Filter Coffee # 195

To Buy A Pig In A Poke

Dear Readers,

My post on “No Comments” did fetch a few comments. 

Tarun Kunzru who, with unfailing regularity, comments on my posts was the first to comment on “no comment”. He says: "No comments" to me is often driven by the need to "sit on the fence". In negative situations, it's a good idea not to add fuel to the fire. But on principles, fence-sitting is a sign of weakness or plain lethargy.

Amar comments humorously: Interesting Prasanna! But what would you comment if someone asked you “Have you stopped beating your wife”? A yes would mean he was beating her and a no would mean he continues to beat her - haha. A “no comment’ here could indicate a disdain for the question.

Uma Shashikant from Atlanta GA says: In these days of animated political discussion and difference of opinion among friends, I wish people agreed to disagree, or simply used “no comments” to avoid getting involved. That term can genuinely dissuade someone from taking an argument too far, isn’t it?

Niharika Jain says: You held the attention of the reader till the very end though the topic was dry. I feel it is better to say “No Comment” than to get into an argument over a trivial matter.

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🐷To Buy A Pig In A Poke

In FC 86 I wrote about “Horse Sense & Gift Horses”. If you missed reading it, I recommend you read it at leisure using this link: Filter Coffee #086 - by M R Prasanna

In this post, I will be dealing with the care and diligence one needs to exercise in all dealings, big or small, whether it be for personal or business purposes. The caption of this post means ‘Don’t buy a pig until you have seen it’.

It is interesting how words get their meaning. The word ‘Poke’ came to be used in the Tudor period, which occurred in England & Wales between 1485 and 1603, including the era of the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Poke means a sack or a bag and it has its roots in the French word ‘poque’ meaning a bag. Readers will find it fascinating that today’s word ‘pocket’ is derived from the French word  ‘poquette’, meaning a small bag.

The idiom “To Buy A Pig In A Poke” refers to the century-old practice of buying a pig or piglet which the farmers carried in a bag called the poke. The accepted buying process was for the purchaser to feel the sack all around to determine the size and weight of the pig-in-the-sack and pay accordingly. Some of the merchants took advantage of this process and substituted fat cats for a pig and the unsuspecting buyer would discover much to his dismay that he had been cheated.

Buyers who had been tricked became wiser and insisted on opening the poke and seeing what was inside. In many cases the merchant’s trick misfired when the buyer found a cat in the poke and the famous expression let the cat out of the bag came to be in vogue and this expression later got associated with ‘revealing something that was meant to be a secret’.

The advice 'don't buy a pig until you have seen it' transformed over time as the buyer’s duty to inspect what he or she buys. When I studied law, one of the topics was the law relating to the sale of goods. The rule was ‘caveat emptor’, a Latin phrase, meaning 'let the buyer beware'. The guiding principle is that if you buy something you take responsibility to ensure it was what you intended. 

Over the period, with the introduction of consumer protection laws, the burden shifted from the buyer to the seller. To cite a simple example, if you buy a branded hair dryer online, the e-tailer is now required to disclose the country of origin, all the information necessary for its safe operation, some of the dos and don’ts, assure you of a warranty period during which time the after-sales service and defects rectification shall be free provided as a consumer you abide by the warranty conditions.

If a product is defective or after-sales service is not provided, you can file a complaint (e-filing is also an option) before the nearest consumer redressal forum. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section and I shall do my best to answer them.

[mid-post note: A relative passed away. I was away for a couple of days. If this post is shorter than usual it is because a life was cut short rather unexpectedly.]

Resuming: Certain other idioms are synonymous with “to buy a pig in a poke”. The English idiom "sold a pup" refers to a similar con. Say, you buy an imported branded bag only to discover later that such spurious bags are sold in the market. In common law, buyers have the right to inspect goods before purchase. But one must remember that one must inquire, examine and then indent. If you ever need to complain about a deficiency in service or goods you may be required to demonstrate that you did inspect but were unable to detect a latent or undetectable defect.

All of us may have fallen prey to some convincing talk by guys who come to service a piece of equipment during the warranty period or under an annual maintenance contract (AMC). Most of the time we either haven’t read the terms of service or the fine print would have eluded us. So we ended up paying for the visit, for the spare part and a tip to the guy though he tricked us.

Marketing guys are known to find innovative means to push sales. One such gimmick is ‘Buy one get one free’. If one tracks the price one might find that what you are supposed to get free has been subsidised by the price increase before launching the scheme. The other common gimmick is ‘Buy one and a gift free’. On the face of it, gift and free are an oxymoron. But I have been a moron many times for failing to see this oxymoron. 

Let me now end this post in a lighter vein:

Lady: “Hi, I bought a maternity dress through your site and I want to cancel the order.”

Service rep:  “Sure, I can do that for you.. but may I ask why?”

Lady: “My delivery was faster than yours was.”

A guy was a little taken aback when he got a receipt from the funeral parlour. On the bottom of the receipt it read, “Thank you. Please come again.”

Until next week, please take good care of yourselves. Ciao!!