ugly side of retailers

don't ever, ever, ever replace your watches' battery at lucky plaza. i guess that's where they rip off the tourists (and locals alike, because they nearly pulled a fast one on me!). the first shop at the basement closest to paragon showed me the worst service ever.

some snippets of our conversation:

'ah seng': eh, you never change your battery before ah? very hard leh. got so many small screws! your battery very expensive. $35.
me: [quiet] (thinking to myself, is that my problem? how is that related to me?)

few seconds later..
ah seng: eh, miss, can don't stand near me? you giving me stress. (in an impolite tone)

few seconds later..
he puts the small screws on the table, without anything to hold them (he drops them later on)
then, he takes out an electronic calculator battery and tells me that the battery is more expensive, so i have to pay him $45 instead. we negotiate and reach $38. asked for receipt but he said they didn't issue them for under-$100.

when the battery was installed, it looked totally unresponsive. in fact, it looked like it wasn't working.

ah seng: i don't know how to reset your watch. ask your boyfriend press some buttons himself. should be no problem.
me: can you do it for me instead? you should know.
ah seng: aiyah, this watch i don't know. ask your boyfriend la. $38 please.

after standing around with my friends for a while looking at the poor watch, i approached them for a refund. or just somebody to UNDO the lousy thing. apparently NOBODY knew how to do it besides that guy. and guess what, he conveniently disappeared to the toilet RIGHT after he collected the money. i pressed his colleagues to find him immediately.

he looked nonchalent and gave no explanations. but he complained about having to re-screw the pieces. said it was difficult. and in the process he DROPPED one of the tiny screws on the ground. that wasn't all, you know. he asked for a $5 service fee!!!! at this time, one of my friends had gone off first, leaving me and another girl. we both looked very unhappy, and my face was very black. i think the shop people knew. they started pulling down the shutters of the shop. at 7pm?!?!? we wondered if they were afraid we would create a scene (i was already planning to, as soon as my watch was safe in my hands).

when he was done, he said, "so i'll give you back $33 cos of service fee. i did a lot of work you know."
i stubbornly insisted that i was NOT going to pay him for any service. i wanted $38 back. he tried again, "$5 service".

"WHAT KIND OF SERVICE IS THIS? I AM NOT PAYING FOR IT!"


i got all my money back, but not before he shouted a hokkien vulgarity at me. i spent the rest of the night seething. even through dinner with the girls. i'd love to pursue this matter, i'm just not sure which is the best way. or if it's even WORTH my time.

but the more i think about it, the angrier i get. hey guess what, the world is ugly after all.