Be a dope, it's fine!

Sometimes it really pays to act like a dope. Like you don't know anything. Immature, slow, stupid, foreign etc. These tactics work. Here's how to apply them to certain situations:

Remember my Amazon promotional credit story? So my account's got around $18 in promotional credit as of today. Their credit is divided into different categories and you can get promotions in either one or several of them. I have the $18 in each category, one of them being "Kindle editions". This means you can use the credit to buy e-books readable on Kindles and many other devices. I wanted to get an e-book version of a book that only was published electronically so I figured I can use my promos, right? Wrong. Apparently, as I later found out, the credit works only on e-books sold by Amazon, not by another publisher. Of course I only find out after I was charged.

They don't give you any "review your order" page when you buy e-books so I was charged as soon as I hit the Buy button, which isn't cool if you asked me. I get a charge for $3.99 instead of $0! I contacted them immediately and they explained that the book has to be sold by Amazon for me to be able to use the credit. After explaining, I donned my dopey mask.

Me: But I didn't know this before buying the book!
Him: Ok, so I can cancel your order if you'd like and you won't be charged.
Me: But see, so now I have $18 in credits and I never buy e-books so what am I going to use it on? I was hoping to use some of it now!
Him: I'm sorry ma'am blah blah blah policies blah blah blah. I can cancel your order if you'd like.
Me: Aww, so now I'm gonna be left with tons of promotional credit? (as if that's a bad thing)
Him: Let me contact the supervisor...
(supervisor shows up to the chatroom)
Sup: I can cancel your order if you don't want to be charged. (yeah, I know)
Me: But can you maybe refund me the $3.99 and then deduct it from my promotional credit?
Sup: What I can do is credit you the $3.99.

Conclusion: I am left with an e-book that cost me $0, without digging into my credit stash.