I was fobbed off
I was deceived
TRANSLATION
fob (someone) off = jmd. abspeisen, jmd. etwas andrehen, abwimmeln, prellen, betrügen fob (someone) off = jmd. dazu bringen etwas zu akzeptieren was weniger als erhofft oder erwartet ist --- GOOGLE INDEX fob off: approximately 250,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
A man has admitted crashing his car through the front of Norwich job centre after being FOBBED OFF by staff.
(BBC News)
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Some of the UK's biggest high street and online retailers are FOBBING OFF consumers with incorrect information about their legal rights when products become faulty, an investigation has revealed.
(The Guardian)
(BBC News)
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Some of the UK's biggest high street and online retailers are FOBBING OFF consumers with incorrect information about their legal rights when products become faulty, an investigation has revealed.
(The Guardian)
Did you
know?
fob off (chiefly British)
phrasal verb
- to persuade someone to accept something that is of a low quality or different from what they really wanted
(Cambridge Dictionary)
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Most of us are familiar with this situation. We need the help of a service provider of some sort. It might be a local utility company, a government office or a repair shop for instance. Instead of getting the service we need, we get what sounds like an excuse such as "Sorry, but you'll have to come back tomorrow. Our computer system is down."
Or perhaps you ordered an expensive meal in a restaurant and get served something that was taken out of a can, heated up and decorated with a few snippets of parsley? You've been fobbed off!
And every school teacher gets fobbed off with creative excuses as to why pupils fail to complete assignments, including the famous, "The dog ate my homework!"
This phrasal verb can be used in the form "to fob someone off" (I was fobbed off with lame excuses) or "to fob something off on someone" (They said the company fobbed its cheaper products off on unsuspecting customers).
The verb "to fob" probably stems from the Old French "forbe" (cheat) or the German "foppen" (trick in a harmless way, pull someone's leg).
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SYNONYMS
deceive, foist off, jerk around, misguide, mislead, misrepresent, offload, rip off, scam, swindle, trick
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"If you have a legitimate complaint, make sure you don't get fobbed off."
phrasal verb
- to persuade someone to accept something that is of a low quality or different from what they really wanted
(Cambridge Dictionary)
---
Most of us are familiar with this situation. We need the help of a service provider of some sort. It might be a local utility company, a government office or a repair shop for instance. Instead of getting the service we need, we get what sounds like an excuse such as "Sorry, but you'll have to come back tomorrow. Our computer system is down."
Or perhaps you ordered an expensive meal in a restaurant and get served something that was taken out of a can, heated up and decorated with a few snippets of parsley? You've been fobbed off!
And every school teacher gets fobbed off with creative excuses as to why pupils fail to complete assignments, including the famous, "The dog ate my homework!"
This phrasal verb can be used in the form "to fob someone off" (I was fobbed off with lame excuses) or "to fob something off on someone" (They said the company fobbed its cheaper products off on unsuspecting customers).
The verb "to fob" probably stems from the Old French "forbe" (cheat) or the German "foppen" (trick in a harmless way, pull someone's leg).
---
SYNONYMS
deceive, foist off, jerk around, misguide, mislead, misrepresent, offload, rip off, scam, swindle, trick
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"If you have a legitimate complaint, make sure you don't get fobbed off."
