Then, in order to save face, they often choose to accept nothing and walk away rather than admit or be shown the error of their ways.
You do bring up a good point that there is no negotiations with these nuts. In most other cultures where they start ridiculously high (Thailand, Israel, Jewelery stores in the US, most places...) it is in order to begin negotiations and you can end up paying 10 percent of the initial quote. But IT IS DIFFERENT HERE. These guys won't negotiate and just walk away - either cheat you big time or no deal at all. And usually they will try to avoid giving what you paid for anyway, so no matter what you spend you won't get what you were looking for. I love the general statements about the DR in reply to specific instances. Like people steal everywhere. Yes, but not everyone steals everywhere. OK, now let's hear about the one Dominican who hasn't stolen from someone ... YET.
How about Gringos that become "Dominicanized" that steal from other Gringos, that is a thread of it's own.
I once rented a condo from a Gringo owner, and he doubled the electric usage for my monthly stay. I stayed in the same complex 9 -10 more times and every subsequent stay was 1/2 or less.
He no longer posts on dr1:surprised
If you give the average Dominican the chance to do the right thing, be honest or even remotely reasonable then you will always end up let down. I truely believe these people have no concept of the real meaning of respect, morality, honesty, they are a difficult people to live among. Not all, but a fukcing huge majority are absolute wasters in life and couldn't last 2 seconds anywhere else amongst a respectable society.
I've given up with them, odds against lotto on who your dealing with, and I can count good experiences over 10 years on 1 hand.
Just Paying it forward. I think when you are in the culture, it is you versus it. Usually the culture will win. Or maybe this person is in the DR because his morals/values match. The Gringos tend to fit into 2 categories, scammers and suckers. Pretty much the same categories as the Dominicans are in.
i think the whole world fits into the scammers and suckers framework. the problem arises when the scammers far outweigh all other types of people. the problem with scamming is that it depends upon taking the easiest way out, and that does not last forever. the problem with people here is that they have a keen sense of smelling out kindly people, and they invariably mistake kindness for weakness.
The archetype of "Kindness for Weakness" deserves a taxonomy all its own.
it is very simple, and can be easily proven, empirically. here?s how..
go into a chica bar. open a pack of cigarettes, and set it down on a table. invariably, one of them will ask you for a smoke. her friends will be watching the outcome. you give one to her, and two minutes later another will crawl over, asking for one. they will all come over, one by one, until you have an empty pack.
in certain societies, some of the girls would have been too embarrassed to ask for one, because they would have thought that you had already done your share by giving away four. it does not work that way here. the fact that you gave them away means you are a pendejo, and pendejos must be exploited, or you have failed to do your national duty.
95/5% isnt good enough. It must be 99/1% with you conceding all you have with no reciprocation at all...and you should be glad to have had been hustled too.
I would take the same approach with a small twist. I say no thanks and then mention I have another option that is much more reasonable.
They usually come back with a price match. Then I tell them if that would have been their original price I would have gladly hired them. However I now know that they will try and over charge me at any chance and I prefer to deal with people that quote me an honest price on first request.
Let them realize they screwed up. May not make a difference but at least I tried.
Perhaps she thought she was being gamed by the OP so returned the favour.
The word of the month "Taxonomy"...I like it.
I believe her price included blow jobs all around!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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When I bought my business cards here they included a blow job!!!!!!
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Actually SEVERAL!!!!!!!