Promo codes are great. Especially when they help you save money on something you were going to buy in the first place. But sometimes, they compel you to spend money on something you weren’t even thinking about. Case and point – today I took an Uber to lunch in Kuchai Lama. Normally, I’d drive there but there were a few factors that pushed me into riding an Uber today:
1) Parking there sucks – if you can find a spot (a difficult task, especially during lunch hour)
2) My car was low on fuel, which meant I had to pump petrol before I headed out for lunch
3) I had entered the Uber Christmas promo code which gave me 4 free rides worth RM4 each (1Partidge)
Because I had the promo code, I decided to make use of it. It’s not a bad thing. I mean, the ride cost me RM3 after the promo code, which was cheaper than driving there and paying for parking. Also, I saved myself the trouble of looking for parking (I also did the same thing last weekend when I couldn’t find parking in Mid Valley, I drove my car home, parked and took an Uber instead).
If I didn’t Uber to lunch, I would have been very late. Also, I would have been stressed out in the car looking for a place to park. Fun fact: my Uber driver had over 1,500 trips which I found very impressive. He also didn’t try to start small talk with me. He just drove me to my destination with no questions asked. I gave him five stars, of course.
Speaking of five stars, do people even bother rating anything other than one or five stars? Very rarely have I encountered a driver who was just average at his job and didn’t warrant a five-star rating. I’ve met more bad drivers than average ones. Maybe Uber’s rating system should change to – would I ride in this car again? Yes/No. It’s not IMDB or Metacritic. There’s no subjectivity to this. It’s either the driver did a good job or he/she didn’t.
Have you ever bought something from a store just because you received a voucher for it before? I have. A few months ago, Google rewarded me for my contributions to Google Maps (I tend to leave reviews and answer questions on the app when I’m bored). I received a RM40 discount voucher (minimum order of RM160) for Zalora, so I went on the store, signed up an account and did some shopping.
Because I had the voucher, I felt like I would have wasted it if I didn’t use it. Even though I didn’t have to, and I could have saved RM120 by not spending on anything in the first place. But I guess that’s how vouchers work right? I did the same thing previously on 11street (but my order turned out to be the wrong product in the end and I was refunded after a long and troubling process – never shopping there again).
Steam sales and Humble Bundles do that to me too. When I see a game I’m remotely interested in playing that’s on a deep discount, I pick it up. Now I have hundreds of games that I’ll probably never play in my lifetime (I’m slowly making my way through them but Dota 2 has consumed me).
On a side note: I’ve torrented a lot of music, movies, books and porn for free – I’ll never finish them in my lifetime either. There’s just so much content available online, and even if you were strict in what you want to enjoy, you’ll never get to finish everything you want to. Maybe if you didn’t need to work for the rest of your life and you started at a young age. Maybe. If the internet died today, I would have enough content stored locally on my computer to last me for the rest of my life.
Also, if you don’t have an Uber account yet and are thinking of signing up, you can use the promo code: georgew3261ue ?