A Friend’s Bad Experience

A friend of mine had a bad experience when he went to buy a smart phone from this shop, Ocean Thirteen Mobile Phone Enterprise (K13, 4^th Floor) in The Mines Shopping Centre.

On 16 June 2011, he went to the shop and asked for a phone with GPS function as he needs it while traveling outstation. Prior to that, he had Samsung Galaxy Mini in his mind (which fits his requirements). Upon reaching the shop, the salesperson a.k.a Mr Sky, tried his best to persuade him to buy another model, Samsung Corby 2, which is RM100 cheaper. Mr Sky allegedly told my friend that the Corby 2 is :

1. Of better performance than Galaxy Mini (using 800Mhz Processor);
2. With Android OS;
3. With GPS function (which is the main requirement my friend needed).

Believing what this salesperson said, my friend bought the Corby 2. He then explored the new Corby 2 and realized that all 3 claims were eventually false. Most importantly, it has NO GPS FUNCTION which my friend required.

He then quickly send back the phone to the shop next day and coincidentally, Mr Sky was on leave. My friend then talked to another salesperson and requested to change the phone to the one he wanted originally, Galaxy Mini. This salesperson told him that he can only do that by trading in the Corby 2 with second hand price. OMG! I can’t accept this. He then told my friend that he can accept back the Corby 2 by charging him extra RM160 to get the Galaxy Mini plus installing their GPS software and antivirus with an additional RM108. Of course my friend rejected the offer and went home. He then returned home without trading in and waited for Mr Sky’s return.

My friend went back that shop on 18 June 2011 and met Mr Sky. He said the same thing which is to trade in the phone with second hand price, except that he had to pay RM160 + RM160. However, my friend took the offer without wanting him to do anything to his new phone.

He had lodged a report to the Mines management via email. His report was acknowledged with a follow up call, stating that they are going to issue a warning to that shop but requested my friend not to send this report to The Star newspaper, fearing that this will tarnish their name.

I personally see this is a serious issue. This is totally cheating and “bright light robbing” consumers, and I hope anyone reading this would be warned about the existence of dishonest salespersons outside. Just be very alert and aware of your right as a consumer.

Disclaimer : I blogged this to warn all my friends and readers about the services they provide. It is up to them to judge whether to make any purchase from the shop or not after reading. This is not to tarnish any party’s name. Just sharing a friend’s experience.