When you say no to scammers (longish as my posts tend to be)

[Rapscallion]

I've got to ask - what's this about red hat groups?

Excuse this ignorance from the motherland.

Rapscallion

[Banrion]

I've got to ask - what's this about red hat groups?

Excuse this ignorance from the motherland.

Rapscallion

I'm honestly not in the know about the whole thing either, I think it's kinda like ya-ya club for old biddies. All I know is they are rude, cheap, entitled, and scammers. On the upside they are very easily identified.

[Lackwit]

I'm honestly not in the know about the whole thing either, I think it's kinda like ya-ya club for old biddies. All I know is they are rude, cheap, entitled, and scammers. On the upside they are very easily identified.

Now that may be a bit of a sweeping generalisation, don't you think?

[friendofjimmyk]

I've got to ask - what's this about red hat groups?

Excuse this ignorance from the motherland.

Rapscallion

Ah, yes, Red Hat Ladies...

Banion is right in a way...a ya-ya sisterhood for older women...like 50s - ???

They dress up, with the colors Red, of course, and purple and usually wear hats, hence the name, with the same colors and they gather in various public places...such as restaurants for luncheons and what not and just sit there, in a large group (usually 6 - 12) and stick out like a sore, red thumb.

I have seen them in retail - at the kiosk - collecting anything and everything that was associated with thier little fellowship - purses, hats, bracelets, necklaces, scarfs, earrings, etc, etc,

I have also waited tables that were seated with said ladies. Generally, they are just nice older women looking for some fun and fellowship and chose, for whatever reason - I am sure there's a reason out there, I just don't care to ask, to gather over red hats and such.

Yes, they can be a little difficult, but often they are just out to have some fun and if you can play back, they'll be okay.

[skeptic53]

http://www.redhatsociety.com/ It's a social society (older women's version of a sorority), the hat and purple have to do with a poem called "Warning" by Jenny Joseph (this is the bit that gets printed on posters, I think the full poem is longer but I've never seen the rest):

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

[friendofjimmyk]

Yeah, I can't really bash on them too much, me grammy likes to collect their stuff...she's not one of the bad ones, a bit on the nervous side, but not a misbehaving old biddy - unless she is riding in the car with you...then duct tape and blindfolds are required!

[CrankyPants]

Speaking of scammers, my sister used to be one in her younger days.

She would go to a large dept store and buy black handbags with a cheque (she had this jones for black handbags once upon a time). Then she would go back to another branch of the store a few days later saying she got the bag as a gift and didn't want it. With tags in tact and a valid reciept, they'd give her the cash back. Meantime, the cheque would bounce because there's no money in the account but she had cash to spend. Eventually the bank closed down her account and she was chased by debt collectors but for a while she was living the high life getting "free" money.

Another time Scammer Sister bought a television from the same dept store. She arranged to have it delivered cash-on-delivery which means she'd pay the delivery guys for it. They belonged to the store.

Somehow, the paperwork got mixed up and instead of cash-on-delivery it said she'd already paid for television. In essence, she got a free tv. A few months went by and she came to me all panicky. She wanted me to take the tv because she was moving and she'd be living on friends' sofas for a while before she found her own place.

I said, "sure" and used the tv for myself because I didn't have one at the time. Eventually, I forgot that the tv was hers and she never did come to pick it up. Later on, my other sister told me that the dept store discovered the mix up and they demanded their tv back. Scammer Sister put on her innocent act and said that her home had been burgled and they cleaned her out and she didn't have insurance.

So I ended up getting a free tv and Scammer Sister never did ask for it back or even mention it again.


So it's not just strangers that are scam artists. Scammer Sister has settled down a lot these days, but she never fails to try and pull a swifty if she thinks she can get away with it.

[Boulder_Bear]

It's a good thing you don't come to my theatre. I have people arrested at least once a week for that. It's theft of services. I have a system, I catch you once, you get a warning, I catch you twice you get booted out of the theatre no refund, I catch you a third time and you are arrested and charges are pressed. I don't care who you are or what you do.

You can have all the punishments in the world but if theaters don't have a good way of catching these people it doesn't do any good. I will start a thread or send you a message to let you know how I used to get around a theater without ever getting caught.

[Ryu]

personally i think thats very sc'ish in addition tobeing illegal
even more sc'ish if you dont even bother buying anything from the concessions
all of us who work at movie theaters know its easy to sneak in but that doesnt mean its ok to do so or you should be proud of doing so or encouraging others to do the same

[Jester]

Excuse this ignorance from the motherland.

Raps, I thought you were from England, not Russia!

You can have all the punishments in the world but if theaters don't have a good way of catching these people it doesn't do any good. I will start a thread or send you a message to let you know how I used to get around a theater without ever getting caught.

Back in my younger less responsible days (not that I am all that responsible now), I too had my "ways" of getting around theater rules, although, to be fair, it always involved buying at least one ticket. I never snuck into a place, for example, but I did (when I was not an adult) often buy a ticket for one movie and then go into another R-rated movie instead of the one I bought the ticket for. Also, one theater used to run midnight movies at special rates, but sometimes they would make certain movies full price even at midnight....so again, I would buy for one and see another. (I bought a ticket for the movie "Pure Country" THREE times and never saw the damn thing!) And of course, I too have done the "two for one" deal. That being said, I do now pay for everything.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've hardly ever paid for my cinema ticket... I thought boyfs were supposed to do that!

[ForestDragon]

Back in my younger less responsible days (not that I am all that responsible now), I too had my "ways" of getting around theater rules, although, to be fair, it always involved buying at least one ticket. I never snuck into a place, for example, but I did (when I was not an adult) often buy a ticket for one movie and then go into another R-rated movie instead of the one I bought the ticket for.

The thing about buying a ticket for one movie and seeing another reminded me of a story a friend once told me; when she was a little kid (7ish or so) a teenage cousin of hers and his friends all bought tickets to the Disney movie of the year (whatever it was) and then all (including the 7-year-old) sneaked in to see The Exorcist. Remarkable how untraumatized she seemed to be, but of course, that had happened years before I had met her, so I guess the nightmares and all that had worn off by then.

[Boulder_Bear]

personally i think thats very sc'ish in addition tobeing illegal
even more sc'ish if you dont even bother buying anything from the concessions
all of us who work at movie theaters know its easy to sneak in but that doesnt mean its ok to do so or you should be proud of doing so or encouraging others to do the same

I am not and was not encouraging people to do it. I don't do it anymore. As I reread what I wrote I saw how it could be misunderstood. I meant that there are very simple things that theaters can do to stop people from doing these things. I was going to write about how theaters can stop people from doing what I used to do. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Ryu]

ah ok, thats good to know
problem is when you work for a corporate company theres little you can do unless their sneaking into an R movie and even then only certain R movies or they can complain that they did buy a ticket and they get in free anyways so the managers just let people in most of the time anyways since they dont have a choice
we have to give people free tickets if the sound goes out for a couple minutes* example, its usually much more they get it free for although its almost always something the customer knows about before the movie started!* or they complain to corporate and corporate gets annoyed we didnt give them free tickets that day
its sick...