You know that feeling when you realized that you have been overcharged and then you be like I really F up. Well, I don't know if it has happened to anyone but me and it's a feeling I get on countless occasions and at some point I start to believe that my bargaining power is as bad as it can get.
I live in a country where most of not all commodities and even services have to be negotiated thoroughly even though many at times these commodities and services all have a fix price in which they go for. In a real world, the idea is that all commodities have a fixed value and you just go to the market or the mall or the grocery store or anywhere else and you grab whatever product it is that you want and pay for it without having to stress over the price it is going for whether it's worthwhile or not.
But then, that is the ideal world or so we thought it is or should be but does it really work that way?.
I was in a cab yesterday and I had a very interesting experience and for the best part of my journey I kept thinking about it. There is this well know mea s of transportation in Nigeria and it is arguably the most common mean of transportation in the country owing mainly to the fact that the masses use it for short distance journey if I would call it that. The popular tricycle which is well known as Keke napep is one which carries atleast four passengers with the driver making it five. The driver picked four passengers including me around the same area but a few feet apart from each other.
I was the first person the driver picked and he asked me to pay the sum of three hundred and fifty nigerian naira (350) and i told him i can only pay him two hundred naira but he insist I pay two hundred and fifty naira and i entered the car. Few feets away from me was another guy heading to the same place as I and he agreed to pay the exact amount the driver asked for which was way more than what I'll pay. The next person also came in and bargained to pay even less than what I was to pay. In a way the four of us were paying varying amount and were heading the same place with no justification as to why it was so but in a way the bargaining power of each one of us was the determining factor.
Having a sound bargaining power in a way will definitely be a good weapon to use for all parties involved be it the customer or even the person rendering the service. A fixed price for a service will definitely eliminate this funny situation and form of exploitation and will prevent customers from being taken advantage of. But then, situations like this will often arise due to one reason or the other and the one I got myself into yesterday is basically as a result of fuel (gas) scarcity in the country currently so the price of gas has gone up almost twice the price before and the drivers are taking full advantage of the situation with the customer having to put on his armor of bargaining power to protect him or herself.
Yes and no
We can actually have an ideal world and situation where the price of a product is well defined and exact to a certain level and customers knowing fully well that this is the price they will pay for any product or services.
But there are other factors that will raise its head and dislodge this ideal situation. These factors when they come into play will affect the price of these products be it in a short term. Scarcity is one factor that when it comes into play it always affects the price of product or services and will end up giving room for people or customers to be exploited. But then, scarcity can be a factor but greed also can push service providers into exploitation of their customers.
We can't often have our ideal situation where everything is as the way it should be definitely and when situations like this arise the only thing we are left with is our bargaining power, how strong we can stand our ground when in situations like happen. We customers have to learn to be frugal and stand our ground when bargaining because that is the only saving grace we might have or we just be at the mercy of the service providers and they mostly will always want to take advantage.
Thank you all for viewing my post.
