Being stupid can have it’s advantages! Don’t you think? What, you don’t understand what I am talking about? OK, let me explain.
Here in the Philippines, like in probably most countries, if a foreigner does something that is odd or different, local people often excuse the behavior because they understand that he just doesn’t know the local custom. Most likely, he is doing something that way it would be done “back home” and thus he is not really stupid, but rather ignorant of the way things are done here. If you are a foreigner, you can actually use this to your advantage. Let’s look at one example and see how.
The way that banking works here in the Philippines is that you get together your transaction and hand it to the teller when you arrive at the bank, then you go have a seat in the lobby of the bank. When a teller takes your transaction out of the pile, it is your turn, and she will call you to the counter. This might be only a few minutes, but sometimes you go in the bank and there may be 50 or more people sitting there waiting their turn. In this case, you might have to wait for an hour or more for your turn. Now, I don’t know about where you are from, but back in the States, when you go in the bank, you just queue in line and when you reach the teller, she processes your transaction immediately. So, it is done differently here. Being the “stupid foreigner” could work to your advantage in this situation.
If I am in a hurry, and want to transact immediately with the bank, I will enter the bank, go to the teller window and put down my transaction papers on the counter. The teller will invariably tell me, “Sir, have a seat.” My response, “Oh, I am not tired, thank you.” And I just continue to stand there. The teller is obviously uncomfortable, and she resigns herself to the realization that – “Oh, he is a foreigner, he doesn’t understand how we do it here.” So, in order to just get me out of her hair, she takes care of my transaction and sends me on my way! I have just successfully played the “Stupid Foreigner.”
Now, honestly, I don’t do this often any longer. I used to, though. You see, I have learned to do it the way that successful Filipinos do it, and that method actually saves me more time than my method! And, that method is that I just send somebody to take care of the transaction for me! I give all the paperwork to one of my employees and tell them to go to Bank “X” and take care of it. They will, of course, sit their turn in line and transact in the proper method. I have no hassles, because I don’t even have to go to the bank.
The “stupid foreigner” trick can be used in many instances, not just banking. And, sometimes being stupid can have huge advantages, too! 😉
Thanks for the information. This will spare me a lot of frustration when I go into a bank for the first time when I move there.
Please Please Please tell me, that is not how they do it ! actually I am playing stupid also, as we did go to the bank together, and i was told to sit down, actually I said "I dont want to sit down, as I am not applying for anything ?" what I meant was, there is no need for me to sit, as I dont want a mortgage, a loan, or a credit card, I just came to change money, but sit down I had to, until called forward, that is one weird system if you ask me, but its what they do, great article as always Bob.
Hi Peter – yep, that's how the system works here. It drives me nuts! However, just choosing to let somebody else go to the bank and take care of my business is a good solution. I can keep my sanity, get my banking done and not get angry at the bank! It works!
Hi Gary – Glad to be of assistance!
very interesting ,i didnt know that thanks for the info bob …i asume they dont have a drive up window either lol
Drive up window? Ha ha… you are a real funny guy, Ken! 😯
Just wondering Bob, do the banks have internet banking, i.e. can I pay my bills, transfer between accounts, send someone some money, and how do the ATM card work, I dont carry cash anywhere here, everything right down from a carton of milk, a newspaper and a loaf of bread goes on my card, card swiping is so easy here in UK, even if its £2.00 it still goes on the card, how does it work there ? whats your experiences.
Oh and something else I thought of Bob, do the supermarkets, have self serve isles ? i.e. you take your own goods, use the bar code swipes, and serve yourself, put the goods in the bagging area, hit the screen, put your card in the swipe reader, and just pay, with your pin code, then walk out the store, has that arrived in Philippines as yet ? its just a question hahahahah
Hi Peter – There are a few banks that have Internet Banking, but very few. And, the services they offer are very limited. ATM service is very unreliable. Swipes of your card at a checkout line? No way!
Serve yourself aisles in the stores! No way! Half the items in the store would be stolen in the first hour, and the store would be shut down! Even being able to swipe your card at a store for payment doesn't happen here. In the Philippines, CASH is king.
I have not encountered anywhere I can swipe my card. I can pay by card at places in the mall but it is not as simple as it is here in the States. The closest has been the Hypermart in SM Clark. When my fiancee and I are staying in Angeles City, we always go to Hypermart to buy groceries for our hotel room so we don't have to pay 50p for a coke. I just hand them my credit card, they swipe it, I sign, and out the door we go. I also pay by credit card for movies at the Astrovision store in the mall too but that is not as simple a process as Hypermart. My fiancees family now has a movie collection that is even bigger than mine. LOL
Overall, CASH is certainly king in the Philippines. I have a good friend living in Angeles City and he pays cash for practically everything including his electricity, internet and cable tv. The Hypermart and the SM department store have counters set up where you can pay those bills at one place. There is no automatic charge to your credit card or debit from your bank account like I enjoy in the States. Even if there was, I doubt I would take advantage of it as I would be too concerned about security.
If ATMs are unreliable and cash is king. How do you get cash if your money is in your bank account in your mother country? Me personally I would be very wary of having my card swiped there because of the obvious security risks, ive had my card cloned last year in the uk and would think there is a large sick of it happening there?
If cash is king how do you get cash if you only have a card?? And ATMs are not to be trusted?
I was just thinking Bob, what about "Sonic"? when I am on hols in the States, I really love Sonic, there is nothing nicer than driving off the highway and pulling into a sonic, eating outside, and then driving off, go on you will tell me , there is no sonic !! hahahaha, thanks for the information, so I banking is out, ATM swiping is out, so its cash society hehehe. I asked my wife Gina why is honey that they dont have tissue paper in the toilets, and honey where is the hand cleaner, she said to me "Honey you cannot expect them to put in Free tissue paper, if you want it, you have to buy your own, I said, but when you shop in our malls here in UK, you have the privilidge of nice clean facilities, in fact they are immaculate, you said it yourself, and there is plenty of tissue paper, and scented hand cleaner, she said, I agree, but they will steal the hand cleaner machine in minutes, and take home the tissue rolls, and they cannot afford to keep putting it in, so there you have it !
Hi Gary – we are like your friend in A.C., we pay cash for almost everything too. On some bills I do write checks off of my Philippine bank account, just so that I have a paper trail to prove the bill has been paid, though.
Graham – your question is an important one and deserves more than just an answer in a comment. I will make a full post about it today.
Peter – Actually, I am surprised that there is Sonic in the UK! I thought it was strictly American. Now I wonder if they started out in the States or in the UK. And, regarding your question….. no, there is nothing like Sonic here. Regarding your whole line of discussion, whenever these kind of situations pop up like no toilet paper, no sonic, etc…. Feyma and I always say the same thing – "Welcome to the Philippines!"
Public comfort rooms in the Philippines make me baliw. The first time I encountered it was, of course, after it was too late. I am yelling at my friend who is laughing uncontrollably. He finally shared his stash with me but not until he was done thouroughly enjoying my discomfort.
Now, I want to wash my hands but – insert drum beat – there was no hand cleaner or paper towels – cymbal crash.
Now, not being a total dummy, I always take a small pack of flushable baby wipes with me before I head across the Pacific. They fit nicely into my pocket so I won't get caught with my pants down once again. 🙄
Gary, haha looks like you and I and Bob and many others have travelled the same road, maybe Bob should do a post on it, public comfort rooms are an eye opener, I said to my Gina, you are the most hygienic women in the world, hahaha, so how is it, no tissue paper in the comfort rooms and most importantly no hand cleaner, as Gary says, a pack of small baby wipes, and tube of hand cleaner in Gina's handbag, is the solution, she knows I go ballistic when I go into the comfort rooms and this happens, sometimes I storm out and say, 'This place is disgusting and I wont use it" even with 2 guys with mops doing the floor, the places still stink to high heaven, you expect this in a back street of a inner city area, not a plush designer shopping mall.
davao does have mcdonalds and kfc but no drive up windows……what really got me was the people standing outside the comfort rooms selling toilet paper..like bob and feyma say welcome to da philippines!
Hi Ken – Actually, Davao has two drive up windows when it comes to fast food places. I was talking about banks before.
McDonalds in Bajada and Jollibee in Matina Crossing both have drive through windows!
Peter – Sorry, I mis-read your post about Sonic. Now I see that you were talking about Sonic in the USA. Sorry about that! And, BTW, I am indeed planning to do a post about public bathrooms. Expect that next week!
I always take those rolls of compressed tp that I get in Target here in the us to when I go to the pi. The best bathrooms I have found were in Shakeys pizza parlor. The worst are in Gasino. At the airport in manila they always hand me a roll of tp and hope I give them a tip on the way out.
Good Idea, Don!
Now that is funny. Kept me rolling in the isle for a minute or two.
Hi Wayne – Hey…. a man's got to do what a man's got to do, right?
The system at the bank Bob has mentioned, isn't it the same as queueing up in line? Perhaps the only difference is that you are seated while you wait for your turn, which is better than standing up, right?
The bank that I used to transact in Manila does not have seats, we just queue in line standing. Maybe that bank in Davao used to have this kind of system, but perhaps their volume of transactions/customers increased, so they thought of providing seats for their customers while they wait(though the best solution should have been to provide more teller and/or a faster efficient system).
Anyway, I think playing "stupid" is unfair to the people who have waited/seated, and they might get bad impressions of you. And instead of branding you "stupid", some may instead brand you as arrogant, impatient, hot-headed, etc.
Playing stupid with traffic police works though. 😀
Hi Dex U. – Actually, it's been years since I've done that. This post is old, but was just reposted to the benefit of newer readers.
In the States, there would never be a time when you would have to stand in line for more than 2 or 3 minutes. Here, there are sometimes 60 or more people waiting in the chairs. My wife has gone there at times and waited for 2 hours. I just don't have time for that. And, as I said in the article or the comments above, that is why I don't go to the bank any more.
Good luck to you, Dex U.
Hi Bob,
Ken got a kick when we went to the bank in Davao one time. While waiting, we were offered the paper to read, coffee and the bank officer (whom I knew) just started chatting with us. It felt more like a social call than a bank transaction! Only in the Philippines! 😀
Hi Tina – When we lived in GenSan, I was well known there, and when I went to the bank, I was taken to the Manager's office, and they would ask if I wanted juice or coffee. By the time I finished drinking my refreshment, my transaction would be complete. That was the life! 😆
Hi Bob
Just so I know I am not imagining it, didn`t you run this article a little while ago?
All the best
Malcolm
Bob,
If I were in the Philippines I can just play stupid and they'll believe me if I say "No speak English." But of course, you can't use that there, no one will believe you. But they might believe me, I'm Pinay.
I get that all the time here, more than I care to. It drives me nuts and it really makes me think that here, they are really playing stupid sometimes when they do that. Let's say they just don't want to do more work than the required minimum. I think the level of customer service has declined in the US. But that's not your topic though I can't help but throw that in.
Hi Malcolm – Yes, in one of the previous comments I said that this article is being re-published for the benefit of new readers.
Hi angie – Sorry to hear that customer service in the USA is in decline! I hope it doesn't suffer too much.
Banking in many Pacific-rim locales mirrors that in the Phils.
While living in Okinawa, a trip to the bank meant placing money and/or documents into a little basket, handing the basket to the teller (the beginning-of-process teller), and having a seat until either your name was called or the end-of-process teller waved you up to the counter. If no other customers or very few others are waiting, transactions are performed by the end-of-process teller immediately before he/she calls you back to the counter. If there's a crowd of customers, the transactions were performed by intermediate tellers who handed their finished work to the end-of-process one.
At first I thought this was inefficient, but soon learned that the time I spend waiting in a chair was a lot shorter than time spent in some of the bank lines I "had preferred" to standing in.
As to cash being king–Amen! My wife and I have developed a good method of staying liquid: we've befriended the owner of a small but reliable money exchange business. The owner will accept our personal checks drawn in US Dollars on a USA credit union account with no questions asked, and pay us in Pesos at the exchange's current rate. (The rate, by the way, is much better than the banks, etc.) While the owner told us that the exchange couldn't accept a check written for more than $200 per day, she whispered that if the "2" was a "5" she'd look the other way (nudge-nudge)! 😉 So, we always have cash available and almost never use a credit card. (Only exception is treating ourselves to a multiple star hotel room in Manila for a night or two! 😛 )
Of course, I am totally oblivious and stupid about all of this! Money handling is the asawa's territory! 😆
Hi Bob,
Oh yes, customer service here is in rapid decline. That's one of the ill-effects of outsourcing and globalization; ie, cheap labor equals (not all the time but most of the time) low quality. It's because we sell customer care to countries that can't even speak English well. What is good customer service? It all starts with communication!
When I call an 800-service number now, I just pray that I at least get India or the Philippines. I know at least we will be talking sensibly. Sometimes I get routed to — I willl not name it but it is one of the booming Asian countries now — and boy, oh boy, I'm in for a real nightmare.
Example, I called Sprint trying to straighten out a billing mess. I get routed to that call center there (unnamed country). I threaten something like, "I've been calling about the same issue and it's now the 2nd billing cycle and it's still not fixed. I'll tell you if this does not get fixed within two to three days, I'll have my service disconnected and I'll just give my business to Verizon."
Customer care rep goes, "oh, oh, oh yes, I can disconnect. Disconnect now? You not happy Sprint?"
Never mind… I just drove into a Sprint office and demanded to see a live person, the local manager. As it turned out, he was Filipino. What a relief, he saved me from going berserk.
Now this is only billing. Imagine a technical problem and trying to discuss it with someone who's struggling with English… This time, they're not playing stupid and they're not even stupid. The problem is just that the language barrier is too much.
Forgive me for ranting. I'll move on.
Hi Paul – Very nice! Especially the part about befriending the money trader! Being able to write checks like that is a great benefit. I have a similar arrangement with a local banker.
Hi angie – oh boy… the woes of call centers! That could be a long (almost never ending) topic!