Bad Service - Compact Electronics

I received this on 12 June but have not had time to do any updates due to my full time job taking up a large proportion of my time but now that I have some time, here is the email.

Apologies to VL for publishing this so late, this should never have happened, and you have my apologies for that.

Name : VL (user chose to use only initials)
Date & Time : 12 June 2009
Place/Website address : Compact Electronics at Sim Lim Square
Person Serving Me : N/A
What Did I Intend to Buy/What I Bought : Rechargeable batteries

My Experience : I went to “Compact Electronics” #02-72 at Sim Lim Square on 11 Jun around 7pm to shop for a set of rechargeable batteries and it turned out to be a downright insulting and humiliating experience.

I was approached by one of the staff and I told him I was looking for Sanyo Rechargeable batteries. He showed me the batteries and asked how many I need. I then asked for the price and he told me $12 for a pack of 2.

I recalled a pack of 4 costs $16 two years ago, I told him I need to consider. As I was walking away, he said $5. I approached him to clarify but he told me to shop around on the price.

With disbelief, I checked out 6 shops with prices from $24 - $32 for a pack of 4. I went back to him but he showed faces & asked me to go shop around again. I told him I would like to get 2 packs of 2 from him but he replied arrogantly “I won’t sell” and asked me to continue to shop around.

I was totally numbed by his response and left the shop. I never felt so humiliated in my life. This is not service at all. Such unforgiving attitude not only provokes, it is downright humiliating. Fortunately, my foreign friends were not with me then; otherwise, such terrible behavior would have caused permanent damage to the ‘shopping paradise’ image of Singapore.

While I had bought the batteries from another shop, I felt compelled to highlight this humiliating experience in writing which I hope the Sim Lim Square Management, CASE and Singapore Tourism Board can take appropriate measures/actions against the shop “Compact Electronics” #02-72.

Overall Rating : 5 Brickbats

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Bad Service - PA Mart @ Sim Lim Square

I received this via email and thought I would share it with you readers.

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I would like to share my experience with PA Mart in Sim Lim Square.

I bought a MacBook during the IT show in Suntec Mall. Shopping around, I thought I found the best deal and with the friendly service from the booth girls, proceeded to buy the Macbook from PA Mart. The offer was a memory upgrade from 2GB to 3GB, including a free printer and screen protector.

They installed the memory chip on the spot but upon returning home and attempting to use the Macbook, it would not start and started to beep. Stopping the beeping and starting the macbook took 5 minutes of dongling the power cord and, pressing and holding the start button. I called the Asian customer service hotline who advised me to bring the Macbook to my point of purchase for an exchange as this was a faulty machine.

Bringing the macbook to PA Mart in Sim Lim, Mark changed the memory card but the problem persisted. He refused to make an exchange because I had registered the Macbook online with Apple. He advised me to call the local service centre and bring the Macbook there for repairs.

The local call centre said the problem would be the upgrade of the memory chip as the Macbook should be fitted with an equal memory module in each of the 2 memory slots. Hence the free upgrade to 3GB would cause a problem. I double checked this with the apple website and found it to be true. The call centre further explained that Apple's licensed resellers all know this and upon checking said PA Mart was not found to be their licensed reseller. He advised me to return to PA Mart for either an upgrade to 4GB or downgrade to 2GB.

When I returned to tell Mark about what the local call centre said, he asked his colleague, Azar, to do an exchange. We settled on 4GB which meant another S$45. Already unhappy that I'm topping up just to get the Macbook to work, Azar continues to astound me with his bad attitude and surly demeanor. His burly size ensures customer compliance. After installing the memory chip, he wanders off, leaving me to reattach a dirty screen protector and pack up.

I give credit that PA Mart eventually exchanged a faulty Macbook, but they appear to be dishonest in their selling practices.

1) Sending me on a runabout instead of exchanging the faulty Macbook.

2) Having to top up to get the Macbook working properly. S$45 is not a lot of money, but that free memory upgrade really isn't any free gift!

3) At the IT Fair, the memory chip was taken out of an unopened packaging. The subsequent times the memory card was changed at Sim Lim, PA Mart seemed to take random chips from behind a counter, leaving me to wonder if these are old memory chips or unauthorised ones. My queries on this were brushed off. Like I said, Azar is a huge man and I felt under duress. Mark later assured me that the memory chips had a lifetime warranty and I could return to PA Mart if there was any problems. I really don't know if I could trust that statement!

With bad publicity surrounding Sim Lim, I would not normally buy there but during the IT Fair, I failed to check if PA Mart from Sim Lim. I would like to advise consumers at the IT Show to be vigilant about the vendors. I would definitely avoid ALL Sim Lim vendors no matter where they set up their booths!

Kind Regards,

Fxxxxxxn (name edited for privacy reasons)

Author's addendum, added on 28/03/2009 - After seeing an apple advertisement in the newspapers today. PA Mart is an authorised reseller of Apple products after all. That probably meant they might be ignorant of their products which is a notch less than being dishonest!PA Mart is an authorised reseller of Apple products after all. That probably meant they might be ignorant of their products which is a notch less than being dishonest!

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Sim Lim Square & CASE Join Hands To Clean Up Bad Rep

Sim Lim Square's management and CASE have joined hands to clean up the mall's bad reputation according to a Straits Times online article.

According to the article, there will be an accreditation scheme for the shops in Sim Lim Square and those found trustworthy would be given a decal to display on their shop window. Also, the article states that the accreditation scheme will be launched at vendors of two other industries, the motoring and healthy, beauty & spa industry

How about a decal for the NOT trustworthy shops till they buck up on their service levels as well? I think the shame of being blacklisted is a bigger deterrent than the pride of putting an accredited decal, especially here in Singapore where "face" is everything.

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Sim Lim Square Complaints

I am an avid amateur photographer and, in some ways, a tech geek. I love nothing more than to spend some free time during my lunch hour break looking through the various tech gadgets on sale at Sim Lim Square, a local electronics mall, quite like Japan's Akihabara district albeit on a smaller scale.

I was looking through this Singapore photography website, Clubsnap and came across a thread which sums up many users' experience with Sim Lim Square and their rude salesmen.

The thread about rude salesmen in Sim Lim Square can be found here.

A little background on Sim Lim Square (or commonly known as SLS). It is a mall that is packed with electronics, computers, accessories for computers, cameras and almost anything related to IT. There are shops selling such things as CCTVs, games, game consoles, peripherals and the like. Some shops in Sim Lim Square have been blacklisted by the Consumers' Association of Singapore (CASE).

Having said that, if you have done your homework (ie research on prices, quality of the product you are keen on etc), good deals can be had there. There are also, several shops that are just there to make an honest living, where their staff are generally polite and helpful. Sadly, it is a handful of black sheep that give the whole mall a bad name.

In any case, I will still buy some of my IT gear from Sim Lim Square. I just go to a handful of shops I have done business with and although they do not sell at rock bottom prices, do offer me good service and a fair deal. Considering how prices at most shops in Sim Lim Square aren't that competitive anyway, the other option would be Funan the IT Mall.

Got a customer service experience to share? Email me to get your story published! Do remember to read the submission guidelines and how we rate establishments before submitting.