This sort of thing happens to Dominicans too. Case in point:
Several years ago we needed some electrical work done, Mr. AE asked around. At the same time, two guys showed up, each recommended by a different person. Mr. AE talked to them together, since they actually arrived within minutes of each other, and everyone agreed they would do the work together and split the money. One of them had a very engaging personality, and we took a liking to him. When we needed more work done, we called him. We found him trustworthy, inexpensive and good at what he did. He often called us Pa and Ma. His dad has a butchershop in the next town, and sometimes he'd show up with a package of meat as a gift, so we'd cook it up and all eat together.
Fast forward to this year. We got down there in January, and he came to say hello. He had asked for sneakers, and we had bought a pair for him. The maid was very disapproving of his familiarity [we found out later she was related to him somehow], and she reprimanded him [he's about 28-30, she's about 55-57] for asking me '"what do you have in your suitcase for me?" [I actually never heard him say that, but she swore he did]. He did more work for us over the 4 months we were there, lots of inverter trouble, did all the wiring to hook up a Generac generator, rewired part of the house, etc. We left and a month or so later got a call from a cousin who stays at the house on weekends that the new batteries in one of the inverters weren't working. Called the electrician, who came and said they were in bad shape and needed to be cleaned, etc., to see if they could be saved. Took the 4 batteries with him. Hooked the whole house up to the bigger inverter. After a month or so, no batteries returned, Mr. AE called him, angry about the time that had passed, and he let him have it over the phone. Well, his feelings were hurt because he got yelled at. He stopped answering the phone, didn't answer Facebook messages, etc. Sent someone to the house with 3 of the batteries, which were not working. These batteries were about 3 months old - we're pretty sure that he kept our 4 batteries and sent back 3 dead old ones from god-knows-where. So we bit the bullet and bought 4 new batteries from La Sirena, and traded in the 3 dead ones. [This time we had the cousin make a mark on the new batteries, so if this ever happens again we'll know we got back our own batteries]
Months pass. No contact from the electrician. He knows it's about time for us to come down again, I'm sure. Maybe he's having 2nd thoughts about what he did. He sends someone last week with the 4th battery. The cousin tells the person to take it back to the electrician, we don't want or need it. Remember, this is almost 5 months after he took the batteries out to work on them.
He has blown a good thing over a childish hissy-fit. Yes, Mr. AE told him off. He's one of those guys who lets things go for a long time before he explodes. In the boxes we're ready to ship are not one, but two pair of new Nikes that were bought for the electrician, and some baseball equipment for his little boy [small glove, balls, etc.]. He knows this, because Mr. AE told him back before all this happened.
Someone else down there will be very happy to get them, too bad that the sneakers are too small for Mr. AE.
A lot of Dominicans have that same mentality - they don't think about consequences, or tomorrow.