Tourist: Store charged me $300 more for phone

HE THOUGHT he had got a good deal for his new handphone.

Only to realise later that he had paid more than double the market price.

Undergraduate Nicholas Goh, a tourist from New Zealand, bought an LG Cookie 500 handphone for $577 from a shop in Lucky Plaza.

When he realised he paid more than $300 above the market price, Mr Goh, 21, filed a complaint with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

In the end, he managed to get a partial refund of $240.

He had gone to Lucky Plaza on 23 Dec to shop for a handphone.

He said: “Handphones are slightly cheaper here than in New Zealand.”

After comparing prices, he decided to get a phone from Ez Advance Trading Enterprise, which offered him the lowest price.

He paid a $100 deposit for a Nokia phone and was told to collect it the next day as he did not have enough money.

Different phone

But when he went back the next day, he was advised by another salesperson to buy the LG Cookie 500 phone instead.

The salesman, Mr Goh said, persuaded him to buy the LG model claiming it was better.

Mr Goh said he was told that he had to make a decision on the spot, leaving him with no time to do research on market prices for that particular phone.

The LG phone cost $577 with an “international warranty”. The salesman claimed that he also gave Mr Goh a 15 per cent discount.

Mr Goh took the offer and bought the phone.

But two days later, on Christmas Day, Mr Goh was shopping with relatives at Parkway Parade when he came across a similar LG model selling for $219 there.

The only difference was that the phone he had bought was an export model made in India.

The sales assistant there also told him LG does not offer international warranties.

Mr Goh, who has relatives here, later found the identical model in a shop in Bedok. The price was only $198.

So he went back to the Lucky Plaza shop the same day, but they offered him only a $50 refund.

On 29 Dec, Mr Goh made a police report and filed a complaint with STB.

When contacted, an STB spokesman confirmed the complaint, adding that they contacted the shop and a settlement was arranged.

Mr Goh said the shop offered him a partial refund of $240. When he asked them to take back the phone and give him a full refund, the shop refused, so he accepted the partial refund.

When The New Paper visited the shop, a salesman, who gave his name only as John, confirmed that they sold the phone to Mr Goh for $577.

When asked about the price discrepancy, he said his boss might have bought the phone at a higher price than other retailers, and that they had to follow the price set by their boss.

John added: “I didn’t even argue with him (Mr Goh) when he came down to my shop to ask for a refund. We went as far as we could and we were willing to lose some money to settle it.”

STB said they have received 1,567 complaints from tourists about retailers this year. Of these, about 500 were related to retail electronics shops.

Aretha Loh, newsroom intern

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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Tourist: Store charged me $300 more for phone