I came across an article yesterday in Her World magazine.
Was fuming mad when i read it. How on earth such people exist in here?!
Its a long article, but want to blog it out and share with you guys and gals,
Please, when you become rich one day, dont become like this..
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"What rich women do to stay rich"
A young woman walks into a high-end boutique and picks up five dresses but pays only for two.
Two doors away is her regular jeweller, where she tries on a necklace and matching set of earrings. She pays only for the necklace, and waltzes out the door with the gold and diamond chandelier earrings swinging off her ears.
At the makeup counter in the department store, she tries everything, buys nothing, then leaves with a bag full of samples - all in full sizes. Then its off to her plastic surgeon's clinic, where she;s booked for a Botox and microdermabrasion session.
She emerges hours later with a fresh new face and no intention of paying for the procedures. "I'll pay you the next time," she lies breezily to the glabbergasted nurse as she climbs into her Lexus and drives home to her three-storey terrance off Orchard Road.
If you're looking around for store security and the police to show up by now, dont bother. No one has blown the whistle on Vicky (no her real name), and n one likely will.
Enter the world of the rich woman who gets away with plunder.
Vicky has, in the spce of one afternoon, left behind thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. She can afford to pay those bills many times over, but expects the stores and plastic surgeon to write them off. What is more alarming is that they will. Case closed.
Why are women like Vicky, a 31-year-old single who receives a few thousand dollars in pocket money a month from her father, above the simple laws of the land? The answer is simple: because she is rich.
Vicky is a customer that these businesses cannot afford to lose, because she has proven at least once before that she has the means to ring up huge bills - and pay up. More importantly, she also has friends who can.
"I spend a lot at these place that i patronise, and I'm always introducing my many girlfriends to them. They should be prepared to give out freebies to keep customers like me," says the impeccably groomed socialite, whose parents have two maids and two cars for their family of four. What most people would loook upon as daylight robbery, Vicky thinks is just good customer service.
As the first link in a chain of big spenders, she feels entitled to rewards for her part as a deal-maker. She calls her freebies her "commission" for recommending customers to her creditors.
"I am not a cheapskate. I have been contributing a lot to their business over the years. The clinic and stores can always call me to remind me about an unpaid bill, or remind when I'm there, but so far, i have heard nothing from them. What does that tell you? That they regard me as a very important customer."
There is no dispute there. These businesses that cater mainly to the wealthy all agree that such women are an invaluable asset when it comes to word-of-mouth publicity. But if they had a choice, they would rather be the first to offer thanks to these women thatn to have the thanks yanked out of them, and in ways that would raise an auditor's eyebrow.
To add salt to gaping wound, most of the friends whom these women recommend tend to share the same views on the Great Commission come payment time.
One retailer, who did not want to be named for fear of such women turning nasty on her, has put up with Vicky and her friends for years.
She recalls, "She came to my shop, bought about $200 worth of stuffs then helped herself to a few more items from the shelf - worth over $300 - all because she has been a regular for the last few years. telling her to put it back would only ruin the relationship. Chances are, she will get angry or offended and will never step into the shop again." The customers Vicky recommends dont help the shopowner recover her losses. "Her friends? They aren't very different. They expect free gifts too!" To which Vicky simply replies: "It's a matter of give and take; you help me, I help you."
People like her know they can get away with it because many store owners would rather keep quiet than take them to taks and risk them spreading negative publicity of the store to their rich pals.
Its an ugly word, but women like Vicky and her friends are freeloaders, and boutique owners and plastic surgeons are at a loss as to what they can do about them.
Why plastic surgeons alone and not all doctors? The smae reason why these women wouldnt pull a fast one at restaurants - you dont want to offend the one who prepares your food or fixes your heart. But with plastic surgery and aesthetic work, it's about elective surgery - and elective payment. A doctor in private practice observes with pained amusement that wealthy freeloaders "see it as an entitlement, that we doctors should think ourselves privileged that they would even consider us to touch their faces."
Its get more audacious than this, he adds: "some tell me after I've done the treatments: "Hey, I'm a walking advertisement for you. I've got lots of rich friends I can recommend to you, so why should i pay you?"
Then there is this unspoken presumption. "They have the impression that we make a lot of money from aestheic treatments and wouldnt feel the pinch of an unpaid bill."
Freeloaders who are less bold would show up at aesthetic clinics asking for "free trials", or blame the doctor for performing work that they didnt ask for.
Says a consultant dermatologist: "Soon after I introduced a new IPL machine, i was bombarded by calls from 'old friends' whom i dont remember meeting at parties i dont remember attending. They will come to my clinic, ask for the cheapest treatment, then agree to add-ons when they're being treated.
"If my nurse asks them to settle the bill, they will say they didnt ask for the add-ons, that i suggested they try it so that shouldnt have to pay. Usually, i'd let such cases go than to stand there and haggle with them."
Such save-money, lose-face methods are not the domain of wealthy women. Men, too, are guilty - and so are famous personalities. A senior dermatologist in public practice recalls how years ago, one popular Singaporean actor tried to get away without paying his bill of thousands of dollars.
"He said he would pay up later, but we never heard from him. Later, we called him, but the number was no longer in use. We also sent reminders to his house, but the letters got returned because he wasnt living there anymore. In the end, we just dropped the as it wasnt worth the hassle."
One day, the same actor calls the clinic for an appointment. "He must have forgotten that he owed us money - or hoped that we had," says the doctor. "The nurse recognised his voice and reminded him that he had an unpaid bill. He said he would send the cheque but he never did, and that was the last we heard from him."
While the five plastic surgeons, aesthetic doctors and dermatologists we spoke to have all come across wealthy patients who default on payment, the numbers are not staggering enough to warrant strong action.
An Orchard Road dermatologist puts the number of bad debtors at under 1 per cent, "despite repeated reminders." Cosmetic surgeon Martin Huang of MD Specialist Healthcare says unpaid bills can come up to several thousands dollars annually. Others sat it ranges of between a few hundred to a few thousand.
It may not seem like much, but as one general practitioner who offers aesthetic treatments puts it, "every doctors who are stuggling to keep their practices open because of bad debt.
Among retailers, the losses are less significant. One estimates that such "free advertising" cost her about $500 to $1000 a month. Others put it at $200 to $300 per person. Instead of reporting these culprits to the authorities, or filing a claim at the Small Claims Tribunal (which handles cases where less than $10,000 is at stake), everyone is keeping mum, sayin it's not worth the time, money and goodwill.
Says a boutique owner, "These taitais can be very influential. If they badmouth my store to their friends, i may lost more money than the value of freebies i am forced to give out."
For plastic surgeons, many of these freeloaders are social acquaintance of their friends' wives - whom they may be seated next to at the next society do. If they dont keep mum, rest assured that any frozen looks cast at them then wont be caused by Botox.
Not every creditor is taking this financial sitting down.
Common practice among the plastic surgeons we spoke to is to keep a little black book of tardy patients. "We wont turn them away, but we will ask them ot put a 20 per cent deposit when a surgery date is booked and to pay up on the day of surgery," says Dr Huang. "Is she has a bad credit assessment in our records, we will ask her to pay the full sum before any work is done."
And instead of offering package deals, where a patient is more likely to stop returning once they see some improvment to their looks, doctors are turning to pay per-treatment services. Others simple decline requests for deferred payments.
A patient has even thrown a tantrum at one such clinic, where she dramatically overturned her handbag and emptied it of its contents to show that she really had no means to pay up there and then.
The nurse stood her ground long enough for the woman to relent and finally fish out a credit card - a platinum one, no less.
extracted from Her World, Septemeber issue P144 to P146
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i have learnt something. The world is never fair. God is not fair. And please, rejoice that He is not a fair God. Blasphemous? Read on.
Fairness = You are not treated as an individual. You are being treated in a corporate view. Everyone get their fair share, the good and the evil.
Justice = You are being treated distinctively and uniquely. God gives you personal attention. And He treats you according to what you deserve. Good or evil.
God is better than fair. He is JUST! (well, the wicked will have their fare)
But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.
- Luke 6:24
So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
- Luke 12:21
He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.
- Luke 1:53
I must pray that i will not become like these taitais when i become rich! If i will be, please! dont let me be rich! i only want to be righteously rich. i want to be a blessing - big pockets, big mind and not forgetting, a big heart!
And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
-Deu 8:18
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
- Matthew 19:23-24
My flesh says, "good verse! God, dont allow these rich taitais go to heaven!! yes!!" But my spirit says God loves them all, good or bad, He loves them all. I want to yield to my spirit, so i CHOOSE to be magnanimous. Anyway, who am i to judge? I felt happier and less unjustifiable. Anyway, its none of my business. hahha.
Yeah friends, its just a matter of A CHOICE.
There's so many things you can be angry and unhappy about..
com'on, choose to live longer.
Staying happy.
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