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Q: Worst rip-off in China so far?
What is the worst you've been ripped-off in China so far? I say so far, because, well, it's bound to happen again...
It took me months of passive suspicion before I finally started taking pictures, and got to realize the promotions stickers in Vanguard sell stuff for exactly the same price as the non promotion version.
Shining_brow:
11/11 is supposed to be a day of huge sales on Tmall (Taobao).
I'm finding prices are currently above advertised, and hyper-inflated 'non-sales' day prices. And that's even after looking at prices that are almost double what the US$ price would be!!
Not happened to me personally, but to our company. Unhappy with the speed of our Internet connection (we do a lot of documentary search, collaborators/customers sprinkled all over the globe), my boss decided to upgrade to a larger bandwidth and pay more.
... no difference in bandwidth ... But we don't get bounced to China Unicom portal every time we hit a page with links to Facebook/Twitter/<banned website>.
Stiggs:
I recently got ripped off with the internet too. I paid to upgrade from a 4mb connection to a 10mb connection and nothing is different.
I actually didn't expect much for the extra money but I did expect some improvement in speed.
gouxiong:
I think Internet is a bit special case. Most probably your Internet speed changed for China internal portals. Just when going out the change is very minor. It's due to several reasons and your bandwidth has little influence on that (even though still has). Our office overkilled 20x the common European standards for the usable bandwidth and even though when going out of China the speed is still quite slow (especially in the afternoon and evening) but it's still better than in other offices I visited where they use 'normal', 'appropirate' bandwidth.
DrMonkey:
@gouxiong My boss asked about whether it would work for China only or for all traffic... he was told yes, it would improve things with international links (which is kind of the whole purpose of Internet in the first place). It didn't, therefore it is a rip-off, I don't care if it was a lie or just incompetence, the end result is the same. What is special, it's the Great Firewall, that I wish I could ram in the asses of those who decided to go for it. With gravel, sand, and without lubricant.
iWolf:
Welcome to the internet in China. I paid for a faster connection but there was no change in speed. After having a whinge I discovered that the infrastructure where I live can't handle a faster speed, so nothing can be done. No refunds.
tbh66:
yes the internet. the rip off was the deposit fee i paid. feared i would connect a phone line also. the hassle to recover deposit of 1000y, not worth it. china unicom thief.
dongbeiren:
I had a similar experience - paid for faster internet and nothing changed. Even worse, at my first job I had an employer provided apartment but was responsible for my own internet. The employer-suggested internet was so slow that I needed to cancel my Netflix subscription. Found out later that a faster version was available for a whole 20 rmb more per month but the employer thought the price was so outrageous that no one was even informed of the option. Yea.... I was pissed.
Things that aren't a rip-off is a much shorter list. Nothing comes to mind however. The whole country operates dishonestly......everyone knows that.
Only once in a touristy area of Beijing when I was brand new to China, I paid about twice the price charged to locals for the same sandwich at a street food stand.
No need to add that I hate Beijing since then. i would love to see this city burned down to the ground.
DrMonkey:
Maybe the burning of the Summer Palace was due to an overpriced sandwich ?
nzteacher80:
Back in the 30's Mao was on holiday in Beijing and bought a pricey hotdog at Sanlitun - class warfare starts with over-priced street food.
I bought some clothes at the Yashow market in Beijing sanlitun. I know now never to buy anything there. I'll never be able to bargain the price lower because they will have another clueless foreigner to scam 5 minutes later.
The pay man at my place stole several thousand from me and nothing could be done about it because he was so well respected.
I've copped it but also never miss an opportunity to remind him, and everyone else, that he's a thief and China is fukd up.
Shining_brow:
Oh Royce... there's always something that "can be done about it"... 
royceH:
Well, that's an interesting point. Even if I was considering taking things further, I now can't.
After being the financial officer at the school for 20 years, and being above any suspicion of being involved in anything improper, the bloke has recently joined the head master in the 'handcuff shuffle'. They've both been removed from their positions and are facing charges of systemic corruption.
Everyone knows but no one can talk about it. It's seems like a tragic comedy to me.
If you ask me, this country is pretty fkd up.
I got ripped off once and took an unlicensed Taxi from the Shenzhen airport to the train station to Hong Kong. The guy asked for about 200 RMB, and I paid cause I thought whatever... I found out later when I took a proper taxi that it was more like 90-120 RMB.
But that woke me up and a taxi driver has never ripped me off since. Other times just on small things in tourist places (Chinese get ripped off too). Like in Hua Shan, the higher you climb the mountain the more expensive the stuff gets... a 4 RMB drink at the base is like 8-10 RMB at the peak.
They try to say it is cause they have to pay people to carry them up or use the trolley, so I guess it isn't really ripping tourists off... but who knows.
tbh66:
taxis in Tianjin and Fuzhou the worst. Unregulated, refuse receipt/meter. Best to be aware of landmarks, and just leave taxi without paying if feeling scammed. tell driver F off.
Robk:
Oh, I lived in Tianjin for a few years and I agree with you on that.
Tianjin has not proper organization for the taxis. They are run by a gang or they just work as individuals. Whenever my wife and I get to the train station in Tianjin or Airport... we always have to walk a few blocks to get a reasonable taxi.
That place is HORRIBLE for taxi regulation.
I went wife-shopping but when I returned I noticed that not only had I bagged a very attractive and sweet wife..... but there was also a MIL in the package.
mArtiAn:
I got caught on a variation of the same scam. Mine promised me a lifetime of wanton love-making (means the same in China but you also get soup), and unlimited blow-jobs. Five years later i've got a scary MIL in the spare room (now the 'scare room'), two screaming kids in mine (the scarier room), and the last time I got blown the Olympics was on.
iWolf:
Those are some horror stories but I was cunning....I set up the spare room as a music room (with no bed). If The MIL wants to stay she has to sleep on the floor amongst a dozen guitars, cables and pedals. Needless to say, she never stays but constantly bitches about the "waste of money in that room". (insert scary laughter) Mwahahahahahaha!!!
Scandinavian:
@MartiAN: I guess it comes in handy once every year for halloween
@iWolf. My MIL can easily sleep on the sofa. At least with a proper guestroom I can walk through the living room without the sounds of snoring and farting
My first teaching job in Changchun was for a private school. A "provided" apartment cost me 500RMB more a month unless I wanted to live in a complete shithole.
The light in the bathroom stopped working. A week later they guy showed up to fix it. They handed me a bill for 500 RMB to replace a wall switch in a rented apartment. The plumbing under the sink leaked down to the guy's apartment below. They wanted me to pay to fix the plumbing AND to repair the mess on the floor below.
The temperature in my apartment reached the point where I could see my breath. The radiators were barely warm to the touch even though I purged them. When I complained I was provided an electric heater. The cost of the heater was deducted from my salary as was the drastic increase in electric bills. I paid for internet, cable, gas and water too.
I left. Now I teach in another city for an universtity. Much better.
I learned very early on--you make friends with a bilingual Chinese and when you go shopping you let him or her do the bargaining.
With regard to taxis at airports or train stations--recently I had a taxi tout quote 100 RMB for a 30 RMB ride. I said 40--he said 80--I said 30. He got the message. I paid 40 for the convenience of a right now ride.
Yes--as a laowai you wear a target. There are honest Chinese--but not too damned many.
Shining_brow:
All airports and train stations have these guys. Just go to the rank and be patient. And know where the place you want to go is (or, use the bus/metro!!)
DrMonkey:
About seeing your breath inside your home or office... That's pretty much normal in many part of China in winter. Buildings are not insulated, very expensive to keep warm, and obviously, paying for other people comfort is not exactly the trend here. Nor paying more during construction to avoid the problem.
Last night's restaurant bill for the four of us in a hot pot joint was almost 600. Seems the small cups of jia pi (flat and warm) were 20 kuai each and the place didn't sell any other kind of beer. That's a rip-off!
I think one of the biggest scams in China are the spas and beauty parlours that claim to be professionally run and boast about their wonderful reputations e.g. Yongqi. The people providing the services are anything but professional in their customer service methods and certainly put ripping the customer off as a far higher priority than providing an adequate service.
I went to one branch of Yongqi initially for a haircut in the salon. As I had been through a particularly stressful period business wise, I decided to indulge in a spa massage to unwind. Firstly, the base price of the services that they provide are extremely expensive by Chinese standards though you can get a range of discounted prices by depositing sums of money on VIP cards.
Here's where the entrapment comes into play. The first massage will be fantastic thus making you feel that despite the expense, it is worth it for the service. So you think what's a few thousand RMB for this standard of service? It is worth pampering yourself every now and then.
The only problem is that every subsequent visit is unlike the initial visit. Once they have your money, they no longer care. They just use the customer like a captive audience to use whatever methods they can to sell vastly overpriced products and wangle more money from the customer. Worse still, if you don't succumb to the demands, the service deteriorates still further.
The staff have no morals or ethnics. They will try to over charge constantly, they will stop well short of the agreed time for the massage, they will continuously stop to answer their cellphone etc., during time that you are paying for and they will lie constantly.
But eh, the girls do look beautiful in their sexy outfits!
Scandinavian:
anything you pay for in advance will suck
my MIL has been going to the same spa for years, she goes for a massage and it is mostly a "wellness" thing. She had a period with some back pain and the massage therapist said she should come every second day to get it treated. I believe at the time I waved my BS flag at the beginning, but after 10 treatments her back was worse. They are NOT trained to do any kind of professional massage that actually does any good. It is an entry point for TCM scams. I've gone there several times with my wife, the environment is nice and it is relaxing, but each time there is a "ooohh, have you not have a regular bowel movement today" or some such thing where they will tell you to go more often. There is nothing a spa in China can do that drinking a big cup of water will not do just as well.... unless it is one of those spas with happy endings.
I think everything is basically a scam, but the biggest one is the complex administration fees many apartment communities charge. My old building charged 240/mo for upkeep and the elevator was broken at least five times a month. They told me the elevator wasn't broken, it was standard maintenance. I didn't see the guy "maintaining" it at 11 o'clock on a Friday night. I kept track of the days it was out of service and asked for a refund. It didn't go well. Then you have the "cleaners" in the community. I really like to pay for someone to stand around and smoke all day, while pushing dirt from one end of the hallway to the other. Worthless.
Scandinavian:
this is just the standard incompetence. until recently we lived in a new building, not once did I see a lift service person without a lift being broken, they simply don't do anything up front.
I think our service fee was 3RMB per sqr/mtr, cleaning, so so, gardening pretty good, pools spotless, life guards only attentive to their phones, property security staff sometimes awake, but usually eating when awake. The community came recommended as "the best run" in the city. It does have the mayor, Macau Casino bosses, the CEO of the large construction company that build most of the city etc. living there.
Still, who cares about the floor in the hallway when you can keep yourself busy looking at the mold growing inside ?
andy74rc:
Enjoy. At 7.60 to the Euro, you're progressively paying more and more for the same shit.
