So here is the story: Last week I (22M from USA) was in Hanoi, Vietnam on a solo trip. My first day there I decided to take a walk around the city and ended up near a lake in the center of the city. While walking around the lake, I was approached by a well-dressed Vietnamese guy who asked where I was from. We talked for a few minutes and he seemed like a nice guy. We were about the same age and both on holiday from college. He asked me if I wanted to grab a coffee with him across the street and I agreed. I was interested in learning about his culture, as he was with mine!
While in the nearby coffee shop, he introduced me to his cousin who had a very cute dog. His cousin spoke much better English that he did, so it was a lot easier for me to have a conversation with the cousin. He was quick to tell me how he is a CEO of a huge real estate company and worth millions of dollars. He paid for our coffees and invited us with him to check out a local temple and restaurant.
At the restaurant, he decided on and ordered food and a few beers for the 3 of us to share so that I was able to get a taste for a few different, popular Vietnamese dishes. He also paid for this bill. After our meal, he kept saying how joyful he was that he met me and that he wants to continue hanging out together so he suggested going to sing karaoke to American songs that he knew and I excitedly agreed! This is happening around noon on a Thursday.
Here is where things got strange: I followed him into a small building's lobby that seemed like the waiting room for a barber shop. It had a front counter and a corner couch with a few people sitting down. I followed him up some stairs and straight into a small dark room where we were joined by 3 girls who started serving us drinks as we sung karaoke. We sung about 2 American songs and then the cousin started putting on club music and I started to lose interest. Meanwhile, the girls in the room continuously kept refilling my drink without me asking. Also, the cousin kept ordering numerous balloons for us to inhale to get a quick high. I refused these balloons over and over but I was basically forced to hold one at all times.
After being in this room for about 2 hours, we finally left and went downstairs to the main lobby and sat down on the coach. On our way out of the small, dark room, the cousin pointed out that we were in a VIP room. I don't know much about how clubs work but my first thought was that the cousin had some type of membership that granted him access to the VIP room of this place. That was until the manager of the place handed the bill to the cousin and I was able to peek over his shoulder and see it. The total bill was 70 million dong which converts to about $3,000 US dollars!!! Then he told the manager that the 3 of us will split the bill and we will each owe 30 million dong (about $1300 US dollars)!!!
My heart starts racing and I tell him that I thought he would be paying for this (after treating to coffee and lunch, AND making it very clear how he is worth tens of millions of dollars). He vehemently refused and told me that this is how Vietnamese culture is; they always split the bill no matter how rich or poor you are. He also said that I should have asked him how much everything will cost beforehand. But I honestly just thought we were going to sing karaoke! I had no idea we were going into a private VIP room in a club with bartenders. Him and his cousin consumed way more alcohol and balloons than I did. I continued to argue with him and tell him that I cannot afford a bill this large, especially at the start of my vacation. (For a second, I debated bolting out of the door and making a run for it to get as far away from that place as possible and then calling a taxi back to my hostel.) I felt like I had no choice but to hand over my debit card and pay my portion of the bill. He gave me a ride back to the lake and I walked back to my hostel and laid in my bed and cried.
I want to dispute this charge on my debit card with TD bank and would appreciate any help with this matter. Thank you for your time!
Now that I am thinking about it, I think it is definitely a possibility that they are in some kind of agreement with the karaoke club where they take advantage of foreigners by doing what they did to me, and split the profits. The cousin just appeared from the back of the coffee shop once we arrived, and was overly eager to spend time with me. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that I received anywhere close to $1300 worth of product/services over those 2 hours. Maybe $50 if I were to guess. I also find it VERY interesting that ANOTHER American I met later in my trip said he was approached by an identical guy at the same exact spot at the lake who ALSO asked him to grab a coffee. It sounds like these 2 could be running a whole scam operation, but that's just a speculation...
Submitted June 12, 2019 at 09:35PM by goonballloon http://bit.ly/2Zsjl05
