So, I've received a request for the story of under paying the bawwab. Well, you see, the story is much more than just a simple transaction carried out between two parties. Oh no, we'll have to start somewhere nearer the beginning of this one to really cover it well.
Transactions here aren't like in the US. Or, perhaps I should say, transactions in the US aren't like here. That's because buying and selling here is probably much like the rest of the world. What I mean is, when was the last time you had to haggle with someone? or barter? When was the last time you didn't feel like you had enough money to just pay whatever the man was asking for? When was the last time you doubted that the clerk was selling you the object at the listed sales price?
Generally speaking, in Egypt, if there isn't a price tag attached to it that's because the price is flexible. Which means the guy selling you the stuff wants to milk the transaction for all it's worth, which means you're going to want to do some haggling. Working off of the assumption that you the reader, whoever you are, are not Egyptian nor do you resemble one by looks nor habits, nor do you speak Arabic, nor do you look like you know what you're doing, here are some general guidelines for you when buying things in Egypt:
One, take whatever price you've been given and divide it by half. That's probably something close to what an Egyptian would be paying. Now you can reasonably shoot for paying something close to the middle of those two extremes. Some beautiful advice I heard in this regard was if you don't know how much the item costs, know how much you're willing to pay for it.
Two, don't buy at touristy locations - you're just asking to get ripped off.
Three, take an Egyptian friend with you - they act like a shield protecting you from those long fingers of the seller.
Four, ask about prices before you go shopping.
Five, just shop where they have price tags. You won't have to worry about any of the above, theoretically.
What does all of this mean for our new apartment here? Well, when we came to check out the apartment we sat down with the landlord to discuss prices. Thank Goodness that the director of the program was there to do the bargaining for us. So the landlord put forth the price of 3,000 EGP. We apparently weren't going to accept anything but 2,500 EGP as the price. So Robert just immediately dropped the price down to 2,500 and kept persistent at it until the landlord conceded, the latter probably knowing all along that was bound to happen in any case.
In any case, throughout the conversation we agreed to pay the bawwab a one time initial sum of 100 EGP. That's a sweeping reward for any bawwab! This was our first experience with this though and we were at the lead of Robert, so we agreed as he had. The important thing though is that the landlord mentioned during the course of these negotiations that after we pay that first month we would just be obliged to pay "something symbolic" each following month, mentioning about 10 or 20 EGP as being appropriate.
All of the above took place at the beginning of December.
Now it's January and only our second month here. So the bawwab's due came at the first and that's when he wished me a "kulla shahr wa anta tayyib" and that's when we paid him 20 EGP. The upper limit of the suggestion of our landlord and it wasn't done without forethought either. We consulted our Egyptian roommate, Hatim, who brushed off anything over 20 EGP as superfluous and I knew that another group of students pays 50 EGP for their bawwab. Whenever the topic is brought up their Egyptian roommate nearly shakes his head in disgust at having to pay that much. So 20 EGP seemed like a sure bet.
The landlord came by to collect rent at the first of the month too. He made sure to drop us the line though that the bawwab complained to him that we had only paid 20 EGP...!!! Hatim emphasized the fact that the only thing he does is carry the trash to the dumpster and that we could do that if necessary, no problem. I reminded the landlord of his telling us about 10 or 20 EGP a month. He didn't seem too accepting of these ideas, which was pretty frustrating. Turns out, this was one of those circumstances where the theme of the last blog entry is incredibly pertinent as well: reading between the lines. The only problem is sometimes it's hard to read like that until you skip over a line or two and then step on somebodies toes and then go back and review your lesson and see what subtleties were impossible for you to notice the first time around.
In closing, after about three or four days of what we saw as a noticeably dis-heartened bawwab, I snuck off and paid him an extra 30 EGP so as to lighten the situation. The only question remaining really is, what the heck are we going to do for the coming month?!
This entry dedicated to TC : )
p.s. - a note from the previous entry - gamid giddan = really awesome.
Transactions here aren't like in the US. Or, perhaps I should say, transactions in the US aren't like here. That's because buying and selling here is probably much like the rest of the world. What I mean is, when was the last time you had to haggle with someone? or barter? When was the last time you didn't feel like you had enough money to just pay whatever the man was asking for? When was the last time you doubted that the clerk was selling you the object at the listed sales price?
Generally speaking, in Egypt, if there isn't a price tag attached to it that's because the price is flexible. Which means the guy selling you the stuff wants to milk the transaction for all it's worth, which means you're going to want to do some haggling. Working off of the assumption that you the reader, whoever you are, are not Egyptian nor do you resemble one by looks nor habits, nor do you speak Arabic, nor do you look like you know what you're doing, here are some general guidelines for you when buying things in Egypt:
One, take whatever price you've been given and divide it by half. That's probably something close to what an Egyptian would be paying. Now you can reasonably shoot for paying something close to the middle of those two extremes. Some beautiful advice I heard in this regard was if you don't know how much the item costs, know how much you're willing to pay for it.
Two, don't buy at touristy locations - you're just asking to get ripped off.
Three, take an Egyptian friend with you - they act like a shield protecting you from those long fingers of the seller.
Four, ask about prices before you go shopping.
Five, just shop where they have price tags. You won't have to worry about any of the above, theoretically.
What does all of this mean for our new apartment here? Well, when we came to check out the apartment we sat down with the landlord to discuss prices. Thank Goodness that the director of the program was there to do the bargaining for us. So the landlord put forth the price of 3,000 EGP. We apparently weren't going to accept anything but 2,500 EGP as the price. So Robert just immediately dropped the price down to 2,500 and kept persistent at it until the landlord conceded, the latter probably knowing all along that was bound to happen in any case.
In any case, throughout the conversation we agreed to pay the bawwab a one time initial sum of 100 EGP. That's a sweeping reward for any bawwab! This was our first experience with this though and we were at the lead of Robert, so we agreed as he had. The important thing though is that the landlord mentioned during the course of these negotiations that after we pay that first month we would just be obliged to pay "something symbolic" each following month, mentioning about 10 or 20 EGP as being appropriate.
All of the above took place at the beginning of December.
Now it's January and only our second month here. So the bawwab's due came at the first and that's when he wished me a "kulla shahr wa anta tayyib" and that's when we paid him 20 EGP. The upper limit of the suggestion of our landlord and it wasn't done without forethought either. We consulted our Egyptian roommate, Hatim, who brushed off anything over 20 EGP as superfluous and I knew that another group of students pays 50 EGP for their bawwab. Whenever the topic is brought up their Egyptian roommate nearly shakes his head in disgust at having to pay that much. So 20 EGP seemed like a sure bet.
The landlord came by to collect rent at the first of the month too. He made sure to drop us the line though that the bawwab complained to him that we had only paid 20 EGP...!!! Hatim emphasized the fact that the only thing he does is carry the trash to the dumpster and that we could do that if necessary, no problem. I reminded the landlord of his telling us about 10 or 20 EGP a month. He didn't seem too accepting of these ideas, which was pretty frustrating. Turns out, this was one of those circumstances where the theme of the last blog entry is incredibly pertinent as well: reading between the lines. The only problem is sometimes it's hard to read like that until you skip over a line or two and then step on somebodies toes and then go back and review your lesson and see what subtleties were impossible for you to notice the first time around.
In closing, after about three or four days of what we saw as a noticeably dis-heartened bawwab, I snuck off and paid him an extra 30 EGP so as to lighten the situation. The only question remaining really is, what the heck are we going to do for the coming month?!
This entry dedicated to TC : )
p.s. - a note from the previous entry - gamid giddan = really awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment