In Reply to: Locals posted by Charliebalibear on Tuesday, 24. February 2015 at 19:45 Bali Time:
Yes, this is true to a certain extent. She can haggle general prices down in the streets of Bali, but they know she isn't a local as soon as she opens her mouth. Totally different accents and she doesn't speak Basa Bali obviously.
Also when I am with her, she has a much harder time haggling, as soon as they see the bule the prices go through the roof. I'm often told to hide around the corner while she negotiates a deal.
She can certainly haggle and get better prices than any other foreigner, but most certainly she wouldn't get as good a deal as a local Balinese would get.
She's from Java, so the same applies. She'd get a much better deal in her home city than someone from Bali, they'd pick up that the person is not a local and the same rule would apply.
And correct about the SIM cards, people paying Rp. 50.000 on the street are getting ripped. The official price is around Rp. 7000-8000 for a Telkomsel SIM, it's printed on the front of the packet. Shops are allowed to add their own margins of course, some choose to add a lot and some much less.
We got my brother in law from Surabaya to post us 3 SIM's via mail so that we had them ready to go for an upcoming trip. He even activated them and loaded Rp. 100.000 pulsa onto each SIM. He only paid around Rp. 10.000 for each SIM plus the pulsa.