I'm the expert at getting conned!

Why do i always get conned?

Feeling dam pissed off now that i'm inspired to blog abt this!

Anyway, back to tt qns, i don't understand why i always get conned! seriously, i can now think of 3 incidents offhand:

(1) Wax in the City

anyone remembered this nail/spa plc? i signed a package with them, used it for like 3 times? and it folded. my package was arnd $1k after GST.. and i was already one of the least hit customer cuz i opted for the cheapest package.. i heard some pple paid like $4+k for a lifetime unlimited package (paid by installment la)!

this one not too bad cuz it was such a big hoo-ha tt many spa places took over our packages. basically we cld still do spa treatments at no cost at their salon/spa.. but then they will deduct frm our package balance at the full listed price la.. e.g. a mani/pedi wld cost me $68 which i paid with my balance pts.. din managed to use all the balance but i think i recouped a good half of the package price..

(2) Phone scam

last time in sec/uni, i wanted to sell my nokia hp.. so i listed it online (can't rem wat site! don't think it was ebay).. and some nigerian (yes, you know where this story is heading already just by me mentioning tt) person offered to pay me a v gd price and i stupidly shipped the phone to him and of cuz, din get any $ in return.

(3) Camera scam

This happened today only. Fresh off the press!

BEWARE OF THIS STORE:

Square United Cam

1 Rochor Canal Road

#02-72

Sim Lim Square

S188504

went sim lim with the intention of buying a Canon S100 and i chanced upon this shop where the salesman (Johnny i think) quoted me S$550 (incl. of GST) for the cam.. i wanted to buy it and he went to "call his colleague" in another store to get one for me (which now i think back, could just be for show).. over the phone, he mentioned that his colleague was having lunch n he told the colleague to bring it over when he was done and he'd talk to me while waiting..

so while "waiting", he started to sell me another camera.. the Pentax Optio RZ18.. i never heard of the camera before but was wow-ed over by the gd quality photos it cld take.. and i really tot i was getting a good offer cuz the specs was much better than the S100 and the pic quality was v good, as compared to the S100..

he quoted me $680 at first and then self-lowered it to $550... i tried to google the avg price the pdt cost online on the spot (with my phone) and he kept trying to distract me from doing so.. he kept asking what i'm doing and talking even though i told him many times to give me a few mins to do my research as i'm not comfortable buying things i nv do research on first.. but he still kept talking.. which now i know why he did that..

so i ended up buying the cam cuz of the supposed discounted price and better specs.. but i still din feel comfortable so i went home to do some online research. I found tt on ebay the selling price was arnd SGD 300-400 (incl. shipping cost) and on the pentax website it was selling for SGD 320 (excl. shipping)! i even called another retailer in singapore and they quoted me SGD 220!

so i went back immediately to exchange the camera for the S100 since i haven used it and the price quoted was the same. When i went there, the salesman was talking to another customer, and i overheard the conversation and it seemed like the customer was also trying to get an exchange.. when it was my turn, i asked for an exchange and he told me No outrightly, pointing to the invoice saying there is no returns (which actually, returns is not the same as exchange i feel).. so i tried reasoning to him that i did not even use the cam and went back the same day..

after a while he said he cld exchange for me but we need to top up the difference.. and he started to sell me a more expensive camera! i said i only wanted the S100 and he said no more stock.. Told him there was still stock when i wanted to buy (2-3hrs ago) and he said he sold it already (the auditor in me wanted to ask him to show me the invoice lol).. I totally don't believe him.. I said i wld wait for stock to come in and he said ok, but he cannot guarantee the same price and told me to be prepared to pay S$699, the retail price at the latest IT show! I got really pissed as i knew at tt point tt his aim was just to con me to buy the pentax and earn a much higher profit and he never had any intention of selling me the S100 at S$550.. so i literally STORMED out of the store..

i'm never going to buy frm sim lim again!! or at least never going there alone myself..

PLS everyone tell your friends abt this! I really don't want anyone else to get conned by them and I hope they close down soon..

AND i hope karma bite them real hard!

(4) iPod Nano Scam

Ok la, this one i wised up already so its not a scam per-se cuz i din get cheated

but i still can't believe pple still go abt scamming in this way!

the story goes like this.. i listed my ipod nano 6th generation on ebay to sell and someone quoted me S$250 all in for item + postage.. asked him where to ship it to cuz i wanted to gauge the postage and he told me "somewhere in west africa" (alarm bells rang at this pt)..

true enough, i set up the request for payment thru paypal and i got an email back from "Paypal" informing me tt the person had made payment:

and "Paypal" sent me numerous emails asking me to send the item! wtf.. i don't think Paypal works like this!

if u can see, the email came from service@paypal,com. there's tt extra "." at the back of the email add and it din haf .sg which all my emails from paypal has. also, it cam via a yahoo.com email add which "coincidentally" the buyer also uses yahoo!

the buyer also sent me an email to inform me tt he has made payment and the address he gave me is one in "Nigeria".. alarm bells went off the hook alrdy!

i ignored the email and informed the real Paypal abt this person and that i think its a scam,  in the hope of stopping him and preventing others to get cheated too.

then the buyer emailed me again to request tt i mail out the item:

if u see the highlighted portion, the stupid person actually tried to accuse me of scaming him and trying to rip him off! i cldn't believe it so i sent him this reply:

kns, he still replied me after tt to say payment to me will only be done after i mail out the item..

Paypal also gave me a call to tell me that they also think the email is fake and tt paypal won't address me as <my email add> but wld address me with my registered paypal name..

and they said tt Paypal won't ask me to send the item first without getting the money. They also advised me to delete the emails cuz it might have viruses etc in it! they were so nice!

tot i'd share this here so those who read this can learn abt it and prevent themselves frm getting scammed =)

I seriously don't know why some pple can be so mean and want to scam/cheat pple! earn your money thru ur own hard work la! why do you wanna take other's pple hard earn money? they work hard for it ok.. how can you just take it away frm them like this..

to all the cheaters/con pple/scammers out there.. beware of KARMA! i heard it's looking for you and it's gonna bite real hard!