Thursday, March 10, 2005

Buying handphone? Don't deal with any Ah Beng resellers in Pertama Complex!

So many stories lately being told to me by friends who advised against going to Pertama Complex to buy handphones - "Don't go to Pertama, no matter how desperate you are," so they would say. The Ah Beng sellers there will sweet talk you, and you'll be cheated, tricked, swindled, deceived, conned, scammed, framed, shammed, shucked, and hustled mercilessly.

One friend said she bought a phone - didn't sign any form but left them her name on the warranty card, after all she already have a post-paid line - and suddenly about three weeks later she was notified by her telco that she had already agreed to sign up for a twelve months contract for a new corporate post-paid line. She had to go back to the same Ah Beng in Pertama, and when she could not find him, go to the telco's office to cancel her line, which costed her about RM150...

Another friend said he bought a handphone that was supposed to be new, but after a couple of days the set went bonkers - the speakers failed. He sent it for a check up and warranty claim, and found out that the warranty has expired for that particular set - yep, it was a second hand set that he bought - they just changed the housing, in fact he even found some messages in the Sent Items folder (stolen set!). Of course he tried to relocate the same Ah Beng and the same store from which he bought the phone, but both man and shop were gone...

A colleague also traded in his handphone and bought a set from an Ah Beng in Pertama. He went around all the shops, and found this one store selling the model he wanted for just RM20 lower than the rest of the store. The catch was, the charger was not included. And the charger costs about RM70...

But I had no choice but to go there recently - due to some dealings made by some people in my office with a certain phones distributor who has several shops there - and purchase one unit for the office.

And true enough - there were lots of conniving Ah Bengs there! One tried to sell me a second hand unit and I only found out after I checked the Sent Item folder (thank God I had heard my friend's story), and he also tried to sell me a unit sans the charger as well.

Another Ah Beng (at the same store, haiya, if only I could go to some respectable stores elsewhere and forget about the deal with the distributor!), when asked for a little discount simply wave me away called me crazy (lei kong meh ah, chi sin ah? pat chi so wai - hello, no use going to school in Ipoh and not learn how to cuss in Cantonese!). As if I don't know their competitors in Sg Wang sells it a bit cheaper (wish I could go there instead!)...

I gave up - called the guys at the office and said if they want the phone, just wait for the distributor to send one to us, no need to rush lah. If the review miss the mag's deadline, then so be it. And if due to that the distributor wishes to cancel advertising with us, take it as fated!

So to all reading my post - stay away from the Ah Beng phone resellers in Pertama! After all, pricing is similar if not cheaper in Sg Wang, and I bet the resellers there are more polite too.

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