Rolling the Roller

Hey ppl,

well, as some of you may be aware, I got majorly rolled last Saturday. I was in a really touristy area of Beijing that was recommended to me as a good place to be able to get something of quality for my -new- baby neice that's due late June. So I went to wangfujing (it's like a shopping area) and found something to buy her (I wont say until I've given the pressie) =).

Anyway, after a hot morning of wandering around I went to a tea house and decided that the whole "tea in China" thing would be cool. Well, evidently so did the tea house and they charged me like Y2030 for my afternoon's tea. That's water and leaves and it cost $350. And no, there was nothing 'untoward' about it - just water and leaves. The experience before I got the bill was cool though, a real cultural thig was happening and there was a waitress that did the whole tea-ceremony show thing and I really enjoyed the experience.

Anyway, when I got the bill I was like 'fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck', but as it seemed legit I paid (I had to use my c/c) and left for my hotel room. I mused over it a bit, complained to some ppl online and lived really cheap for a few days.

Then, I told the foreigner dudes at my work and they were all like "dude, that's FUCKED. you got rolled and that's obviously a scam.". They really forced the issue at me for a couple of days 'cause I was too embarrassed to return to the place to ask for my money back as I thought that I knew that it looked like an expensive place, but not that expensive, and that at least it was a learning experience. But the dudes were adament and said that arguing was an experience in China anyway so we piled in a cab today and headed toward the tea place.

Well, we didnt really expect to be too successful as once you've handed over the cash as a consumer here, you're completely reliant upon the vendor's morality. Once that moeny's left your hand, there's no consumer protection, nothing forcing anyone to give you what you've paid for - and I had paid the weekend gone.

We arrived at the tea house and Trevor (later) tells me that he knows more Chinese for arguing than anything else lol. He argues with them for about 30 mins in Mandarin and at the end, secured about an 85% refund. I'm stunned. He then tells me that as soon as he said that "I'll tell everyone here what you're doing" they caved and gave us money. That was our spot of luck really as if no one else was being scammed at the time, they'd never have given us a cent.

The really nice thing for me wasnt getting 85% of my money back though. Once I had the cash in my hand, I told everyone else there what was going down and induced a mass walk out without paying of all the people there. I really fucked with their jive and they can go to hell if I care. It apparently is a classic scam for foreigners but most of us dont have dudes at the office that:

a) they feel comfortable telling such things
b) have a Masters in Arguing in Mandarin
c) have the class to carry a refund through (VERY RARE here) then provide the opportunity to turn the situation back round

So, Chinese scammers can go to hell.

The interesting thing is that I expected that scammers would try to get me, but this situation, time of day, setting etc just took me completely by surprise. I think Westerners are spoiled at home by authorities that really clamp down on such shit and as a result really are too trusting. Not anymore for this chappy.

Anyway, that's my nice ending to a shitty story - those that rolled me:
a) paid me almost all my money back
b) lost lots of money when I proceeded to tell all the ppl there today

Mwahahahahahahahha! It was a good day.