A Chinese man was tricked into paying much more than what he expected for a simple haircut in a hair salon in Pudong New Area, Shanghai.

The man, named Yang, went to the Zhenxuan Hair Salon branch located in Yijiang Road in Pudong’s Zhangjiang town in February, according to Shanghai Daily. He wanted to get a simple haircut which costs only a mere 68 yuan (about USD $10), but was surprised to pay more than 50,000 yuan (about $7654) in total for all services rendered.

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Yang’s barber initially gave him the low-cost trim, but later persuaded the poor customer to try a special South Korean-made hair-care product that costs 368 yuan (about $56.33) per tube. Yang consented, but what he did not know was that the barber would be using a total of 14 tubes, raising the haircut’s cost to 5,220 yuan ($799).

Shocked at the high price, Yang asked the barber for an explanation. Instead, the salon’s chief barber persuaded him to avail of a membership card that will give him discounts. Yang willingly paid another 6,000 yuan ($918) for it, believing that he would be refunded after the salon helps him find another person to take on his membership card.

After a while, Yang went back to get his supposed refund, but was told to pay another 9,000 yuan ($1,377) to pass his membership card to another person.

By March 8, Yang had already paid out a total of more than 50,000 yuan for two membership cards and two scalp-cleaning cards. Realizing that he had been duped, he reported the case to police, Pudong New Area Market Supervision Administration officer Liu Wei said.

“We were astonished to hear of a case in which so much money was involved,” Liu said.

On March 12, the administration launched an investigation based on the nearly 30 complaints received over the same hair salon. The salon manager, who was on pregnancy leave when Yang was cheated, said several barbers had resorted to cheating customers to feed their addiction to gambling.

Huang Xuezhen, director of the Zhenxuan Hair Salon chains, said that branch of its salon will be fined 30,000 yuan ($4592) for the misdemeanor.

“I would like to thank the administration, otherwise I would not know about such scandals,” Huang said, assuring customers that “[the salon chain] will not dare to do that in future.”

TagsPudong New Area, Zhenxuan Hair Salon, haircut, Trim, scams