Edcel – a personal weblog mind games and then some.

I feel like I’ve been scammed.

When I got home from the office, I figured I’d drop by the Ayala Center Cebu mall and find a better barber shop in order to have my hair trimmed down. 120 pesos was already fine considering the facilities and the place.

I told the barber to make my hair look clean. At first everything was okay, the service was good and had class. In the middle of it all, he asked if I’d like to have some hot oil done. I said yes, thinking that it was just part of the package since an acquaintance told me the shop is good at taking care of their customers. Prior to the hot oil, he told me that I should wash my hair first so we went to a basin and had it shampooed.

Afterwards, they put my head in some weird looking helmet spaceship device where hot air just blew around inside. I was on a high because I got some slight relaxation since the staff also did some basic massage on my arms and head. It was a first for me to get pampered like that. Being the ignorant one, I just completely surrendered myself to the barber giving me all the much-needed service they could provide.

I was even willing to give 100% as tip for the nice treatment. Boy was I treated for sure. When everything was cool, I went up to the counter and my jaw suddenly dropped when she informed me of the bill.

Cashier: “Hi Sir, that will be 920.”
Me: “920?” — (wtf?)
Cashier: “Yes, for the hair treatment.”

I’ve been had! I thought I’d only pay for the hair cut and the other services were already part of it. I tried to make the face — the shocked, jackassed face — but I was already a veteran on these instances so I was able to conceal the expression.

Well Ed, that’s what you get for not bringing a girlfriend with you in places like these. You’d suffer the consequences of not having a second opinion. I felt too vulnerable a customer to them and they sure were able to milk some money out of it.

But it’s not their fault. Heck, they could even dye my hair blue and I wouldn’t even feel a thing. Still, I felt like I was duped. I’m not a celebrity or a rich kid that I have to maintain a certain image for other people to ogle or talk about. Ayayayay.

It would’ve been good if there was a big event that I had to participate in like a party or anything of that sort but come to think of it, a thousand bucks (including the tip) still won’t do the trick just for a meager hair cut. My head feels good but my pockets aren’t.  Arrggghhh.

In the end, I just walked home in order to save more cash and just skipped dinner altogether. But I did myself another favor and bought some ice cream to calm my senses from spending too much. All the stress came back to me on the walk home. Sigh.

It’s going to be long days of instant noodles and hanging rice for me.