The bad bad place of IT and electronics is a place known as Sim Lim Square. Gosh, there has been so many reports of scams and double charging of prices that the place is like some black markets set up by crooks!
Local dun patronize the place for IT and electronics products. Especially those shops on the 1st 2 levels. Only tourists are dumb enough to visit the place and think the products are cheap. By the time they found out the products are faulty, it's too late and they are back in their own countries.
Never buy a computer or laptop from those shops which are not authorised dealers or distributors. Some friends did. Their laptops came with 3-5 year service warranty. But after the 1st year, some of the shops have already closed down.
So, do your research. Dun go for cheap stuff there. If it is too cheap, it's probably came with some strings attached.
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The New Paper
09 July 2008
Charged double at camera shop
Man returns for a refund but claims he was told to get out.
Shop admits to charging double, but denies threatening the customer.
Daryl Lim
HE thought he had a bargain on his hands. But Mr Narayan, 35, ended up paying double the price.
On 25 Jun, the marketing consultant went to Sim Lim Square to buy some MP3 players as gifts for his friends. While there, he went into a camera store to look at the lenses on sale. After some bargaining, he bought a Sigma macro lens for $1,485. He also got two filters, which cost about $20 each, as freebies.
Mr Narayan paid for it using his American Express (Amex) card. But he said he still wasn't convinced about the price. He logged on to the Internet to check the actual price of the lens and found that it was priced around $750 at various retailers - almost half of what the shop had charged him. 'I realised that they had made a fool out of me,' Mr Narayan told The New Paper.
Mr Narayan, a foreign national, also realised he had not been given an invoice for his purchase, and the warranty card was unstamped. The next day, he went back to the shop to seek redress. There, Mr Narayan claims, he was first shown a few price lists and told that the price he paid was the correct one.
When he insisted that the shop had made a mistake, he was told that they had already settled payment with Amex, and that they could not refund him the difference. Instead, he was offered a teleconverter. Mr Narayan refused the offer and repeated his request for a refund. Then, Mr Narayan alleged, the shop manager took his lens, kept it behind the counter, and told him: 'You get out. You did not return the lens to me, you do whatever you want.'
Mr Narayan said at that point he feared for his safety. 'They looked like they wanted to beat me up,' he said. He left the store but returned a while later and wrangled with the manager until he got a cash refund of $705 and the macro lens with a fresh invoice.
As he left the shop, the staff allegedly told him: 'Don't try to act smart. Just get out of here immediately.'
When The New Paper visited the shop last week, the manager admitted that he had charged Mr Narayan double the retail price. He also admitted that in the heat of the moment, he might have been 'a little hot-tempered'.
DENIAL
But he denied threatening Mr Narayan. 'There were other customers in the store. How to threaten? The other customers will be scared away,' he said.
A check with Sigma Singapore Marketing revealed that the shop in question is an authorised retailer of their products. Mr Seah Seng Choon, executive director of the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), confirmed that Case had received negative feedback against the shop before.
'We received two cases in total, one each in 2007 and 2008,' revealed Mr Seah. Case does not investigate or take action unless a consumer lodges a formal complaint.
For now, Mr Narayan has decided to let the matter rest. 'I got my money back,' he said.
Local dun patronize the place for IT and electronics products. Especially those shops on the 1st 2 levels. Only tourists are dumb enough to visit the place and think the products are cheap. By the time they found out the products are faulty, it's too late and they are back in their own countries.
Never buy a computer or laptop from those shops which are not authorised dealers or distributors. Some friends did. Their laptops came with 3-5 year service warranty. But after the 1st year, some of the shops have already closed down.
So, do your research. Dun go for cheap stuff there. If it is too cheap, it's probably came with some strings attached.
--------------------------
The New Paper
09 July 2008
Charged double at camera shop
Man returns for a refund but claims he was told to get out.
Shop admits to charging double, but denies threatening the customer.
Daryl Lim
HE thought he had a bargain on his hands. But Mr Narayan, 35, ended up paying double the price.
On 25 Jun, the marketing consultant went to Sim Lim Square to buy some MP3 players as gifts for his friends. While there, he went into a camera store to look at the lenses on sale. After some bargaining, he bought a Sigma macro lens for $1,485. He also got two filters, which cost about $20 each, as freebies.
Mr Narayan paid for it using his American Express (Amex) card. But he said he still wasn't convinced about the price. He logged on to the Internet to check the actual price of the lens and found that it was priced around $750 at various retailers - almost half of what the shop had charged him. 'I realised that they had made a fool out of me,' Mr Narayan told The New Paper.
Mr Narayan, a foreign national, also realised he had not been given an invoice for his purchase, and the warranty card was unstamped. The next day, he went back to the shop to seek redress. There, Mr Narayan claims, he was first shown a few price lists and told that the price he paid was the correct one.
When he insisted that the shop had made a mistake, he was told that they had already settled payment with Amex, and that they could not refund him the difference. Instead, he was offered a teleconverter. Mr Narayan refused the offer and repeated his request for a refund. Then, Mr Narayan alleged, the shop manager took his lens, kept it behind the counter, and told him: 'You get out. You did not return the lens to me, you do whatever you want.'
Mr Narayan said at that point he feared for his safety. 'They looked like they wanted to beat me up,' he said. He left the store but returned a while later and wrangled with the manager until he got a cash refund of $705 and the macro lens with a fresh invoice.
As he left the shop, the staff allegedly told him: 'Don't try to act smart. Just get out of here immediately.'
When The New Paper visited the shop last week, the manager admitted that he had charged Mr Narayan double the retail price. He also admitted that in the heat of the moment, he might have been 'a little hot-tempered'.
DENIAL
But he denied threatening Mr Narayan. 'There were other customers in the store. How to threaten? The other customers will be scared away,' he said.
A check with Sigma Singapore Marketing revealed that the shop in question is an authorised retailer of their products. Mr Seah Seng Choon, executive director of the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), confirmed that Case had received negative feedback against the shop before.
'We received two cases in total, one each in 2007 and 2008,' revealed Mr Seah. Case does not investigate or take action unless a consumer lodges a formal complaint.
For now, Mr Narayan has decided to let the matter rest. 'I got my money back,' he said.
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