Without The Bun: May 2010

Ive been really lazy with the posts, I tried writing one before but had trouble putting India into words or at least entertaining ones. Anyways 2nd attempt I want to write about the bargaining (con) techniques in India because it was the best/most frustrating Ive ever seen on my travels...

So there are three types of opening techniques I saw while traveling in India: 1. the upfront 2. the quick friend and 3. welcome to my family approach. The upfront consists of simply saying hello to you as you are walking past, asking you if you want to buy something and inviting you to come in. If you say no they might follow you for a while, tell you that looking is free and then move into the second approach (the quick friend). So you say no right away but then they change the subject, where are you from? they will ask, where are you going? what have you seen? If you answer anything that gives them another opening they will try to sell you something else. You say you are going 4km away to see a fort and they will try to get you a taxi or rickshaw, you say your going to eat and they will try to take you to a restaurant. If you want a train or bus they will immediately try to put a joker hat on your head and march you in a parade on the way to a travel agent.

This is because India is like a connected market, if someone gets you to go somewhere they get a commission. Its an amazing thing how they work together to make deals informally. We tried to get a taxi once in Udaipur and the driver said no to our price (was overcharging us double on his offer) so we went to another car and asked how much, quickly in Hindi he tells the other driver to say a price above the one he offered so we will think he is giving us a fair deal. All working together. As much as it was frustrating for us the entire trip to have to hassle so much and sometimes overpay because we were western it was something to see.

Some people would skip the first two approaches and go for the third which has a bigger pay off in the long run. They will be incredible nice to you from the start and hold back saying anything about a sale for a long time. Maybe a whole conversation will go buy, they will tell you about their family, how other people in the city will try to scam you and to be careful. Then after a while and they think you trust them because they've acknowledged how the game works but that they aren't a part of it...they will throw in the sales pitch. I had two guys come up to me and ask me why westerners don't like to talk with Indian people. I started talking with them and told them its because when you are a westerner people are always trying to sell you something here or cheat you out of money so you dont know who to trust. We talked about this for a while and then as we were leaving he tries to get me to go to an iron making factory with him and his friend. It was disappointing, but revealing.

It is understandable that the people in India try to take westerners for more money, we can afford it there and they are so much poorer. However it is really frustrating mentally to know you are constantly being ripped off, or trying to be ripped off. It almost becomes a matter of pride rather than price. I told Taelor that if I was to run a business I'd send my employees to India to learn negotiation and Japan to learn service, because they are both at the top of their games.

Over a long time in India you do save a lot by haggling, and if you dont you will end up losing a lot over the long run. We probably saved a few hundred dollars over the course of two weeks. Every trip I go on I try to bring home a painting and haggling saved me about $150 on it. I probably still overpaid.

There were people that were nice to us on the trip without trying to make a sale. We got a ride from restaurant owner we met, met many people on trains and buses who just wanted to talk and India families also traveling. It was a mixture of encounters, either way the negotiations were interesting, frustrating and sometimes funny but overall something amazing to experience in India.