‘Rich’ Customer Stayed In the Store Till Midnight & Refused to Pay for Her Manicure & Food

Have you heard of the famous New York grifter, Anna Sorokin?

She was the epitome of “fake it until you make it”.

By masquerading as an up-and-coming socialite with a lot of money (not hers) to burn, she managed to fool the rich and the famous of New York for years.

It seems like Anna might just be the kind of person this “rich” customer looks up to.

‘Rich’ Customer Stayed In the Store Till Midnight & Refused to Pay for Her Manicure & Food

When a beautiful, well-dressed 20-ish young lady carrying a branded handbag and wearing a pair of 7-inch gold-coloured heels entered the nail salon at Lucky Plaza, saying stuff like “Money is not a problem”, the staff at the salon thought they have a rich customer on their hands.

However, to the salon owner’s dismay, it is all just a show it seems.

Prior to entering the store, she rescheduled her appointment twice before settling at the 7pm slot.

When she was there at the salon, the lady was very social and friendly initially.

She chatted with two of the staff while browsing a manicure package and told them, “As long as you do a good job, money is not a problem.”

The staff did their best work, finishing the customer’s manicure at 11pm.

The package ended up costing the lady S$268.

That’s not even including the S$4.70 she owed one of the shop assistants for buying her a sandwich and a drink after claiming that she was hungry.

However, when it came to payment, the “rich” customer seems to have plenty of “reasons” as to why she couldn’t pay for her manicure or the food.

Excuses After Excuses for Being “Unable” to Pay

She came up with 5 excuses in total.

She first tried to use a credit card but the staff there had already told her at the very beginning that they do not accept credit cards at the store.

The staff instead suggested that she could go downstairs to an ATM to withdraw the money needed to pay for the manicure.

However, the “rich” lady claimed that she had already hit her withdrawal limit for the day and will only be able to withdraw more money at 3pm the next day.

She also claimed that she’s an Australian Chinese and thus, does not use local e-wallets like GrabPay, PayNow, PayLah! or Alipay.

She even called her “friend” twice to come to help her settle the bill, but her “friend” didn’t show up.

…invisible friend kot…

After the police arrived, she ended up saying that she could leave her jewellery and phone with the person in charge at the store in exchange for a grace period in payment.

The staff agreed but she then did a 360 and denied ever saying that in the first place.

The Salon Owner Likely Won’t Get His Payment

Guo Ming (郭明), the salon owner, saw the whole incident via CCTV at home.

As the salon rarely opens this late, he suspected something’s amiss.

When he saw that his staff is unable to get the customer to pay up, he was worried so he immediately rushed to the store.

For the next hour, Guo Ming tried to get the lady to pay using other methods, but she was uncooperative.

The stalemate lasted till midnight…

…that is until Guo Ming couldn’t take it anymore and called the cops.

Despite having the police facilitate negotiations, there wasn’t any progress even until 1am.

Guo Ming had no choice but to let the lady go.

He kept calling the lady the next day but she didn’t answer her phone.

In fact, the reporter from LianHe WanBao (联合晚报) also tried calling the lady but she couldn’t get through either.

Fake It Til You Make It

The ruckus over at the nail salon also brought over the shop assistant from the store next door.

While the “rich” lady was out making her call, the shop assistant examined the branded handbag that she left behind on the counter.

The assistant commented that the handbag “is a fake”.

Unfortunately for her, the “rich” lady heard it and boy! She was furious!

She threatened to sue the shop assistant for claiming so and will be contacting a lawyer to handle the matter.

The assistant, when interviewed, said, “I don’t really know if the handbag is real or fake.”

Featured Image: Google Maps