Saturday, December 17, 2005
Your cheating heart - Elvis Presley
Autumn 1993. It was the first time in London for many of us. Of course we were excited! And we had great fun. Unfortunately, for a couple of us, it was unforgettable for the wrong reason.
When we met up at our rendezvous point at the appointed time, I was surprised to see one of me mates (let's call him "W") was standing there with a large box on the ground. It was unmistakable - a TV box! He bought a television on our first day out in London???
Another mate, R, had a smaller box - he purchased a small cassette double deck player. However, from the looks on their faces, we knew that sumthing was not right.
They purchased those stuffs at an auction shop at Oxford Street. Do be warned, you potential London tourists.
These places are shops where the auctioneer auctions off goods - be it electronical stuffs, perfume, etc.
Let me say at the outset that these are pretty legal! There's nothing the authorities can do about them.
You see, the way they do things is that they basically appeal to the greedy side in you. The atmosphere - fast talking auctioneer, many people buying (me mates thinks some are "planted"), seemingly extremely good deals, everything done very quickly and in a rush so that one does not have the time to really think it over but hastily raises his hand for fear of losing out on a good deal.
After the goods have been paid for, it all sinks in. We've been had!!!! In fact, for me mates, it dawned upon them right after their bid was taken. By then, they knew legally that they couldn't wriggle their way out of it.
It din turn out that bad. I mean, the goods were in working condition. We enjoyed shows together on W's TV and oso the music from R's player!!!
And if you think me mates were guillible, think again. We warned our juniors about it - they went there with their eyes wide opened and yet they still ended up paying big money for crap stuffs!!!!!!!!
Winter 2005:- I know that W and R won't be happy to hear this but these shops are still operating at Oxford Street today!!!!!
Poor guillible tourists!
I have to confess - I almost fell for it!!!!!! Thank God for me mates' experiences and the skeptic in me which pulled me back.
I went to this place where they were selling perfume. 4 bottles of "branded" ladies perfume worth more than a hundred quid was only going for 20!!!! On top of that, you get for FREE 4 bottles of "branded" men's perfume!!!!!
What a bargain!
Perhaps it was because it was too good to be true - the cantonese have this saying "Good things are not cheap, cheap things are not good"!!! - that made me wary!
Many people purchased it - including this group of Malaysian (or Singaporen girls - I could tell from their accent as they chatted happily walking away from the shop gigling liek they got the deal of their lifetime!!).
I lingered on until the shop emptied out and I walked in closer to inspect the goods. 20 quid for 8 bottles of perfume!!!! Among the free men's perfume were - in the auctioneer's own words, "...a Calvin gift pack and a Calvin perfume." I know all about Calvin Klein's perfume so I went in closer to inspect them. It was unlike any of Calvin Klein's perfume. My suspicion increased. i inspected the boxes containing the perfume. It was stated "Calvin perfumes".
What happened to "Klein"??
I must admit that from a distance, the smaller bottle of "Calvin perfume" looked like CK One. As I moved in closer, I saw that it WAS NOT!
So that's how they con the people! I realised that when he rattled off the perfume names and brand, he never said the FULL NAME of the brand. "Calvin perfume", "Tommy cologne", etc.
You can't complain - they never said it was Calvin Klein! You assumed that! At least, I did. And I almost fell for it!!!!
Almost! Thank God!
When we met up at our rendezvous point at the appointed time, I was surprised to see one of me mates (let's call him "W") was standing there with a large box on the ground. It was unmistakable - a TV box! He bought a television on our first day out in London???
Another mate, R, had a smaller box - he purchased a small cassette double deck player. However, from the looks on their faces, we knew that sumthing was not right.
They purchased those stuffs at an auction shop at Oxford Street. Do be warned, you potential London tourists.
These places are shops where the auctioneer auctions off goods - be it electronical stuffs, perfume, etc.
Let me say at the outset that these are pretty legal! There's nothing the authorities can do about them.
You see, the way they do things is that they basically appeal to the greedy side in you. The atmosphere - fast talking auctioneer, many people buying (me mates thinks some are "planted"), seemingly extremely good deals, everything done very quickly and in a rush so that one does not have the time to really think it over but hastily raises his hand for fear of losing out on a good deal.
After the goods have been paid for, it all sinks in. We've been had!!!! In fact, for me mates, it dawned upon them right after their bid was taken. By then, they knew legally that they couldn't wriggle their way out of it.
It din turn out that bad. I mean, the goods were in working condition. We enjoyed shows together on W's TV and oso the music from R's player!!!
And if you think me mates were guillible, think again. We warned our juniors about it - they went there with their eyes wide opened and yet they still ended up paying big money for crap stuffs!!!!!!!!
Winter 2005:- I know that W and R won't be happy to hear this but these shops are still operating at Oxford Street today!!!!!
Poor guillible tourists!
I have to confess - I almost fell for it!!!!!! Thank God for me mates' experiences and the skeptic in me which pulled me back.
I went to this place where they were selling perfume. 4 bottles of "branded" ladies perfume worth more than a hundred quid was only going for 20!!!! On top of that, you get for FREE 4 bottles of "branded" men's perfume!!!!!
What a bargain!
Perhaps it was because it was too good to be true - the cantonese have this saying "Good things are not cheap, cheap things are not good"!!! - that made me wary!
Many people purchased it - including this group of Malaysian (or Singaporen girls - I could tell from their accent as they chatted happily walking away from the shop gigling liek they got the deal of their lifetime!!).
I lingered on until the shop emptied out and I walked in closer to inspect the goods. 20 quid for 8 bottles of perfume!!!! Among the free men's perfume were - in the auctioneer's own words, "...a Calvin gift pack and a Calvin perfume." I know all about Calvin Klein's perfume so I went in closer to inspect them. It was unlike any of Calvin Klein's perfume. My suspicion increased. i inspected the boxes containing the perfume. It was stated "Calvin perfumes".
What happened to "Klein"??
I must admit that from a distance, the smaller bottle of "Calvin perfume" looked like CK One. As I moved in closer, I saw that it WAS NOT!
So that's how they con the people! I realised that when he rattled off the perfume names and brand, he never said the FULL NAME of the brand. "Calvin perfume", "Tommy cologne", etc.
You can't complain - they never said it was Calvin Klein! You assumed that! At least, I did. And I almost fell for it!!!!
Almost! Thank God!
# posted by imissw : 1:51:00 pm
