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Q: Are some smaller Chinese banks learning a trick or two?
I was pleasantly surprised the other day.
This doesn't happen often for me, let alone in China and especially with a bank. Nevertheless after my wife went to send me some funds from China to Canada, she had tons of trouble and decided to switch banks. A smaller bank that is trying to pick up steam. They told her they could in fact help her out and set her up with a VIP account.
Now if you have lived in China for a while, you will know that VIP doesn't really mean VIP at all. They use it as a term to appease the "face" or ego of many people here. So I didn't think anything of it. But I was intrigued, how could these smaller banks compete with the larger ones like Bank of China without ripping people off?
Well, that's where the surprise came in. My wife gets a phone call and it is the bank. After she is done she tells me, that the bank has a special gift for us as valued customers. I assumed it was a stupid jug of cooking oil like most companies give... but she told me that they are sending over some cleaners to offer us free house and window cleaning.
Well, this sounded pretty amazing considering the crappy experience I have almost always had with banks in China... but then the suspicious side (got to be in China) thought... is the bank sending their "VIP" cleaners to scope out the place for thieves or steal valuables? It would be a good scam. The banks know who most likely has valuables in their home, sends over cleaning ladies... after half a year or so... a thief robs the place.
What do you think? An amazing bank with awesome service or a shady bank running a scam?
7 years 18 weeks ago in Money & Banking - China
it sounds nice to have some sort of extra bonus, but sending someone to my home sounds somewhat creepy.
What are they doing?
Certainly they would not clean to my standard, so maybe they are having a look-see around to calculate if i am worth more or less than my bank account indicates.
it sounds nice to have some sort of extra bonus, but sending someone to my home sounds somewhat creepy.
What are they doing?
Certainly they would not clean to my standard, so maybe they are having a look-see around to calculate if i am worth more or less than my bank account indicates.
Yeah, sounds far more like you're being set up!
Robk:
I know it does make me sound paranoid... but in China foreigners can be huge targets for thieves and people just looking for an easy target.
When something sounds too good to be true...
