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Q: Have you ever used your guanxi for revenge?
A month ago, while on a 5 hour train to Hangzhou, my phone screen slowly started going black. By the time I arrived at my hotel, it was completely black. My friend told that I could get the screen replaced, so when I arrived back in my city I went to China mobile and they referred me to this guy who said he could replace it. I paid him RMB 750. 4 days later I got my phone back. 11 days later, the screen went black again. I went back to the shop, and he said he doesn't know what's wrong, but he would look at it. 4 days later he tells me that he doesn't know what happen, but the screen is broken and I need to pay him another RMB 750 to get a new screen. I completely blacked out and went ape shit in the store. Some people in my city think they can take advantage of me because I'm American and apparently that makes me rich. Even little shit like red tea that costs RMB 3, some people who try to charge me RMB 15 like I'm stupid. So I know this guy purposely gave me a bad screen so get could get more money out of me. His wife then tells me they do not guarantee the quality of screen repairs. So I told them they better give me back my money or I will get a lawyer. The wife laughed, and said "You can get a lawyer if you want but it doesn't matter." I told her that she f**ked with the wrong foreigner, and then I left.
I made some calls, and 2 days later I came back to their shop with 2 of my student's parents. One is a government lawyer, and the other just so happens to be the government officer who controls the street that this business is on (he controls their business license). The look on the wife's face when she saw me walking in with him was PRICELESS. I stood there the whole time watching her and her husband try to beg and plead their way out of getting in trouble, all while having a big smirk on my face. She started crying when the officer told her to give him the business license that was hanging on the wall, so he could take a picture of it. Then she quickly gave me my money back. I walked out feeling like I gave China the middle finger in some small way, it was great haha.
Have you used your guanxi for revenge, or to get what you wanted?
And Chinese people are spiteful and vengeful. They will know and/or hire people who can make an "accident" happen. Don't be so smug as to think that you "taught" them anything...they'll escalate the situation.
The key to living peacefully in China is to know when and how to pick your battles and "solve" problems the Chinese way (face-saving).
coineineagh:
"Harmony". If someone steals your money, you have evidence and know who it is, do nothing because they might hurt you. I'm against this kind of reccommendation, as it has made China into the cowardly bully playground that it is today. I'll be sure to teach my children to be brave, as it's an integral part of civil society. You're free to teach your kids to just survive at any expense, old China hand!
WanderingTeacher:
Screw that! I did teach them a lesson, and I pick this battle carefully..believe me there has been opportunities for 100's of battles in the past 8 months. Yeah they can find some people to make an "accident" happen if they want, but they won't. Even the bad people here won't touch me. Many of these "for-hire bad men" have tried to send their child(ren) to my school to learn English and when told that they have to pay money just like everyone else, they threatened to beat up my business partner and kill his family, and then when I tell them that I own the school, and that my business partner is only my assistant and translator, and that I decide who goes to my school, they back off and go away, and or try to become friends with me (I have 4 of these such "friends" now). Because they think since I'm American, if they do something to me, they will actually get in real trouble. I may live China, but I'm not playing this saving-face, kiss-your-ass, give-you-gifts, let you bully me because "this is china" bullshit. The only person's ass I kiss, is the one policewoman in my city who controls my visa because she protects me and let's me do whatever I want. Cheers to finally getting some revenge and justice. 
'
Wow, that's a masterful one you pulled out there !!!
Careful however, with vengeance, you can walk far into a path of mutual destruction, not knowing where it ends. Imagine that this couple loose their business, fall into misery, and want vengeance (despite it's due to their own shitty ways, don't expect a sense of responsibility here)...
Also, so, the whole guangxi thing is a social cancer here, it cripples Chinese society. I can't despise it yet using it when it suits me. You didn't let bullshit win and you taught a good lesson, which is good. But it reminds things I don't like ie. abuse of powers and using civil powers for personal matters. I hope you won't have to do that often 
WanderingTeacher:
I totally agree with you. I told my student's father before we went there to not actually do anything bad to them, but just scare them. I didn't really care about the money that much, it was the principle of people constantly trying to take advantage of me, and the me just having to sit back and let it slide and not do anything about it because "this is China." Just seeing their faces and knowing that they knew that they were wrong, was enough for me.
My wife and her family have used guanxi for everyday things, as it's the major tool for average people to get things done. Not for revenge, though.
My in-laws could probably talk their way to a refund and prevent the feud. If not, they'd bad-mouth the business, which is a sort of revenge. Being a local resient has advantages over being migrant worker, foreign or not.
That's an awesome story! But on a side note, why did you have to wait 4 days to pick up your phone? You were obviously getting screwed. It was just simple screen replacement. I once accidentally washed my iphone in the washing machine and took it to a China Mobile store to get it fixed. The guy opened up the phone, replaced the battery, dusted off some components, and replaced the screen in about an hour. The screen only cost 300RMB and the phone worked great afterward.
ScotsAlan:
I suspect the repair guy would have to order the parts in.
WanderingTeacher:
Yeah exactly, he had to order the screen because he didn't have it in stock..and then i had to wait an extra day because when i went to get it on the 3rd day, the screen was jumping, and the phone was writing texts, opening apps, etc by itself
Is this not more of a lesson in why you should negotiate before handing money over?
750 RMB is a lot for a phone screen here ( The brother in law is always breaking his IPhone 4 screen, 200RMB a time to fix that) . I would have negotiated with the repairman the terms of the transaction before I handed my money over. That is: what happens if the new screen does not work, what happens if he breaks the phone, will he use genuine or copy replacement parts etc.
Yeah he could go back on the agreement of course, but if he knew he had to do the best job he could, maybe he would buy decent replacement parts rather than cheap copies. Or of course he could just refuse the work, in which case you would know he was not confident to do it in the first place.
This story reminds me of when the power supply to my wifi unit failed. I found a suitable cheap power supply in a local PC shop but the shop guy refused to sell it to me. My wife negotiated with him and it turns out he had sold something to a foreigner in the past. When the item sold had broken, his experience of having a screaming foreigner in his shop had been enough to put him off dealing with us for ever.
We got the power supply in the end ( all 7.5 RMB of it), but we had to promise we would not start kicking and screaming if it failed. That was no problem to me because I was willing to gamble 7.5 RMB on having wifi that day rather than waiting.
I see almost all transactions in China as a gamble and I try to figure the odds before handing over cash.
With phones, I would just buy a new 1000 RMB one. Even in the west, getting a phone repaired is a gamble with the odds stacked in favour of failure.
WanderingTeacher:
But at least in America, you have a guarantee on the phone if something happens after repairing..I think with Sprint, a screen repair was guaranteed for 3 months and in some cases I didn't have to pay money because I had insurance on it. They replaces the whole frame and the screen for free and guaranteed it for 3 months.
I didn't negotiate the price because when I was in Hangzhou and my friend told me i could have the phone replaced, we went to two different people and they were going to charge 750rmb, so when i got back to my city and they told me the same thing, I was like Ok whatever. I don't care about paying more for something, in my own city that is, because it's a very small city these shop owners are poor and they need the money..so if an extra 200-300 rmb helps them, then I'm ok with that. I only negotiate prices on certain items, like sunglasses and shoes, because I have to buy a new pair of sunglasses every 3 weeks, and a new pair of shoes every 2 weeks. My feet are big and there is only one shop that carries my size, so since I'm giving them business every 2 weeks, i negotiate the price down.
ScotsAlan:
Yup WT.
That's why I have 2 cheap smartphones now. If one fails I have a backup. Different platforms, but they have the same phone numbers and both have preloaded maps to get me about.
I keep one in my rucksack and one in my pocket.
If I was really smart they would be on different networks. But I was not thinking when I took the second sim 
Not yet... and unfortunately, my Ace in the pocket has just gone overseas for a year :( my neighbour is professor of law at one of the top-ranked universities, and is paid to travel the country and prepare the students for the bar exam....
I have A MASSIVE amount of guan xi in this small city but I use it VERY sparingly because it is like a pool that if you take from it, you MUST give something back in time. Kind of like how the mafia works...
That being said, I have used it for getting a visa, lower-housing prices, free dinners etc. For example, those parents may call on your one day to show up to a few events to give them face. You can't really refuse because you are in their debt.
Honestly, dressing well, being stern and having a local who knows how much things should cost can aid you just as much as guan xi (as a foreigner anyway). But overall, I think what you did was good because sometimes you just got to say... screw you, don't f*ck with me bitch!
WanderingTeacher:
Haha yeah you're right. I don't mind showing face for them if need be since they helped me out. My Chinese assistant said I should have told him about the phone because he would have told me not to go there and to just buy a new phone, which is honestly what i wanted to do anyway, but i listened to my Hangzhou friend who told me it could be repaired. That was a mistake. But the revenge tasted so sweet!!
