Rip Off
I have a cleaning lady who is professional, reliable, and sweet. The other day, though, she got on my nerves by gleefully pointing out how I got ripped off when buying furniture at the second-hand market.
At the second-hand market, of course, all prices are negotiable. I'm not a terrible negotiator, but eventually my patience runs thin and I acquiesce to a price higher than what I probably could have gotten away with. I think of the extra money as purchasing "hassle-free" time.
Of course, my cleaning lady boasted of how she could have gotten the same items for roughly half of what I paid. She muttered 太贵了，太贵了 ("too expensive") every time I told her how much I paid. Eventually, I started lying and telling her I paid half of what I actually paid, just so she wouldn't chide me.
Some foreigners are very sensitive about being ripped off and make every effort to get the lowest price. I take a different approach- if the price seems reasonable to me, I'm happy to pay it. Four plus years in China have given me a pretty good idea of how much things cost. Plus, I find shopping to be stressful and unpleasant so I'm usually willing to pay a bit extra to get the hell out of there.
So I'd like to define rip-off a little differently. Bought a vodka tonic that didn't have vodka? Rip-off. Been driven around in circles by Shanghai cabbies?* Rip-off. Paying 300 kuai for a service that a local could have gotten for 175? No worries.
*Both of these things have happened to me.
January 23rd, 2009 - 18:04
i’ve often tried explaining the concept of buying less hassle but to no avail. it’s to the point that i lie to everyone who ever asks when talking about how much i’ve spent just to avoid the discussion altogether. of course when in the states i’m also the guy willing to just pay the $2 for using another bank’s ATM just to not have to circle the block or deal with the extra traffic to get to my own.
two kuai off my restaurant bill is hardly worth the five minutes of discussion to make it happen.