You Bought It, You Own It
Moving to a new country and culture requires making some adjustments. You’re used to doing things a certain way, and you move to a place like the Philippines and you discover that people here have their own ways of doing things, and they’re different.
One of the differences has to do with shopping. On the surface, it doesn’t seem all that different from America. There are malls, they have stores, they sell stuff. But one thing they don’t usually do is let you return things. In the U.S., most large retailers will give refunds on just about anything, no questions asked. You buy a coffee maker at Walmart or an electric drill at Home Depot, you can bring it back for a refund, even if it works perfectly.
Not here. Different system. On most items purchased at the larger stores, the usual warranty period is one week, and you’ll have to convince a manager that the item was actually defective. Smaller stores, once you walk out of the store, whatever may be wrong with the item is your problem.
In pretty much all stores, with anything electrical, it’s customary for the store clerk to take the item out of the box, plug it in, and show you that it’s working. That makes it hard for anyone to claim that an item was defective at the time of purchase.
It isn’t too hard to see why things work this way. Customers want low prices. In this part of the world, bargain-priced goods probably started life in a Chinese factory somewhere and passed through several hands before arriving on a store shelf. Walmart may manage its supply chain tightly enough to be able to make manufacturers take back returned goods, but with a lot of the items sold here, it would probably be impossible even to figure out who the manufacturer was.
You want those low prices, you take your chances. It usually isn’t a huge problem. I’ve bought plenty of inexpensive electrical things here, many of them costing considerably less than what Walmart charges for comparable items. The only one that has quit working so far is a computer mouse, and it was a well-known international brand.
But you do eventually learn to check things before you buy them.
Case in point: I was looking for a USB hub for my computer, and I needed one with a long wire since I was trying to position the Globe Tattoo internet dongle at the one spot in our house where there’s a good signal.
I went to the mall and shopped around, and the best I could find was one with a 1.5 meter wire (see the picture). It was late, the store was about to close, the USB hub was in one of those sealed plastic packages that require a cutting torch to open, so I didn’t bother to open it.
Naturally, it turned out that the manufacturer’s idea of 1.5 meters was 39 inches (see the other picture), which is actually most people’s idea of 1.0 meters, not quite the same.
No big deal, it was only a few hundred pesos, and I’ll use it for something else. But it illustrates the point: here, it’s customary to check what you’re buying before you leave the store, and make sure you’re getting what you think you’re getting.
All this may seem a bit backward and inconvenient at first, but I’ve decided that the system here is actually preferable.
Here’s why: under the American system, you’re essentially getting an insurance policy, in the form of a right to return things for any reason or no reason. That insurance isn’t free – it costs the stores money, and they add those costs to the prices. You’re in effect paying, in the form of higher prices, for all the people who buy clothes that they wear for a weekend and then return, the shoplifters who steal expensive items and then return them for cash, the people who decide after a week or so that they can’t really afford the item or they can get it cheaper somewhere else. And you get to pay for that insurance whether you want it or not.
Under the Filipino system, in general, you insure yourself. Consequently, most people are more careful to be sure of what they’re getting, and to take care of things once they’ve bought them. But as a result, you get lower prices than you would get if stores had to subsidize American-style return behavior.
So as usual with these cultural things, the Filipino system isn’t inferior. It’s just different.
Thanks for the article, Jack.
That’s an interesting take on initial cost versus a liberal return policy. I also agree that it makes me think twice about buying something here knowing I can’t return it. I had no problem “trying” things on the States, if I knew it was easily returned.
Where it really concerns me though is with items of larger cost. Not being able to return an expensive item is not reasonable. Sure a lot of those have warranties but what I’m learning is you better make sure there is a service center in Davao for that company, or you will be paying a lot of money and waiting a long time for a repair.
Say I was wondering I would like to start a small business here in the Philippines. I have lived here since Oct 2009. I have tried the Internet Cafe thing but there is just no profit in it, by the time you pay for space, electric, ink, paper, and replace worn parts. Just didnt work out for me here. So if anyone has a suggestion or two just send me an email. I live in Borongan City Eastern Samar. Thanks…..
Hi Mike – I think most would advise against starting any business here. That said the ones that I know that have been successful:
1) Online business where you sell, consult or do work for those overseas.
2) Teaching English. There is a big need for this both locally and online. Japanese and Korean both have a real interest in learning English and you can do that online. Don’t expect great wages unless you are able to secure some private students willing to pay a premium.
3) Restaurants. Most restaurants fail anywhere, but I have seen a few foreign succeed here. You most likely would need to have a background in the industry and be willing to work it yourself. Even still you’d need the right location, quality food, and pricing.
Randy, thanks for your reply. Teaching English sounds good but the only problem is that I didn’t do well in school in English as far as sentence structure, punctuation. I mean I can speak it very well if that’s all it takes. So what do you think….Mike C.
There is a fairly large market for “conversational” English to be taught to Koreans and Japanese. Typically the pay for that is not quite as high.
I believe most of the English being taught here falls under that category, because most of the teachers do not have degrees or advanced education in English. There are some teaching more advanced, but that is not as common.
There is getting to be a lot of competition in this area though. But so far there seems to be more interest from students than there are teachers.
So after being hit by the Starex and being invited to tell my side of the story down the Nick (that’s the Police Station, to non-Brits), I drove my scooter to the main dealer between G-mall and V-mall. I was very lucky as, by chance, the importer’s mechanic was down from Manila and for no cost he gave the scooter the once over to ease my fears that the frame might have been twisted by the impact.
But I did need a new rear mudguard (known as a fender, here), as the original was broken and twisted. Before my very eyes, a call was put through to the main office in Manila and I was told that the fender would arrive the following week. What great service, I thought.
Two and a half months later, there is still no sign of the fender. And as for getting a routine service for the scooter from any of the franchised dealers in Davao (and Samal)…
It amounts to an oil change and…er… that’s it. One time I visited two of the three dealers to find that they didn’t have any mechanics. One of the dealers telling me: “Let’s try next Saturday.”
Let’s try?
You know a lot more about bikes than me, but I get the impression that everyone takes theirs to the multitude of local mechanics/freinds that are prevalent. That would be a little scary to me, as I woulsn’t know one from the other, but there do seem to be some talented people out there.
That said, it can be quite costly finding the right one. My latest carpenter project is a lesson learned in that regard.