In today's fast paced and ruthless world, people usually tend to agree with the stated without any questioning of the fact. When the sales guy in the saree shop shows a 9 yards saree and says it is 9 yards, you trust his word and choose the design and colour to buy. When the investment deposit form says Rs.25000 invested at 13.32% p.a. gets you Rs. 41650 in 5 years, you trust the calculation. When shop sales guy says the table I am interested in is 4 by 3 feet, one tends to strike a match with our requirements in mind and move to other factors.
But, in days of ignorance, marketing and plain lies, you should not trust what you hear on the face of it. In the first instance, when my mom came home and tried the saree, it was 8 yards, not the nine the shopkeeper confirmed it was. His defence on returning, everything we sell is 8 yards as 9 yards. Do look at the below picture: a part of the deposit form from Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd.:
Turns out the actual rate of interest in the cumulative option of 5 years is 10.75% p.a.compounded annually, not the high 13.34% p.a. by which I was actually attracted to the scheme (13.34% is simple interest and why would any sane person look for simple interest in a cumulative scheme?). In the third case, the table shown to be was actually 4 by 2.5ft and not 4 by 3 ft. It looked suspicious measuring it by my eye and I asked for a tape to measure it. It was only 2.5 ft by width. The sales guy only had a sheepish smile to respond with.
Such are the various cases of buying in today's world. It usually was in finance, a phrase called "Buyers beware", but in today's case, almost every single fellow is up to tricks fooling customers.
The concept of trust cannot be blindly held. A more sane logic of he is the expert of things and we should trust him also does not find meaning nowadays. The shopkeeper knows that the worst case for him is that he will have to reverse the sale or better, exchange it when they complain. There is a perverse upside to the seller at the cost of the buyer. There are not many ways to get over it as of now, except to be aware and verify things, however untrustworthy you may seem to be.
A mandatory pain in their arse sanity check is necessary before buying to prevent a pain in your arse at a later point in time.
