I had arrived into Hội An, Vietnam, the day before via the infamous Hải Vân Pass on a motorbike. The Homestay I was staying at for the next several days let me use their motorbike to explore the outer areas of the village. But I needed to fill up the tank with petroleum first.
I was stoked about my adventure for the day. First the beach and then into the countryside to see some remote temples! I stopped at the first petrol station I passed and the Vietnamese pump attendant, probably in his 40s, motioned me over to the petrol pump where he was filling another motorbike.
He finished pumping petrol for the bike in front of me and the driver gave him cash. He hung up the fuel nozzle onto the pump to reset the meter and I told him (well, I motioned) to fill up the empty tank. So he proceeded to fill up my fuel tank.
During my journey yesterday, I had to fill up my motorbike’s fuel tank three different times along the 165 kilometer scenic mountain drive to Hội An. So I knew a full tank of petrol cost around 60,000 Vietnamese dong.
After the petrol attendant filled up my tank, he asked for 130,000 dong. Huh? 130,000? That is more than double the price of one full tank. These small motorbikes can’t even hold that much petrol.
I looked at the petrol attendant in disbelief and said “no way”. He didn’t speak English so speaking wasn’t going to work. He pointed towards the cost on the actual pump and showed 130,000 dong. But at that moment, I realized that he never actually hung up the nozzle on the pump to reset the cost of the bike before mine. The 130,000 dong cost was the bike before me plus my bike. Tricky!
How could this guy look at me with a straight face and ask for double the cost? He must have thought I had no clue what the price of petrol was and felt he could scam me.
I waved my finger back and forth and shook my head. I looked over at the other petrol attendant that didn’t know what was going on and pointed at the petrol machine, trying to signal that his fellow attendant was trying to rip me off. The other attendant held up a 50,000 which made more sense to me, and I agreed with him (I felt that I had someone on my side). But how was I going to convince my attendant that this was the honest price.
The two petrol attendants said something to each other in Vietnamese and the honest attendant walked away, as if he was just going to let his co-worker scam me.
My second defense was to look other local customers who were now queuing and point to the cost on the gas pump. They all just turned away like they had something else to tend to.
“Thanks for the help people,” I thought.
I adamantly said “no” to the attendant so he grabbed a plastic jug that was strategically placed behind the pump and began siphoning petrol out of my tank.
“Is this seriously happening?” I said out loud. Of course the guy had no clue what I was saying.
But while this shady petrol attendant was slowly siphoning fuel out of my motorbike, it gave me some time to calm down, breath and think what my next option was. I thought to myself I have enough fuel to get me to the next petrol station near the beach. So I let the guy siphon out my gas. I think he wanted some reaction out of me like “oh please don’t take out the gas. I will pay the price you gave me.” But I just stood there calmly watching what was transpiring.
As the petrol siphoned out through the clear tube, I began to see the plastic jug fill up and I thought that he was going to take all of my fuel. I arrived with a small amount of petrol but after what happened, I feared he was going to take everything from the tank and I would be stranded, forced to pay this guy.
I gestured him to stop siphoning. And I motioned to him (because he speaks no English so I had to make my most revealing hand gestures) that I arrived with a small amount of petrol and he can’t take what I arrived with. He ignored me. I tried to motion to him several times but he didn’t care. He was going to take all of my petrol.
By this time, the other petrol attendant came back and bumped into me. It wasn’t an accident. He was threatening me in a way to leave the “process of what was happening” alone.
Absolutely not! I decided since there were now many locals watching what was happening (sort of like “indirect security”), that by me removing the siphon on my own made sense. I quickly crafted the plan in my head and executed it. I boxed out the guy who was much smaller than me and was blocking me from my bike, pulled out the siphon (fuel went everywhere), slammed my seat back down, started up my bike, and rode off as the petrol attendant was yelling something in Vietnamese at me. Bye!!
Huge eye roll! I was so annoyed and upset that these guys were trying to take advantage of me as a tourist (and that no local tried to help me). I was disappointed at how dishonest the workers were without even flinching like it was just another day at work.
As I rode away, I realized that I had a quarter of a tank of gas, much more than I had before stopping by the petrol station. I didn’t do this intentionally but felt like I had to make sure the guy didn’t take all of my fuel. And I felt like this was a little retribution after that experience.
…..
Later in the afternoon after getting ripped off at the petrol station (I found another petrol station at the beach and they were honest), I drove my motorbike out into the countryside to visit the beautiful Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary. It was late in the afternoon when I arrived at the historic temples and I was the only tourist around. No lines or crowds which was a great feeling!!
When I arrived, a guard motioned for me to park in the covered, gated parking area. I motioned to him that I wanted to buy my entrance ticket first at the ticket booth. I purchased my ticket and asked the woman at the window how much parking was. She said it was 5,000 dong.
After purchasing my entrance ticket, I rode my bike over to the parking area. In Vietnam, the parking situation works like this: you park, they give you a parking ticket with no price listed anywhere, you go explore and then you come back to pay for the parking as you leave.
But I have quickly learned that you find out the price beforehand in case you need to negotiate. When I arrived at the parking area, I asked the parking attendant what the cost was. He said it was 10,000 dong.
He was charging me double what the cost was. Thank goodness I had spoken with the ticket agent beforehand. I shook my head, pointed behind me and said “she said it was 5,000” and handed the 5,000 dong bill to him since I had it ready. He gave me this annoyed look and took my money.
QUICK TIP: I have learned that when in a situation where you know the price / value, hand over the money and then just keep moving on, avoiding any negotiation. If you only give them the value and walk away, there isn’t much they can do.
…..
If you have read my article “The Range of Emotions of a Long Term Solo Traveler”, you read about me getting scammed in Bali and all of the feelings associated with an experience like that. A similar situation happened in Cần Thơ, Vietnam, with the app “Grab” (this company just purchased Uber in Southeast Asia). You can order a motorcycle taxi which is the cheapest option.
After dinner one evening, I decided to order a Grab motorcycle since it was very hot outside and I didn’t want to walk back to my hotel due to the distance. I ordered the moto and the app showed me that the driver was on his way. I was excited to try out the moto option for a taxi ride.
However I noticed that the driver icon on the app started moving away from me. I thought maybe the driver was avoiding traffic to get to me. But then I realized the driver was actually heading to my destination…. without me!
The driver had clicked in the app that he picked me up and he was driving to my destination without me. My calming breathing techniques kicked in and I quickly realized there wasn’t much I could do to change the situation. But I needed to get some proof of what was happening so I could try to get my money back since my credit card would immediately be charged when the driver clicked the app that he successfully dropped me off.
I sent a message to the driver through the app so there would be documentation that I was not with the driver while he was on my route. I also took screenshots of my map with the time and where I was located and took a screenshot of where the driver was at the same time. When the driver ended the ride, I gave him 1 out of 5 stars and also sent a complaint to the corporation knowing that Grab will ask me why I rated the driver so low.
I sent in a complaint message to Grab about my experience asking for a full refund. Over the next couple of days they gave me a credit voucher but I said I wanted a refund, which they eventually gave to me.
After the situation occurred, I figured that was a sign that I was meant to walk back to my Homestay. I needed to work off the two beers I had at dinner! Always searching for the positivity in every situation.
…..
GETTING SCAMMED AS A TRAVELER IS INEVITABLE
As a traveler, it is inevitable that you will experience situations like those above. Situations where you are ripped off just because the other people know that you most likely don’t know any different and you will probably pay the quoted price without hassle. And sure, many travelers may not know what is occurring or some may not even care if they do know what is happening.
But after traveling for a while, these situations can be additive to the feelings you experience as travel continues. You don’t forget “that time when….” (Because the stories above are just a few of many). While you may temporarily forget about the situation, the next time you get ripped off, your frustration grows and builds upon your last experience. If you are anything like me, your frustrations begin to show. And when you combine a frustrating moment with a language barrier, the level of frustration is amplified!
NOT TRUSTING GENUINE PEOPLE WHEN YOU FIND THEM
What do all these additive scam experiences do to your reaction when you find genuine locals who really want to help and you don’t initially trust? For example, when I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I met a driver, Sokra, who was a really sweet guy and had built a nice business for himself over the past five years by word of mouth referrals. I would later learn that he has made enough to move his family of three out of the one room apartment they were renting and afford to buy a small single family home in a decent part of town.
I met Sokra as a driver when a large group of us wanted to drive out to a waterfall a good distance from town. He was attentive to everything we needed and made sure we were all comfortable. And he was very knowledgeable about local tips and history. If he didn’t know the answer to some of our questions, he would call up a friend who would know.
Over the next several days, I wanted to organize a private tour with him but I didn’t know how much this would cost me. I did research online for typical all-day fees for drivers in the area so I would have some initial cost information to go off of. When I was texting him, he gave me a price that seemed sort of high at the time. My immediate instinct after having gone through the situations listed above (and many others that I didn’t write about) was to doubt his price. I instantly felt like I was getting scammed. Here we go again!
With my negotiation hat on, I began to use the haggle tactics that I have learned to get the price down as far as I could go. After much back and forth on WhatsApp, Sokra did slightly lower the price, but not very much saying that he is already giving me a great price, factoring in fuel and time involved. During my “create silence by not responding to maybe show I was willing to walk away” tactic, I spent about 30 minutes online trying to get more data points about costs. But I realized that Sokra was in the ballpark of other drivers and probably a little lower. I decided to hire Sokra as my driver for the next three days.
SCAMS CREATE INSTINCTUAL HAGGLING RESPONSE
But its interesting that my instinct immediately went to “I am getting scammed”. I think I am a fair and a decent human being. I felt bad that I pushed back as hard as I did with Sokra. However, I looked back at all the dishonest experiences that I have gone through and unfortunately they have trained me to be skeptical. My trust as a traveler has eroded. I often wonder if the people you are haggling know that you have been through many haggling experiences in the past which has eroded your trust?
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
What should you do when you think you are getting ripped off? The answer to this question depends on the situation. Here are some things to think about:
- RELATIVITY. If you are able to, stop and think for a second how much you are really haggling for. Sometimes you are haggling for pennies and it probably isn’t worth your time or energy. But I would agree that any amounts higher than USD $2-3 is worth negotiating.
- COMPETITION AND SCARCITY. This could be common sense but sometimes when in the moment, we forget about certain things like “I could easily get what I want down the street”. For example, if you are negotiating a tuk tuk (taxi) ride and know you can easily find someone who will take you down the street, then just walk away. But if its 4am and the only taxi driver in the area is charging you double the price to take a ride to the airport, you may not have a choice but to pay the rate so you don’t miss your flight and chalk the situation up to part of the travel experience. The stress involved in missing your flight isn’t worth the $5 you were scammed.
- NEGOTIATING OR SCAM. When you are buying an item at a market or a finding a tuk tuk ride, it is obvious that the cost can be negotiated. In these cases, a negotiation is almost expected. However, in the story I described above about the petrol attendant blatantly ripping me off, this is certainly a scam, and one I feel is necessary to protect yourself (and future travelers). When assessing the relativity, sure it may make sense to just ignore what is happening. But in the situation of the petrol attendant, I felt the need to protect myself for the scam that was occurring.
QUICK TIP: While walking away is a common negotiation tactic, smiling and silence/pausing are also great tactics! Or if you know you want to purchase more than one item, haggle only one item at the beginning, and then introduce the other items later in the negotiation as a bundle deal, lowering the price even further.
DON’T HAVE TO WIN AT ALL COSTS
If you are like me (or I guess like I was), you don’t like losing, even if the item is inexpensive. Its like a game that just started. And when you get into the haggling situations, its almost as if your willpower (and ego) take over to “win”. And in this process, you quickly lose sight of what is really important.
One thing that I have learned along my journey is that the person you are haggling with most likely needs the money more than you do. And I have stopped to realize the differential amount that I am haggling is so minimal (in most situations).
Sure, I do like a good haggle every now and again, but my travel experiences have helped me know when to engage and when not to engage. But, unfortunately this does not change my initial instinctual reactions of “I am getting scammed”. I am sure this will always be the case for travelers forever. But my advice is to just stop and assess the situation before launching into unneeded energy spent.
I am curious to hear from you. What is your story about getting ripped off? How did you handle it? What negotiation tactic did you use?
Whew! You’ve become such a savvy traveler…we could have used your help a couple of summers ago when we had a disastrous taxi ride in Italy 🙂 Here’s the story: http://www.amykannel.com/2015/11/portici-to-bomerano-great-taxi-disaster.html