If you are buying some reasonably valuable electronics equipment, is it likely that you will come across price discrimination? ie should I be sending a taiwanese persion into the shop to buy things for me? (:
Is haggling on price in a reasonably modern Taiwanese shop? I know its not like hong kong were you have to walk away and make then chase after you, but still…? (:
If the price isn’t posted, they’ll likely try to get as much as they can. I wouldn’t call it discrimination, but a foreigner is more likely seen as a mark. These days though it’s easy to know what the price should be, just look online. These days it seems they know you’ll know as well and act accordingly. But I’d still make sure I knew before I made the purchase. As long as you know the price it doesn’t matter if you’re Taiwanese or not.
We should thank the Chinese tourists, who are the new waiguoren.
those tourists haggle and haggle, they want deep deep discounts on everything.
Waiguoren price discrimination?
It’s a world-wide phenomenon called the ‘Native English Speaker’s Tax’, or N.E.S.T.
The NEST varies widely from product to product, and from country to country. In the Middle East and North Africa, the NEST is rarely less than 100%. In Taiwan, the NEST is rigidly enforced for high ticket items such as real estate, consumer electronics and auto repair. For the tax-conscious consumer, NEST-free zones can be found in North America, Europe and Japan. The Internet is also generally considered to be a NEST-free zone, but there is some evidence of the NEST being charged to unsuspecting consumers.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed our brief discussion of the Native English Speaker’s Tax. For a more in-depth discussion of the NEST, please look for our book Escaping the NEST and our best selling followup, The Empty NEST - wherever fine books are sold.
I always check price first, online (PChome) … then I buy there or go out to a store, depending on the brand that’s available, for computers and parts I go from store to store starting a bidding war between the stores …
My wife has been trying to book a vacation package for us in Boracay or Phuket. The travel agents keep adding around $4000 NT to my price because I’m a foreigner.
There is a $4000 supplement they add for packages to Thailand for Taiwanese between a certain age because they are less likely to shop in the right places (ie places that kick back $ to the tour). They’re probably classing you in this same group.
There is a $4000 supplement they add for packages to Thailand for Taiwanese between a certain age because they are less likely to shop in the right places (ie places that kick back $ to the tour). They’re probably classing you in this same group.[/quote]
No, that’s not it. My wife is Taiwanese and the extra charge is for me because I’m a foreigner. The agents claim it’s standard practice throughout SE Asia. :fume:
Some places I just send my wife in by herself so they don’t get any ideas that they can inflate the price (:
I do get the impression that some shops it is just a fixed price for all, especially of course department stores and so on, but as for little shops, I am sure there is some form of price inflation going on! (:
I’ve walked out of quite a few shops in this country for giving me shitty service or dubious prices. I must also have been the bane of the Banana Pancake Trail because I did the same there, and on many an occasion, directly told people to stop lying to me and/or fucking with me. I got in plenty of arguments with corrupt border officials trying to shake me down (and openly called them corrupt, the cunts), and in some cases, stared them down for five minutes and refused to pay their bribes and just walked off, unlike the other white suckers ahead of me. Fuck 'em. They only get away with it because they can.
There is a $4000 supplement they add for packages to Thailand for Taiwanese between a certain age because they are less likely to shop in the right places (ie places that kick back $ to the tour). They’re probably classing you in this same group.[/quote]
No, that’s not it. My wife is Taiwanese and the extra charge is for me because I’m a foreigner. The agents claim it’s standard practice throughout SE Asia. :fume:[/quote]
They do add a surcharge to non-Taiwanese passport holders for tours in SE Asia because foreigners are less likely to buy things, aside from maybe small souvenirs like a snow globe, at duty-free shops from which they receive kickbacks. It really is an unfair penalty but when every crooked package tour company does it here they all think it’s fair.
i have never had any discrimination happen to me ever. but i always had basic chinese so ask them in chinese how much. if ti seems to much barter a bit. when i thnk something is up i get my wife to pretend to not be with me and listen in on everything.
the biggest things i get screwed with is people lying about things not being made in china…i dont buy anything from china that i cant help, and lots of people lie to get around that.
the travel thing i noticed before, so i just tell them i dont want a package, give me the price for just the tickets. i ahvent been on many tours organized through Taiwan, but hte ones i have are really lame…i dont go to thailand to spend all day seeing tortured crocodiles and looking at $100 purses made from said reptiles. its like paying to go look at advertisments or listen to promotional speaches. one thing i do like is that package tours are sometimes cheaper with hotel than just the plane ticket on your own online. this happened in Palau. ticket + resort was $100USD cheaper than if we bought an air ticket online. hit up those travel fairs and avoid CNY!
Strange. Something I have always liked about Taiwan is that I rarely, if ever felt I was being charged more than locals. A big contrast to China where even government run places often used to have 3 tier pricing for locals/overseas Chinese, other foreigners. I have experienced a couple of occasions when I felt people did not take me seriously as a potential customer, when I really was. Most notably when buying a car to the point that the idiot in the Mazda showroom that could have made the easiest sale ever basically insisted on ignoring me (I purchased a basically identical Ford the same day instead).
That I already spoke Chinese when I came here perhaps helped but also I think the mentality here is often foreigners don’t have money, they only come here to teach English because they are desperate (no, I don’t think that and I am not a teacher, I mean the attitude of many locals, especially outside of Taibei and tourist areas).
Wow, really? You find a lot of people find foreigners to be here because they need work? around here i find the opposite, foreigners (read: white) are often looked up to as some sort of supreme being (at first) with unlimited $.
BUt i too find that outsiders dont get ripped doff much. Especially in comparison to the rest of Asia!!! Place liek Malaysia are open about it…foriegners pay about double for damn near any entrance fee/tour etc. That is pretty standard throughout Asia as far as i have seen. It makes me feel better in places like malaysia its all posted on boards and not so “slimy” feeling…at least that way you can feel its a discount for locals, not fucking tourists.
Caucasians aren’t the only people to receive “special” pricing. As an ABC, I’m treated not completely as a local, and not completely as a foreigner. But, I do get my share of BS just the same. Back home in the states, I’ve only read about such discrimination in history books. I’ve always thought that MLK ended most of this racist BS a long time ago. The only way you buy things here for local price, is if you walk into the store, chew betel nut, and speak obnoxiously loud Taiwanese, and not Mandarin. I also forgot the last requirement. You must be light skinned, and not look aboriginal. Because even they receive some sort of “special” treatment here too.
That reminds me of the time I went to a “forest playground area,” or some such in Wulai. I was living in Xindian at the time, and got a discount because I was considered a local, compared to my friend who was born and raised in Taipei City. The discount was listed on the wall, and the ticket-seller smiled cheerfully while verifying my home address on my ARC. I think she actually felt good about being able to give a discount to a foreigner.
I’ve certainly never felt that foreigners get to pay higher prices here in the civilised north. There are people who will rip anyone off if they get the chance, but no more so than in other countries.
Mind you, I’ve met some Taiwanese who tell me that they don’t have to pay Maoman NT$5,000 a month to use Forumosa like I do. Is he ripping me off?
There is a $4000 supplement they add for packages to Thailand for Taiwanese between a certain age because they are less likely to shop in the right places (ie places that kick back $ to the tour). They’re probably classing you in this same group.[/quote]
No, that’s not it. My wife is Taiwanese and the extra charge is for me because I’m a foreigner. The agents claim it’s standard practice throughout SE Asia. :fume:[/quote]
Just encountered this for the first time. Girlfriend’s looking for short hotel/flight packages to Japan, and was told I’d have to pay a “foreigner” surcharge, though they couldn’t / wouldn’t tell us how much, claiming they had to check with the Japanese end.
Since the package is around 20K, I think a 4K surcharge will find my inner consumer resistance, never far from the surface anyway.
There is a $4000 supplement they add for packages to Thailand for Taiwanese between a certain age because they are less likely to shop in the right places (ie places that kick back $ to the tour). They’re probably classing you in this same group.[/quote]
No, that’s not it. My wife is Taiwanese and the extra charge is for me because I’m a foreigner. The agents claim it’s standard practice throughout SE Asia. :fume:[/quote]
Just encountered this for the first time. Girlfriend’s looking for short hotel/flight packages to Japan, and was told I’d have to pay a “foreigner” surcharge, though they couldn’t / wouldn’t tell us how much, claiming they had to check with the Japanese end.
Since the package is around 20K, I think a 4K surcharge will find my inner consumer resistance, never far from the surface anyway.[/quote]
Curious. If it’s just a hotel/airfare package, and not a tour group, then the “because you won’t shop and get us kickbacks” (already rather pathetic!) excuse doesn’t apply. Do they give any justification at all?
I haven’t encountered this myself, yet, and I’m a bit worried about how I’d react if it does happen. The video cameras are everywhere…