When there is no Repeat Business (2)
April 25th, 2007 by 
Administrator
I had always told myself as a writer that the last thing I do is to use my writing to rant, or say something negative. I had always thought myself that it is still good fashion to be a gentleman, and if you don’t have something nice to say, it is better not to say anything. So I think when I complained generally on attitudes of impolite sales people or cab drivers,it was generally because as a tourist visiting the Eastern United States, I encountered some amount of discourtesies.
This is especially true in areas where there are a lot of tourists, and the shop people or cab drivers in general know that they may never do business with you again anyway. I can give in that many of them are very pressured or harassed by sometimes insensitive tourists asking somewhat stupid questions as well, but I would rather think also that we always remember that as a rule, our best character is showed by our ability to inconvenience ourselves to convenience those who may never be in a position to return our favor or who may never do business with us again.
At any rate my wife just returned from thailand, and related to me with much indignation something she experienced in a fruit market in Thailand. She went to buy some fruits, and even carefully selected these. The shopkeeper got the selected fruits from her, and weighed it. She even offered to put in 4 pieces for free. Apparently whileshe was counting the money, the shopkeeper ( who looked like a nice old lady) switched her bag of fruits in the package with another package which contained the same fruits, but almost rotten. So when she reached back her hotel, she found out to her indignation that she has just paid for a bag of rotten fruits. Only the 4 pieces the shopkeeper offered to add for free was any good.
I can imagine the shopkeeper. Probably she ended up with some rotten fruits she could not sell, and knowing some customers to be tourists, she apparently saw no damage to pass on these rotten merchandise to somebody who may never returned, or who may not take the trouble to complain, and just call it a bad day.
How about you. Have you similar experiences, in which you feel you just had nowhere to go, and just bear it?
April 25th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
that was sometime late 90’s i think 1999 in hongkong. we bought a cd player looking for an anti-shock, the saleperson gave us one and we decided to buy it. he went on the back office to put the product inside the plastic.
We never checked it while still there until we came back home to our dismay, he changed it to an ordinary cd player (not anti shock) when he got inside the office inside the store.
April 26th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Oh, have lots of horror stories to tell about Hong Kong.
but nevertheless, it is still a great place to visit and shop, just be careful!
April 27th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I share the same sentiment Wilson! I too have travelled far and wide. Too often, the color of your skin and the shape of your eyes determines the level of service you’ll get.
Thus far, I could not forget the best experience of all - being asked to queue into a “Seaman” lane up at a European immigration counter.
This is for the simple reason I possess a passport which airport officers thinks most people come from do most for a living. Very unprofessional, but I just take it with a pinch of salt.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:00 am
[...] Everyone has been swindled once in their life, Reflections of a BizDrivenLife shares his wife’s story about shopping in Thailand. [...]