4.
“One of those boot camp-style gyms opened up walking distance from our apartment. We wanted to get in shape and figured we’d check it out. It was run by a married couple who was really nice. Initial classes were very small but the exercise was great. The husband also did martial arts instruction so I was considering getting into that. They were doing a really reduced special to get a year membership so I went for it and paid half upfront.
“A few weeks later, I can’t remember the conversation but they asked for the remaining payment and I said sure, why not. A little bit after that they called and said, “Sorry, but we opened the gym with a verbal agreement that we would be getting a large number of karate students and that fell through — so we have to shut down. We will get your money back once we get settled after we move back home.” I foolishly had paid for all this but never had even gotten a written contract or whatever. They just ended up ghosting me and stopped replying to everything.”
—u/urchisilver
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/fabianabuontempo/money-mistakes-people-have-made