onethousandknives wrote:Heh, I guess the attitude is, if you can scam them, then scam them.
Around here in US where I live, I went to a muffler shop, and got a muffler welded on my car. I bought the muffler already for about $70, and calling the guy on the phone, telling him I had a rusted pipe, etc, he said it would be about $50, but to bring it down. He gets it on the lift, says I didn't tell them about the rusted pipe on the phone, though I did, and threw out like $300-400 and $500-600 for pricing, then going down. I kept telling him no. I told him the max I had was $75, and that's it. Told him if he can't do it for that, take my car off the lift and I'll drive home. He finally does it for $75. Talks shit to me the whole time I was in his shop waiting. But I got it done for $75, In hindsight, $75 probably was a bit low for that job. But he had mechanics that he paid min wage but needed their own tools. Great stellar guy.
Couple years later, I see a lady at my apartment complex with a newer Nissan Versa. I see her muffler is melting her bumper, they didn't cut out the bumper to make the muffler fit, bought the wrong one, did something wrong, so that now the exhaust pipe was sitting right at the bumper cover melting it. I waved at the lady through the window and said "hey you know your muffler is melting your bumper, right?" She came out of her car and took a look. She apparently paid $1000 for this job to be done, at the same exact shop I got mine done for $75. Said she noticed the vibration, but thought it was normal, and she'd just paid $1000 to get it done, after all.
This stellar guy running this shop apparently also wasn't paying his parts bills, as told to me by a guy running the auto parts shop nearest to me. So if you can scam them, scam them.
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I dunno, a dollar for a coconut that costs $2-3 in USA (young coconuts are often $8-10) doesn't sound too egregious compared to US scams at all. Shit man, how about beer at baseball games costing $8 here? Been to a US airport? Everything costing double or triple the street price for basically everything. $20 USB cables that cost a dollar at Dollar Tree. One thing I liked in Taiwan was that strangely, the airport 7-11, vending machines, etc, and train station ones, cost basically the same or the exact same as normal ones did in the rest of the city. Pretty shocking coming from the US price gouging when you can culture. Vietnam I had only two straight out scam scams, and thankfully my girlfriend prevented me from seriously overpaying for anything. One was a phone card was sold to my girlfriend for me with no data, I notice he pulled it from the bottom of his pile. Special pile just for me. Another, a taxi in Vietnam just got lost and I had to pay 70K VND (like $3) for ending up a kilometer or so from our destination. In comparison in Taiwan, my second taxi ride to the airport, the meter ran to 1100 or 1200ntd, and the guy insisted on only taking 1000ntd for the trip.
The scams in America and the west is Subtle and Polished, in Asian countries its in your face. Like in Germany they tax you 53% of your income in the name of Medical insurance etc, but what they won't tell you is that, there is a six month wait in Germany to get Specialist Doctor Appointment, most Germans in their 60s, 70s just die waiting for doc appointment.
In the west, and Japan..The Taxi rates are already Over Priced....No need to be scammed, its already right in the meter itself...
One guy selling dating services here for over 1000s of dollars and was called out on that scam by many members here.
Every industry is designed to scam other industry. The entire society is based on Fakeness.
Its Reverse. You must do everything in your capacity to NOT TO SCAM an Ignorant, New, Innocent Person when he visits you for services. THAT IS THE TEST.
YOU MUST NOT, NEVER SCREW A TOURIST. EVER.
Now, We know exactly why Aliens just don't show up on our doorstep..For what..to be scammed and over priced to death..No Thanks ...They can go to other planets and get a fair deal.
This Profit Oriented society and Communist Style of government is both designed to screw humanity. Socialism and Capitalism both does not work but they are pushed onto humanity.
There is an Amazing middle ground that we must take for a win-win situation.