Job Discussion Forums

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

I always use my docomo keitai for everything and I don`t really need the NTT line that I bought from another foreigner here a while ago - for the extortionist price of 65,000 yen I should add!

Can I sell my NTT line back to NTT? If I sell it to another person in Japan I will be lucky to get 30,000 yen.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

You saved about 5000-6000 yen, cafebleu, by buying it from that other foreigner, so in essence, you did save money. Nobody put a gun to your head, did they? Extortionist, indeed.

Rumor has it that NTT is considering buying back lines in the future, so if you hold onto it, you might get the money back, although I don't know how much. Meanwhile, if you really don't use it, and you need the money, just sell it yourself. The other guy "extorted" 65,000 out of you; why can't you do the same?

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

Hi Glenski, I should have explained why I used the word `extorted` although it was partly tongue in cheek.

The foreigner from whom I bought the line did not show me the original receipt of how much they had paid for it. I didn`t know whether he had actually bought it from NTT or whether he had bought it from another foreigner - in that case it may have been that I was paying more than they did! No proof of original purchase but I was in a position where they were the previous teacher and I had nobody else to go by. I was new to Japan and had to settle in with no other English speaking person to guide me except for the outgoing teacher.

Gordon - I sympathise. I bought the goods of that teacher`s and was completely ignorant of their depreciated value. They had the goods for about 5 years in which case they should have been sold to me for about half the price given the way prices have dropped in Japan for new electrical goods etc in the time I have been here. They also sold me appliances which, when I moved house, could not be taken because of the way they had been tinkered with, so I lost a lot of money there.

Maybe people think Gordon and I were naive in buying other foreigners` goods. However, that is not taking into account the personal circumstances. I was new, had about 1 week to settle in and learn everything before the previous teacher departed, and the other person who was the boss was Japanese. I spoke no Japanese then.