Different pricing for foreigners
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- I've got internet at work
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A poultry response, as expected.vladimir wrote:That's a fowl suggestion.
The mistake you made was asking the price first. Why didn't you just sit down, get the haircut, then hand over 5000r with a wink and a smile? That's what i did and I am still sitting in my luxurious indoor barber getting my haircut looking sorrowfully at you sitting outside paying a dollar for a 2000 r haircut!andyinasia wrote:That was my policy to a tee. A good example is when I moved to St. #17 at Psar Chas a few years back. I needed a haircut and a simple local barber's was opposite. I went in and asked the price. I was told '2 dollars'. I pointed to the sign in Khmer saying '5000 riel'. He wouldn't have it - to me, who surely CAN'T read Khmer numbers, 2 dollars. Outside, in the street was a chap with a chair and scissors under a tree,LTO wrote:If I was going to allow every little unfairness in Cambodia bother me, my head would have exploded a long time ago. You can't survive here and be the sort that needs everything in life to be fair. When you can, work around it (e.g. I don't do any of my own shopping,) if you must fight, pick your battles judiciously, and the rest let roll off you like water off the back of a duck. And one small thing I do for personal satisfaction is, in so far as possible, avoid giving my business to places that are unfair and go out of my way to patronize places that that do have good, fair businesses practices. The bad places may not know that I am consciously avoiding them, but I do, and that's usually good enough for me. I like to tell myself that others act like me and market forces will catch up with them - that good businesses will succeed and bad businesses eventually fail. Even if that isn't wholly true, I find it a comforting thought.
charging one dollar. I went to him and got a good haircut. He was my regular barber for the next 4
years, even after I'd moved to another apartment. Every time I had my hair cut there, I'd cast a look at
the greedy bugger who looked down on me to remind him how much custom he'd lost. Never said a word;
didn't need to.
Giblet, if you knew the price already why didn't you just hand it over with a wink and a smile (maybe kissy-kissy lips?) and walk off?
As for all those with tuk-tuk pricing anecdotes... Same again: you know the price you want to pay. Just hop in, tell them your destination when you are there pay a generous but not stupid price. Lay it on em and walk.
Easy. And it never fails.
- Uncle Monty
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Some great points made so far.
So we are scratching our heads about overcharging for stuff that is obviously for somebody who lives here and can speak enough Khmer to buy the chicken or get the haircut. One thought, whoever you were speaking to had decided to overcharge before you ever asked and could not react to a "no" as they had dreamed up the money they wanted off you and it hadn't occured to them you would say no.
I use the LTO method.
So we are scratching our heads about overcharging for stuff that is obviously for somebody who lives here and can speak enough Khmer to buy the chicken or get the haircut. One thought, whoever you were speaking to had decided to overcharge before you ever asked and could not react to a "no" as they had dreamed up the money they wanted off you and it hadn't occured to them you would say no.
I use the LTO method.
Dictated to a slave and sent by carrier pigeon.
The best way to avoid being ripped off by SPECIAL pricing is;
#1 Know the prices before hand and most important
#2 learn to speak Khmer. If you can speak half way decent people warm up to you very fast and they remember you. Then you are becoming part of their world rather than the other way around.
One last point...Life is not fair especially in Cambodia.
johnny
#1 Know the prices before hand and most important
#2 learn to speak Khmer. If you can speak half way decent people warm up to you very fast and they remember you. Then you are becoming part of their world rather than the other way around.
One last point...Life is not fair especially in Cambodia.
johnny
It's the quality aspect that keeps me away from Lucky's these days - there's a far better choice of veg and meat in some of the local markets.giblet wrote:I was surprised because after the chicken incident yesterday, I went to Lucky. I compared prices on the veg to what I had just been quoted at Kandal and Lucky was cheaper for most of it. That said, quality was better at the market but only marginally.
I've never had the situation of the previous customer paying less than the price asked of me, but don't begrudge price differences that amount to the real world value of pocket dust.
Supermarket barcode clusterfks are a different matter. A glance at the receipt from a new local store showed I'd paid $7.20 for a $1.80 item on Saturday. I got a no-hassle instant refund when I pointed it out to them, and it obviously wasn't the cashier's fault - but if I had bought more than a few items, or hadn't looked at the receipt, I'd have been a fiver lighter.
Thankfully I've found most of my day to day people for things like barber, local moto & tuk tuk drivers. Prices are fair, and their service is great. Local motos that wouldn't budge from exorbitant prices get a smile and a nod as I hop on the back of the good guys.
I've only ventured into the markets for fruit and veg a few times, and I've not been impressed with the quality, but that's probably because the only chance I get is late afternoons. The prices seemed reasonable enough, slightly under Lucky, but the range at the markets puts Lucky's limp vege section to shame.
I went to buy a sim for a friend at a place next to the russian market the other day. I handed the guy (who I've used before for sims and phone repairs, usually with pretty gruff/pained service) my passport and asked for a metfone sim. He hands me a stack of sims with forgettable numbers and says "$10". So, smiling, in (pretty rough) Khmer I said that was quite expensive, and that he shouldn't charge me so much. I pointed to my phone and told him he'd sold me this sim, with a great number, for $3. He tossed my passport back at me and turned away. So I walked up the road near Mao Tse Toung and got a good number and a good chat for $3. The first guy will never get a cent from me again.
I've only ventured into the markets for fruit and veg a few times, and I've not been impressed with the quality, but that's probably because the only chance I get is late afternoons. The prices seemed reasonable enough, slightly under Lucky, but the range at the markets puts Lucky's limp vege section to shame.
I went to buy a sim for a friend at a place next to the russian market the other day. I handed the guy (who I've used before for sims and phone repairs, usually with pretty gruff/pained service) my passport and asked for a metfone sim. He hands me a stack of sims with forgettable numbers and says "$10". So, smiling, in (pretty rough) Khmer I said that was quite expensive, and that he shouldn't charge me so much. I pointed to my phone and told him he'd sold me this sim, with a great number, for $3. He tossed my passport back at me and turned away. So I walked up the road near Mao Tse Toung and got a good number and a good chat for $3. The first guy will never get a cent from me again.
- Raskolnikov
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Learn to read Khmer and then you'll pay the local price. There you go, an incentive, if you learn Khmer you can save 3000 riel every single day.unperson wrote:Phnom Penh Post is a shocking example of this 2 tier pricing...Shocking as it's owned and run by Westerners! (isn't it?)
PP Post English: 4000KHR
PP Post Khmer: 1000KHR....and the Khmer language issue is close to twice the size, plus most days extra colour supplements.
Disgusting IMO, and a crap read.
Take it easy baby, take it as it comes...
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Or you can read even more updated news by better writers for free online.Raskolnikov wrote:unperson wrote: Learn to read Khmer and then you'll pay the local price. There you go, an incentive, if you learn Khmer you can save 3000 riel every single day.
Goodbye America, if anyone asks, say we were shipwrecked. Goodbye to your junk and your old hideola. Have a nice day.
-Paul Theroux
-Paul Theroux
I just interviewed my girlfriend last night, being worried she was overpaying for half chooks...
No worries, she pays either 8000 or 9000KHR , depending on the weight.
Slightly cheaper at Boeng Trabaek than at Sovanna.
No worries, she pays either 8000 or 9000KHR , depending on the weight.
Slightly cheaper at Boeng Trabaek than at Sovanna.
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Interesting. Are we sure that Giblet correctly heard/saw the other two customers paying 7000 riel? Maybe Giblet was smoking some of content's great pot. Giblet, did you happen to tell the chicken lady that you just saw two customers pay 7000 riel, and what was her response to that?
Let me guess, she avoided the subject and pretended not to understand you and just repeated 8000 riel.
Let me guess, she avoided the subject and pretended not to understand you and just repeated 8000 riel.
Follow my lame Twitter feed: @gavin_mac
After many years in Cambo, I am fed up with the BS of different pricing. At my hotel rooms are$25 a night for foreigner and $30 for Khmers. Revenge is so sweeeeet
- Bitteeinbit
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Was there a different size for the chickens? I don't see how this is a big issue. Just move on to the next seller (as you did). Find one which offers you a good price and then stay loyal to them. Chill out a bit, you'll probably get an ulcer from all that rage.
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