting doesn’t really work in online shops. Not until you start calling them up to do price match anyway.
3. Extended Warranty Scare Tactics — many people I knew took the bait at least once on this one. Scare tactics works. As consumers we just need to know how to calculate the risk properly.
4. The “I Made a Mistake Adding This Up” Trick — often used when you need to get a quote on something or getting something done. They give you an illusion that you have got a bargain when they “recovered” from their mistakes. Well, that’s just an illusion.
5. The “Get ‘Em Saying Yes” Routine — lots of those sites on the net, asking you obvious questions to lead you into an impulsive buy.
6. The “This is the Last One” Ruse — ain’t they common on the net? Limited stock! Don’t miss out! However they are usually more effective in retail shops where you can visually see people competing for the “limited” stock items.
7. The “Low-Ball” Lie — similar to (1), where customers are attracted by low-price but non-existing stocks, and are tricked to buy the item next step up. I used to have lots of those from buying computer components online. “Oops. The 128Mb version are all gone, but you can get the 256Mb version for $50 more. Let’s just make it $25 more — want one?” Err.
8. The “Today Only” Tactic — they are EVERYWHERE. Similar to (6), which plays psychologically on consumers’ mind. Zazz and CoTD — “they won’t be here tomorrow!” (although they are indeed usually cheap)? For some products (especially technology related), the price is only going to get cheaper, so do your research first!
9. The “Paperwork” Euphemism — it is amazing that how many people actually don’t read the things they are signing (or the form when they clicked on “I agree”). Don’t sign anything unless you are absolutely sure this is what you want to buy, and do read the contract, or whatever the salesman decided to call it.
10. The “Turn Over” Maneuver — load of crap when the sales say they are going to “check with the manager”. Just stick to how much you are willing to pay.

Anything else? Online shops are easier because you can eliminate a lot of interaction with the dodgy salespeople. However many techniques are still used to make you do an impulsive buy. Now you know their tricks — don’t bite them when you see one.

Via ProBargainHunter.