FREE GIFT

When I was on my home from work this evening, I stopped by at Giant Bandar Puteri to shop for some groceries. Some of the stuff that I bought is for the pantry at the office and a few for my self at home. Done with shopping and paying at the counter, I was greeted by a young girl asking whether I have claimed a free shopping bag. As spontaneous as it could be, I said NO. So she led me to a corner opposite the paying counter and asked me to have a sit.

At the counter, I could see few ranges of products - induction cooker, microwave, cooking utensils and etc. On my mind.. DAMN.. this is another CABUT AND MENANG ... So, I was just being very polite when the girl handed me a piece of paper - a survey form. So, I filled in the form and she handed me the bag which she promised earlier. It's just a stupid green shopping bag but since it's free... ok laa...

Then, she started to show me all of the products that they carry... My goodness.. the prices were exorbitant! A microwave for RM2988??? Hey... we got a new microwave for our pantry only for RM150!! Another shocker is the cooking pots - one set is priced at RM3000 over... I told the girl (which at this point was being helped by her co-worker - a boy who is not having excellent marketing skills at all) that my kuali at home only costs me about RM20.00. It's not the pot which is important.. but it's the chef! If you are a lousy chef, even if use a RM3000 worth of pot.. your cooking will still taste lousy. When I finished my sentence, the boy commented in a rather rude way. Well, I'm all ready to bombard him with full of questions.... hehehehe

I started questioning abt the warranty, the materials, energy consumption bla.. bla.. bla.. while they were busy doing a demo to me. So it went on for like 10 minutes. Now the best part is, when the girl asked me to rip the gift voucher. She already explained that there could be four possible scenarios of the gift voucher. One - RM50 voucher, two - RM50 + RM200 bonus voucher, three - RM50 + RM300 voucher and four - RM50 + free gift worth RM700 (eye massager or sumthing). All of these voucher can only be used to purchase the goods that they carry and purchase should be made within same day.

I already suspected that I'm going to get a SPECIAL voucher once I ripped it off. Guess what?? I got a RM50 voucher + free induction cooker + free microwave... HAHAHAHAH... i know that this is a scam. The girl was obviously pretending that this never happened - the boy was even worse.. trying to act as if he knows nothing.... and the worst - the supervisor... he wanted to call his superior/supplier whatsoever to confirm on these. Knowing the situation, I politely told them that I'm already late to get back home (as it was almost 7pm) and I don't bother to purchase any of the time. Plus, I told them, to give my voucher to anyone who needs it.... ;) They must be very upset with me... ahhahahahaha

I went through exactly the same situation abt 4 years ago. That time, I was wandering off after work at Times Square (I used to commute using Monorel/LRT when i was working at Jalan Raja Chulan. The same thing happened and at that time, I even spoke to the boss - as if he wanted to assure that I was not having a plan with his staff to scam him... haiyaaaa... stupid laaa....

Now, who wants to buy a microwave for RM3000 and the brand is not known at all??? They clain that the company is already in business for 9 years but all these while, no publicities were being made to promote the brand. What kind of business model is that?

They perfectly chosen the wrong victim this time - I'm an accountant by training and a lecturer by profession. But i feel bad that they are still using this type of scam. I called it a scam because it's clear that they want to rip off any customer with the unreasonable prices of their product.

So, please be careful when you go to these kind of kiosks.. but... as an advice.. just take the free gift ;)

Happy New Year 2009

My oh My!! Is it too late to make this entry? I guess not. Even though, January 2009 is already over, I think it's rather late than never. Resolutions??? Easy.. Just recylce on those which have not been achieved in 2008. Sometimes, I wonder, do I really need new resolutions? I just want to lead a happy and simple life. That's all. So, I'll go with the flow.