Surprise, that'll be $1,700 for the haircut

by Rob Peters | April 7, 2008 at 10:00 am | 786 views | 7 comments

Imagine going for what you think will be a five-dollar haircut and being slapped with a bill for almost two grand. Two unlucky college students in Beijing experienced just that--and were held hostage when they couldn't come up with the money.

Apparently it's not the first time the salon has tried to pull the same scam. They obviously think pretty highly of their hairdressing skills.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese hair salon has been shut down and fined 500,000 yuan (36,000 pounds) for holding two customers hostage and charging wildly excessive fees for haircuts, a newspaper reported on Monday.

College students Zhang Yi and Yuan Sha Sha went for a haircut at Baolou International Beauty Salon in Zhengzhou, in the central province of Henan, expecting to pay the 38 yuan (2.72 pounds) advertised on the window.
But when the barbers were done, they produced a joint bill for 12,000 yuan (855 pounds), enough to make anyone's hair curl, the Beijing News reported.

"After borrowing from 16 people, the two were only able to come up with 9,800 yuan and it wasn't until after 10 pm were they allowed to leave the hair salon," it reported.

It was not the first time that the shop tried to cheat consumers. One was slapped with a bill for 4,776 yuan when she came in for a haircut last September. In December, another customer opted for a 68 yuan haircut, but was asked to pay 5,670 yuan.

The shop was eventually shut down with nearly 100 local residents applauding outside, the newspaper said.

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Barry Artiste

at 10:41 on April 7th, 2008

good stuff:

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. Certainly brings to mind a SKit Dave Chappelle did on a Barber in Harlem, once he found out after giving Dave a haircut, who Dave was and Daves 50 million dollar contract, pulled a gun on him and Demanded Dave pay $11,000.00 for a his haircut.

Though in a comedic vein, Dave admitted once he became famous, everything cost him more, once his famous face hit the area stores. In part prompting Dave to move to a non descript Town and live on a farm.