HER 12-year-old daughter wanted to buy a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) to share with her friends.
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Nicole said that she was overcharged for a Sony PSP that she had bought at a Lucky Plaza shop. -- Picture: ADELINE ONG
On 12 July, a 41-year-old sales assistant, who wanted to be known only as Nicole, went with her daughter to shop for one at Lucky Plaza.
After checking with several shops, she found out that the price ranged between $300 and $600.
She told The New Paper that she went to a shop owned by Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises. She said that the sales assistant there was polite and helpful, and helped her daughter to choose a black-tinted PSP.
He advised Nicole to upgrade the software on the PSP, explaining that this would allow her daughter to play more games as well as surf the Internet, among other things.
When Nicole asked him how much the games cost, he told her that they were free of charge.
He added that she only needed to pay for the PSP and licence for software upgrading.
He then took the PSP away to download the games and upgrade the software, she said.
He returned 15 minutes later with the PSP and the bill - a whopping $3,550.
Said Nicole: 'I was shocked. I thought he had written an extra zero by mistake.
'I told him that if the upgraded PSP was going to cost as much as a laptop, I might as well get my daughter a laptop.'
Nicole said that her daughter agreed that the PSP was too expensive, and said she didn't want it anymore.
But the sales assistant told her that it was too late as he had already downloaded original software onto the PSP and the licences were costly.
AGREED TO REDUCE PRICE
He agreed to reduce the price to $3,100, but Nicole said it was still too expensive.
He then offered reduce it further to $2,610, saying that he wouldn't include anti-virus software.
When Nicole insisted that she didn't want it, he said she still had to pay for the licences of the downloaded games, which would cost $2,000.
Said Nicole: 'Although it was crazy that I had to pay $2,000 for nothing, I thought that I could not expect the shop to pay for the licences.
'I couldn't walk away as it would be irresponsible of me.'
She asked him why other shops sold PSPs for between $300 to $600.
'He claimed that the PSPs they were selling were different because the licences for the software were not original.'
Convinced by the shop assistant, she paid $2,600.
But her brother told her that night that she had paid too much.
They went back to the shop the next day and asked to see the licences for the software, but were told it was confidential.
The shop insisted it did not overcharge Nicole, but agreed to waive the service charge.
After lengthy negotiations, the price came down to $1,400. But Nicole insisted the maximum she would pay was $1,000.
She got her way and received a $1,600 refund.
'It was still very expensive but I did not want to waste time,' she said.
She later went to the Consumers' Association of Singapore but was told that because she had agreed to pay $1,000, it could not pursue the matter further.
'All the while, the sales assistant had an innocent face, and was helpful and appeared sincere,' she said.
She added that she was not intimidated into paying.
When contacted, Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises declined to comment.
'My friends all say I'm so stupid,' Nicole said.
Cai Haoxiang, newsroom intern
