Yesterday, Mum and Dave arrived back in Takatsuki after being in the North since Monday.
They had hired bikes for the last calendar month, and after a short discussion, we decided that they would hire bikes again for the three days they would be here (cheap at 100円 or about $1 a day). However, things did not go according to plan....
The guy behind the counter (one we'd never seen before), wanted to charge us 1300円 yen per bike. This was because our subscription from last month had automatically rolled into this month, so we owed $10 for that, plus $1 for each day that we were late for paying that monthly subscription (lucky we were only 3 days over!). I reacted with a "What on Earth are you talking about?". I tried telling him that we didn't want a subscription, had never asked for a subscription, and all we wanted was the bikes for three days. He told me that I was already subscribed, so having the bikes for three days was out of the question. After a bit more backwards and forwards, I decided that I must be misunderstanding him, and decided to get someone with better Japanese in. I got onto Eric, who has been living in Japan for several years, and has a Japanese wife. He talked on the phone with the guy behind the counter, and then told me that yes, I had understood correctly. I kept insisting that I had only rented the bikes for one month, and the bikes had been returned before the end of the month. He kept saying that you couldn't hire for one month, you just paid by the month, and when the bikes had been returned was irrelevant. The fact that nobody had bothered to explain the rules to me was irrelevant. They were written up in Japanese for everyone to see.
We decided to just leave. We gave the cards back, and started to walk out. The guy behind the counter started shouting after us that he would call the police. We came back. I called Eric again, and he agreed to come over. He pretty much just covered the same ground that I had, just in better formed sentences. Eventually, he gave up, and looked up the Japanese word for compassion. He tried asking for the fee to be lowered, considering the circumstances (ie, nobody had bothered to explain that rule to us). The guy behind the counter insisted that business rules were business rules, and we'd better pay soon, or he'd call the police. We gave in, and handed over the money in pretty bad grace. Dave also made a point of getting an explanation of how to terminate our monthly subscription, and mimed that when he returned his bike, he would cut his card up to indicate that the contract was finished. (We had to pay the money whether or not we took the bikes, so we took the bikes). The whole episode took nearly an hour.
Jess also got slammed with financial penalties for not bringing her bikes back regularly within the calendar month that she had them hired for (a rule that we knew about because of her experience, but one that was not explained to her either). Thus we are very unimpressed with the local bike rental service, and will strongly advise any other Westerners not to utilise their services, as they are very happy to not explain rules, and then charge you for not following rules you could not possible have known about.
Ok, one more vent: AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!
Done.
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