Why are Arabs such a pain in the ass to do business with?

[2011change]

All Asians are like this (Arabs, Russians, Indians etc.) do this.

[sowilson]

Yep OP, it's cultural. I lived in Saudi for 10 years and everything is negotiable. Heck I would see local's try to haggle grocery prices at the Tamimi Safeway store. Even some of the locals would laugh when their brothers would try this. It really is cultural. It's a process and usually involves some chit chat and some coffee or tea. The other thing is that once they develop a relationship with you they don't want any other sales person. So, as you move up in the organization you will still have your original customers. It can also be racial. As an American I could only negotiate to a certain price. When someone from a poorer country would get a better deal. There was a guy (Yemini) who owned a small kitchen goods store and also did some accounting for the firm I work for. If I wanted kitchen stuff I would walk through the markets and his son would follow me taking notes. Then the kid and I would discuss what I wanted. I would give the kid some money and he would go and buy stuff at the lowest possible price while I sat with his dad and drank tea. I would tip the kid at the end of it and sure enough the price I paid was a lot less than I could ever negotiate. Fun place

[SuperHercules]

Everyone in the region that goes from northern Africa to Pajeetland are scammers

[OliverHeldens]

yes, they think its like bargaining in the bizarre, its cultural to them. I add 10% onto my first price with them and let them negotiate it down, they feel like they win and it makes them easy. Anyone whos been in the gulf arab countries for a long time does this.

Lol, is this you?

https://twitter.com/homeservguy/stat...33596127109322

[Abzu]

Probably a cultural thing. If I go into business again, I hope to solely focus on the American domestic market for this reason. When I had my e-commerce business, my Chinese supplier had this weird way of negotiating where they would never tell me no or anything negative, even when it was pertinent to our agreement. Like when my batch failed an inspection, I caught them trying to cover it up. They told me everything went perfectly. Then the report showed a 15% defective rate. It annoyed the chit out of me. Just be a straight shooter, stop trying to bullchit people.

Even when I worked at a department store in my teens I noticed rich Indian customers would always try to haggle. In my head I was like brah this isn’t a bazaar, but they’d pull the passive aggressive power move where they’d call my manager and try to exploit a minor snag in a sweater to get 50% off. They just wanted to “win.”

Never dealt with Arab businessmen but it sounds similar.

I had an an Arab boss in my 20s and he still hasn't paid me lol.

If you are rich then you can and should haggle on big-ticket items, poor people never haggle, unless they are Arab lol.

If I'm going to buy a couch, I'll buy another one I don't need along with some dining room furniture just to get a deal lol.

[Abzu]

this.
they spend a lot of time haggling.
they are incapable of not haggling.

if you go to a flea market or garage sale where an arab is they don't like it when someone just gives them money for something.
they will offer to add something else for just a few dollars more and try hard AF to suck you into haggling.
then i end up going home with something i didn't really want in addition to what i wanted for less than the original price wondering WTF just happened. lol.

Lol I do that to myself on purpose lol.

[Abzu]

I had no issue giving discounts to customers for large purchases, but I sure as hell wasn't going to do it for people buying a Pritt Stick.

[Abzu]

I have absolutely no problem with negotiation and haggling at all, especially for small items where there is an immediate transaction of goods and/or services.

But I work in Real Estate, and most of the time there is tons of haggling upfront before the contract is signed, then once the contract is signed they have another 60 days to look for tons of little reasons to keep haggling. It's the part after the contract in signed that pisses me off, because in my opinion they should have just done these things upfrong before signing the contract.

No.

[Abzu]

It's simply their adaptation to dealing with Madoff and Sam Bankman Fried type Tunnelers for well over a Millenia. Americans have only had business dealings with Tunnelers for several centuries while Arabs have been dealing with them for MILLENNIA.

That part lol.

[Abzu]

...I'm gone lol.

[OliverHeldens]

No.

Yes.