Hong Kong Bait and Switch Rip off

On Saturday after visiting a doctor to see 4d in vitro babies images, I was inspired to get Sunny a camera before leaving Hong Kong. So we went into a camera shop on Nathan Road, the young sales assistant quoted low price on Canon and Nikon SLR digital cameras. Then all of a sudden the salesman was replaced with another sales person who proceeded to talk us into a different camera which was more expensive and not as good.

In the end we paid the man, but feeling was not right so checked the website price and found that they had charged us double.

We were angry and went back to the shop to return the camera and get a refund. On the way back we noticed the fine print on the invoice saying no exchange or refund so we prepared a negotiation that went like this:

Before going into the store we checked a price nearby and we were spotted by the shops sales men standing on the street. We quickly marched into the shop where Sunny started to raise her voice and complain to the sales person. They moved us to the back of the shop, but sunny was too loud and quickly the shop was emptied of customers and the salesmen gathered around for the stoush.

The manager stepped in and started to ask what we wanted, Sunny wanted the head of the salesperson who ripped us off, while I asked for a refund. Sunny stormed around the store saying she wanted to call the police and would call her lawyer and take them to consumer council. They pleaded right to charge market price in HK and we pointed out that HK govt takes a dim view of these rip offs since they were recently reported in the daily news.

Sunny continued her tirade while walking around the store with her phone up to her ear talking about police, laywers and shutting down the shop. I sat at the counter asking the manager what he was going to do about it. He walked to the cash register took out the full amount of 4900 hkd and refunded us, we handed over the camera and walked out.

Beware the bait and switch trick, especially if you are not expert in the product or do not have reference pricing.