You Want That Too?

As we purchase material for our bio-diesel project, I have come to learn how business is conducted in Jamaica. To perform the titration on the waste vegetable oil, I bought a burette. For those of you that don't know, a burette is a long skinny glass container, used in a laboratory, that has markings on it to indicate an appropriate volume (see picture below). In most cases the burette is long, about two (2) feet and is fragile. Because of this, I assumed, when I went to purchase the burette, it would come with all the necessary pieces of equipment (i.e., the stand and clamp). This would prove not to be the case. When I went to assemble the burette, I discovered there was no stand. I called the supplier and they stated, "we sell the stand separately, would you like to purchase one?" My reply was, "well, of course I need the stand." I thought to myself how else will I use the burette without the stand? Yesterday, after a month or two of waiting for the purchase to go through I finally started assembling the stand and to my astonishment, there was no clamp. Again, I called the supplier and again they stated, "we sell the clamp separately." Why didn't they tell me this? "Ohh, do you want the clamp too?", they replied. "Yes, I need the clamp to use the burette", I said. Again, thinking to myself, how else am I going to attach the burette to the stand? Duck tape?

While talking with the supplier, the secretary (a Jamaican) at my work overheard me and told me afterwards, "this is Jamaica where they will cut up a piece of equipment and sell it to you bit by bit." I call that nickle and diming.