Posted by
knitty
16 yrs ago
anyone have thoughts on how to stay sane after yet another round of bargaining (did you actually get a fair price? you'll never really know!), or worse, after some petty cheating by the sales clerk?
I'm not even talking about places like the ladies market or the wanchai computer center, where it's understood that vendors will try to get as much money out of every customer as possible.
I'm more annoyed by the constant vigilance required for everyday transactions. for instance, today someone gave me back completely the wrong change so I argued for five minutes to get the HKD 21 I was still owed. then, later, buying an umbrella on the street, the person pretended she'd said 70 when she'd actually said 40, but by then she'd already put away my hkd100 bill and I didn't want to waste energy on this. either way -- arguing, walking away-- I left feeling sour.
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Pay with EPS or credit card if you can. At least they can never argue you just gave them a $100 bill.
And of course check the total before you sign.
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"but they can, of course, add a whole lot more drinks on your credit card bill, especially when u r plastered..."
If someone rips you off when you are plastered, the more fool you. I mean sure, the bartender is being dishonest and should be fired, but the onus is on you to check the total.
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are locals also vigilant in counting every penny, or is the wrong change/wrong price trick generally a visitor phenomenon?
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> If someone rips you off when you are plastered, the more fool you. I mean sure, the bartender is being dishonest and should be fired, but the onus is on you to check the total.
That strikes me as a strange position to take. It also conflicts with some basic concepts of our legal system - in fact, the onus is on the merchant to invoice/bill/request the correct amount. Deliberately not doing so is fraud...
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Of course it's the merchant's job to get it right, but if you can't count on him being honest a double check and some precautions are in order. Being drunk strikes me as throwing caution to the wind in this case. So I'm just saying that if you're dead drunk and the bartender fools you because you didn't check the bill, he is a rotten stinking thief, but you are still a fool.
Since before the Romans it has been well known that "caveat emptor."
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I think a good way when shopping at local places is get change ready - and pay the exact price. That way, you pay what you heard the price was and not more. I've not had too many issues shopping at local joints but yes, at times you do need to be vigilant!
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