A New DVD Player
Shopping in China can be a real pain for an ex-pat. It is bad enough to try to get by the language barriers, but then ya gotta put up with the odd ways of Chinese merchants.Yesterday I decided to break down and buy a new DVD player. So after I got here I purchased one for 180 RMB. That’s about $30. I guess that was too cheap. I finally realized a few weeks ago that something must be wrong. Now this took some investigation. I was noticing that most DVDs were stopping after about 1-½ hours. Now when all ya get here is copy DVDs, I at first just figured I got bad copies! (I have tried to buy originals – but they don’t even know what an original is here!)
Well, after several jammed in a row, I did a little trial and error with some other DVDs and concluded my little cheap unit just wasn’t doing too well anymore. It only seemed to have about an hour of good playtime. Is that when the reader is trying to read the small circles???
Anyway, back to my shopping experience. Off I went to a couple of stores. At the first, I immediately started quizzing to find a remote controller in English! That is a must. I’ve already got a lot of appliances that I can’t read! (Try that out folks!) Well, they found me a nice Sony with an all English remote controller. So next question, are the on screen menus in English? And sure enough, the salesman quickly had it switched to English! All right. Next question: “多少錢 “ or “duo shao qian” for “How much?” He told me: “500RMB”. Sounded good to me: “I’ll take it”.
Wow, that was good. And quick too. But……….. he took off to check something. I think he was going to a boss about the sale. As I waited, I realized the manual was not in English. Oh well, I could get by with the English controller and menus. But the wait became longer. Finally he showed up with some excuse that the computer wasn’t working and he couldn’t sell it to me!!?? I think that was one of those: “We need more money from the foreigner” excuses! I’ve seen it far too many times. You get a price agreed from a clerk, and then a manager realizes the clerk is talking to a foreigner and the price goes up. To say the least, I left!
Two more places and nothing. No English menus or remotes! I was really getting frustrated. Okay, one more big shopping center to try. I made my way several blocks and across one of these crazy streets where I practically ran across the street to not get run over.
Sure enough… they had a similar Sony unit. Even had a couple of other choices. Prices were well marked too. I even found PAL and NTSC choices (in case I want it to work in the US in the future). So I finally made my purchase. It cost a few more RMB than that first 500RMB quote. I really think the salesman at that first place misquoted poorly and couldn’t get out of it without just backing out entirely.
Well, next I had to go through the ordeal of paying. Now you
would think that would be simple. In America, we try to simplify that process and get ya out of the store. Not here. Too much distrust everywhere, so they break up all the functions in the store. First the salesperson had to write up the sale. He had to get it approved by a manager. Okay this time! Then I had to take that paper way across the store to a cashier and pay and get a stamped receipt. Then I had to bring that back to the DVD department to another person to get my player. After checking it carefully, another person wraps it for removal. And finally I got the player to walk out.I’ve had some situations where there is another stop of verification after that process at a stand near the entry. Always double-checking. At least the labor of all these people is cheap enough for them.
I’m now on a marathon catching up on the last hour of about a dozen movies I had not finished! Now, if I could just figure out how to get those English menus! I know there is a way, but I have to read Chinese to get it to change!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 4:13 PM
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