alwaysamom, just to clarify - the company was a startup, and as I said in my post, it might have been that “last straw,” not the main reason for getting rid of the services.
Mr. gets to travel a lot. The meal caps are pretty stiff at their company. Luckily, he discovered a great sushi place where he can eat on the cheap. Still, no drinks. He just buys a bottle of beer and drinks that while skyping with me from his hotel room. His co lets him keep the miles he earns, thank goodness.
In case any of you invest with Edward Jones…I was on vacation this winter in the British Virgin Islands - Edward Jones rents a resort for a month where their reps can come for a week on their dime…they just pay tax on price of the trip. In case you wonder what those fees cover…it’s 2 - 3 international trips a year for most reps - not just top performers.
You should have seen the lavish multi-day shebang of (some unidentified) insurance co’s at the Fairmont Orchid last March… Not just a resort stay, but a whole deal with nightly luaus with aerial performers and ice sculpture fountains. Families on board, too. Reminded me of the certain era of irrational exuberance 
One of my relatives said he and his spouse had great fun going in their shabbiest clothes to various stores and asking prices of items that were of interest to them (often high-priced items). They got very little attention by salespeople, since they looked shabby. To the astonishment of the salespeople, when they decided they wanted whatever item, they’d whip out their wallet and purchase whatever it was–cash or CC. They felt they sometimes got exceptional deals because they were low-balled on prices because the salespeople figure they couldn’t afford it anyway.
This relative endowed a chair for his law school because they had so much cash and were greatful–he was an engineer and attorney, married to a pathologist who owned and ran a chain of pathology labs. They had money! She bought 40 acres of virgin forest for her 1st grandchild. She has it in trust to turn over once he turns 30 or 40 years old.
Many years ago, I worked for a mom and pop fine jewelry shop. I learned quickly that you cannot judge people’s ability to purchase based on their physical appearance. We had the local hospital’s chief of staff get declined for a rather small line of credit , while the local garbageman ( think Pigpen from Charlie Brown ) come in to buy a pricey piece of jewelry …also fishermen on payday with cash in hand. The dirt and smell was not indicative of their spending power 
I once went to the Clinique counter at a local dept store and was ignored in my work clothing. It’s not like Clinique is exactly high end, but I felt that I was ignored based on my appearance
Well try being a double digit size at a designer clothes store sometime. Sales people look like they want to spit on you.
@eyemamom, I’ve noticed that a lot of the higher end shops are mainly stocked with very small sizes.
“One of my relatives said he and his spouse had great fun…”
Contrary to stories you may hear, it’s just not that much fun when salespeople or businesses make mistakes based on how you look. All it does is show how stupid they are and that just makes you feel embarrassed for them.
I notice more expensive clothes are sized bigger. I don’t know if it is to make people feel better about wearing a smaller size.
Well, my relative told us with great relish that he thought it helped him & his W get some amazing bargains because the people selling and quoting prices were just lowballing because they figured they were not talking to REAL customers. They always had the option to put on their “regular” nice clothes and be fawned over or treated like regular customers when they chose. I agree that I don’t enjoy being ignored (nor do I enjoy pushy or “overly attentive” salespeople).
I prefer being left alone UNTIL or UNLESS I ask for something and then want exactly what I want and not some over-priced thing that sort-of resembles what they think I might buy to not hurt their feelings.
I just read an article (purse blog) on a billionaire showering his two concurrent girlfriends with Birkin bags. Each GF was photographed with 6-7 different Birkins. One daughter, about 2 years old was seen with a small bag of her own.
LOL, cbreeze, he figured that purse prosperity and equality means peace. 
^^ You’re right. He’s a smart man.
We went to look at cars the other night. I have no idea what we were wearing - just whatever we had on that day. Who on earth has time to deliberately “dress down” to play silly games with car salesmen? Give me a break.
I used to love to look at model homes to get decorating ideas on the weekends. I’ll look at expensive homes, I’ll look at starter homes, they’ve all been done by professional decorators. It was very irritating to go into a home and have the salesperson question me by saying, “well, is this home in your budget?” I guess I didn’t dress up enough. I got those same questions when we were actually looking to build a home. It was a turn off. It’s like they were saying “Can you really afford this home, because if you can’t, I really don’t want to waste my time speaking to you.”
Thought about this thread over the weekend. H and I were opening up our vacation home for the season, which is in a spot where lots of wealthy folks from NJ gather. I was standing in a local place that sells gifts, souvenirs, books, magazines, and coffee. It was early and I was in the coffee line. There was a group of three women in front of me waiting for coffee too–each one was carrying a designer tote. I figured I was looking at $6K in totes. The three totes: a Goyard Voltaire, LV Never Full in azure (not brown), and Channel Grand Shopping. I confess to being someone who owns, likes, and can recognize luxury bags. I also give to many charity, so I’m not a totally shallow, materialist.
When we go touring open houses in our neighborhood (out of curiosity), the realtor ascertains that we are neighbors and ask if we’re interested in selling and moving and then moves on to customers she believes are more likely to buy. We’ve never been asked whether we can afford to buy–many in our area do NOT dress up for open houses, even when the houses are in the 7 figure price range and even when they are serious buyers. They assume that the neighbors just come out of curiosity and are most interested in getting more homes to sell (than thinking we might want several homes in the neighborhood).
When we had our first open house after we put the family home on the market, our realtor explained that the vast majority of visitors would be neighbors trying to get a feel for what housing values are in the neighborhood. It’s part of the deal. In addition, neighbors often have friends who are capable of purchasing a home in that price point, so you never want to be less than courteous to the neighbors because a)they may want to use that realtor in the future and b)they may well refer a buyer for the house in question or one of the realtor’s other listings.
In fact, I chose our realtor based on her history in the neighborhood and an interaction I had with her once when I toured one of her open houses in the past.
And though people say that open houses usually don’t sell homes, our house did indeed sell to a family who had flown in for the weekend and toured every home which was open that weekend in their preferred neighborhoods and price point.
Many moons ago, Mr. was very intrigued by a new BMW that just came out. Don’t remember exactly what it was, but he was ready to buy it if the local dealership had it. Surely enough, they happened to have a couple, but the sales guy made so many crude, unprofessional jokes about our van, which Mr was ready to literally give them for free to be able to drive off in the new car. We did not even test-drive one! Really ticked off, Mr. drove to another dealership, this time Lexus, and got the same treatment, “Are you kidding? What are we going to do with your rusty piece of junk?” And much worse!!! We kept the van… And kept driving it.
Several months later, we were coming home from some outing, and while we were driving on Hwy 99 (the auto dealer corridor), the check engine light came on. Mr. stopped at a parking lot that belonged to another Lexus dealership - to check what was going on. Long story short, we drove home in a brand new Lexus van. The sales guy who came out to check on us was very professional and treated us with respect. And we were wearing out hiking clothes, unlike the business casual we wore to the fiasco car shopping trip.
@BunsenBurner, I have an image of that scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts goes back to the snooty salon who had treated her so badly, dressed to kill and with many bags in hand, and says to the salesgirl: “You work on commission, right?” Salesgirl:“Yes, that’s right.” Julia, motioning to all the bags, replies: “You wouldn’t help me before. BIG mistake. HUGE.”