ST Forum Online: Be cautious about 'great buys'

[Gary]

Clifford. Enjoy reading this. LOL

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Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Onl ... 17320.html

Dec 25, 2010
Be cautious about 'great buys'

SINGAPORE'S IT mega events never fail to draw huge crowds who go for the great deals and gifts with purchases.

At the recent Electronics and Furniture Christmas Gift Fair held at Suntec City Convention Centre from Dec 17-19, electronics retailer Audio House came up with $29 great buys.

I came to know about a $29 deal for a netbook through my friend. Both of us wanted to get the netbooks and so we went there very early at 6am on Dec 18. The fair was to start at 11am.

When the doors opened, the netbook coupons were snapped up within seconds. When it came to our turn, there were no more netbook coupons left. Staff offered us coupons for digital cameras instead. We were disappointed, but as we had already queued for five hours, getting a $29 brandless camera was all right as consolation. So my friend and I bought the digital cameras.

But when I got home and opened the box, I was horrified to see that the batteries in the camera had long rusted and the battery oil had leaked and dried up. The camera also looked used.

How could a big player in the market sell such defective items? The other camera which my friend got was also not usable. We made another trip to Suntec to get our money back. The staff refused and were rude. They exchanged our cameras for another two. Again, both were not functional. So they offered to change it again.

We did not want the cameras any more.

After this incident, we would never trust such so-called great deals again.

Alex Oh

[Clifford60]

Haha, that is why I don't bother to look at those $29 or $5 items. Anyway, the Samsung Intel Core i5 with 4GB memory and 2 years warranty notebook for $799 is not a bad deal.