Tempted by cheap durian, I ended up getting scammed

A week or two ago, on my way home from work on the outskirts of the city, I saw a stall by the roadside that was attracting quite a crowd. Seeing the cardboard sign advertising durians at just VND50,000 per kilogram, I was intrigued because durians were selling for VND70,000-90,000 per kilogram at markets and even as high as VND100,000-130,000 at large stores.

Curious about the unusually low price, I stopped to take a look. The fruits on display looked round, plump and quite appealing, so I picked out two and asked why the price was so cheap. The seller replied: "We found a low-cost supply and want to sell quickly, hence the cheap prices."

Her explanation seemed reasonable, so I decided to take the risk. Many others were also buying two or three durians each, and some even bought five.

After weighing the fruit, the seller handed me a bag with the two durians I picked and quoted me VND370,000 for 7.4 kilograms. I had my doubts as the fruits did not look particularly large and the bag did not feel that heavy. I asked if the weight was correct and the seller quickly replied: "You can go weigh it yourself. If it is short, I will pay you back ten times."

Of course, I did not have a scale with me, so I thought it was fine if the weight was slightly off since I was already getting a good price.

Once I arrived home, I put the two durians on my kitchen scale. The result showed 5.4 kilograms, meaning I had been shortweighted 2 kilograms compared to what the seller claimed. My suspicion turned out to be correct. I was extremely annoyed, feeling as though I had just been blatantly scammed. With 2 kilograms missing, I effectively lost VND100,000 and ended up paying close to the market price anyway.

This was not the first time I had bought fruit that was shortweighted by street sellers. A few months ago, I bought mangoes from a roadside stall and discovered that what was supposed to be 1 kilogram of fruit was only 700 grams. The bargain turned out to be overpriced.

Roadside vendors often take advantage of consumers’ trust and inability to verify weights to freely shortweight and deceive them.

I believe authorities need to intervene and regularly inspect the measuring tools used by roadside sellers as well as those in wet markets. If anyone is found to have intentionally tampered with their tools in order to shortchange customers, they should be heavily fined. Only then will the problem of dishonest practices be reduced and consumers be better protected.

Have you encountered a similar situation?

*The opinions were translated into English with the assistance of AI. Readers’ views are personal and do not necessarily match VnExpress’ viewpoints.