Given that most of my mornings are free now, I decided to shoot pictures with my very old Panasonic semi-DSLR. Note - VERY OLD. But I needed new batteries because the current 2 I have die real quickly. I had set out to search for them a few times 2-3 years ago at Sim Lim Square, the hub of electronic stuff. They were out of stock. I was even told that they might be discontinued.
Imagine my excitement when I found that the above dubious shop carries an upgraded version of the battery. A very young salesman quoted S$46-50 for a single battery.
I went over next door to my usual haunt, Alan Photo, to ask for a second opinion. They did not carry the battery model anymore. The usual salesman I buy my camera gear from told me that it should not cost more than S$20-25. 
That's almost half the price I was quoted earlier! So I went to another shop nearby and found that they had the exact model. I was upfront with the more elderly salesman I met there. I shared with him my disgust with some dubious darling. He chuckled and mentioned that the first salesman probably thought I was a tourist. Rip off a tourist at almost double the price??? Anyway, this salesman quoted me a reasonable price which I went back to Alan Photo to verify again. In the end, I got my 2 batteries.
I went home with a determination to expose the dishonesty and did this only about a month later.
Lesson learnt - always shop around for prices, especially at Sim Lim Square. If you are a tourist or look like one (do I???), be upfront and report any dubious salesperson. Well, I did. Here. :)
Labels: enraged, ruby tuesday, wordless wednesday
