Friendship, Rm20 and Business Chinese style
Recently a friend asked me to get some goods from him. He promised me a good discount. I asked him the price and he said, ” Never mind. I will give you a good discount 
” That pleased me lots. After all friends are friends and we spend a lot of time together.
Later on, he gave me a 5% discount. After the 5% discount, it was still more expensive than his competitor without a discount. 
Later on he called me and said he lost the cheque and could I please cancel the cheque. I spent an hour driving to the bank, finding a parking space and then explaining to the bank and did all the relevant paper work. The bank charged me Rm20.00 for the service.
I then went over to see him and upon writing the cheque, I joked that I should deduct the Rm20.00 bank charge from the amount. Phi bin or literally translated his face changed. He got red in the face and said how disappointed in me he was bla bla bla. I almost lost a friendship for Rm20.00. We are still friends but there is an edge to our friendship now.
Moral of the story : A Chinese businessman never loses on a deal
Bengbeng | Miscellaneous, interesting characters
Do they charged if you just hold the cheque? Actually you can just call the bank you issue the cheque and ask them to just freeze it and issue another cheque instead. Freeze until the cheque is expired .. more than 6 months from the date kenot use dy
u know best
i think u should tell ur friend that u were charged 20Rm to cancel the cheque and he should reimburse u for it. if his friendship is any good he will do so. Form his reaction, getting so angry, u will be better off downgrading this friendship to an acquaintance. You may have thought he is a friend, but I think he thinks of u as a customer. Downgrade him to an acquaintance until he shows himself more worthy to be called a friend.
it is always best to have frens in life..
guess you can’t negotiate in a chinese style.
Bengbeng, you had been extremely kind to your friend.
I will never deal business with friends because they’ll most probably ‘eat’ you. This is just my experience based on my family ties with several friends over some renovation work.
Hahaha… But you have the right (And should) ask for the RM20 also la…
ur so nice la. I would hv ask for the rm20. He lost the cheque then takkan la u hv to pay rm20 on top of the price of the goods u bought. ridiculous
Bengbeng, this time hor 3 and 10 = 13!!
No, the moral of the story is never do business with friends! Friends and business don’t mix. I’ve seen with my dad, brother, even one incident that happened with me, I am talking through experience.
Ok, I shall try again and hope it goes through!
As they say, “When it comes to matters concerning money, you have no friends!” I kept telling my students that when they were in charge of collecting adverts for the school magazine. Go alone, collect alone…no need to go in groups! I gave them 10% expense allowance…and those who submitted the money in groups, I would pay them according to the total collected. Believe you me, they would end up fighting when they started distributing!!! Money is the root of all evil!
with friends lidat who needs enemy liao!
I agree with Judy. Should not do business with friends. Kind ppl like us *ahem* always lose out. But your friend is really bad le. I will be very piss off if happen to me but I think I will let him win this time. I doubt there will be a second time, unless I forgive and forget.
He is the one who is being calculative with you! Especially his 5% discount-which-is-not-a-discount!
Rephrase, only do business with good friends.