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Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

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ecureilx
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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by ecureilx » Sun, 30 Oct 2016 12:52 pm

Elington wrote:
- GST rebates for expats that may fly back once in awhile
Say that again ? Fly back ?

FYI, GST rebate Is bit incorrect. It should be 'pay 7% and claim back 5.5% ... " Image

Its refund. Rebate = common folks will expect discount at the time of purchase.
- Mention of Star Retailers inside Sim Lim Square to be more reliable in business dealings
Star Retailer shops adhere to standards. What standards ? Do some research ..

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by ecureilx » Sun, 30 Oct 2016 12:54 pm

Elington wrote: - Syndicated shops (operates collectively while looking like separate entities)= to me is not thugs/gang, they appear as non-related shops, once an interested consumer leave a shop, the next shop is informed of such consumer, acts in accordance to either close the deal at shop B or force them back to shop A. I just visited last week and still see the same people around. I'll be named racist to have pointed them out.
Which floor was it?

How did the communication between shops work? (Just wondering ... )

What were you trying to buy?

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sun, 30 Oct 2016 7:27 pm

:roll: Why don't you two get a room. [-o<
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by ecureilx » Sun, 30 Oct 2016 9:38 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote::roll: Why don't you two get a room. [-o<
I thought the guy intended to liven up the board ;)

Aren't we doing it the right way ? :D

Elington deserves credit for his long BBCW style posts ...

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by rajagainstthemachine » Mon, 31 Oct 2016 11:28 am

things i've bought from Sim Lim
1. cables
2. chargers
3. laptop battery ( dodgy looking grey market piece that works)
4. HDD ( a second hand IDE drive for an old laptop)
5. services.. repaired a couple of smartphones..

in general what i have to say about the place is be careful and cautious and a bit street smart and don't hesitate to walk away if your instinct tells you something is fishy and DO NOT sign any contracts.. you don't need any stupid contract to buy stuff.. either you buy it pay upfront for all of it OR DON"T BUY IT!
To get there early is on time and showing up on time is late

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by jlcemy » Wed, 09 Nov 2016 11:50 am

hmm weird. what happened to my post? it disappeared. or maybe i didn't click post.

1) does anyone know if SLS is a good place to repair my laptop (suspect fan died).
2) and do they charge extra for using credit card payments?

in Malaysia, is common for the merchants to charge 2% extra which is unjust and sneaky.
Last edited by jlcemy on Mon, 31 Jul 2017 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by ecureilx » Wed, 09 Nov 2016 9:19 pm

jlcemy wrote:hmm weird. what happened to my post? it disappeared. or maybe i didn't click post.

1) does anyone know if SLS is a good place to repair my laptop (suspect fan died).
2) and do they charge extra for using credit card payments?

in Malaysia, is common for the merchants to charge 2% extra which is unjust and sneaky.
Yes for first 1. There are laptop repair shops in business for over 10 years ..

Subjective for 2. If you negotiate your price with low margin, some resellers will tell you there's a 3% surcharge, some have posted notice about the admin fee being charged by CC companies being transferred over to the customer, 1% for NETS ... some will say no credit card accepted for special deals, than get into needless arguments.

For NETS, most shops absorb the 1% fee, but 3% for items with pretty low margin ? No.

Especially when, say A branded router, selling for control price of 400$, with purchase cost being 350$, add 7% GST, You can guess how much margin there is ...

That's how much money there is, in selling branded computer equipment and accessories.

If you think the CC charge is sneaky, pay cash.

PS, Credit card and NETS merchants have to pay annual fee on top of the per transaction admin fee.

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by Strong Eagle » Wed, 09 Nov 2016 10:09 pm

Beware the shops that charge you GST but aren't actually GST registered.

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by ecureilx » Wed, 09 Nov 2016 10:19 pm

Strong Eagle wrote:Beware the shops that charge you GST but aren't actually GST registered.
Charging GST without stating the GST Registration no can be reported to IRAS.

That's a serious offence.

Periodically IRAS publishes names of shops who falsely charged GST or claimed GST.

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by Strong Eagle » Thu, 10 Nov 2016 12:05 am

ecureilx wrote:
Strong Eagle wrote:Beware the shops that charge you GST but aren't actually GST registered.
Charging GST without stating the GST Registration no can be reported to IRAS.

That's a serious offence.

Periodically IRAS publishes names of shops who falsely charged GST or claimed GST.
Yes it it. And if it's a GST registered shop, the invoice must say, "Tax Invoice", otherwise the buyer is getting screwed.

But even if you are a legitimate GST shop, they still screw customers. By law, quoted prices must be GST inclusive; however, at least some shops will quote a price then try to add GST to it.

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by jlcemy » Thu, 10 Nov 2016 2:06 am

ecureilx wrote:
jlcemy wrote:hmm weird. what happened to my post? it disappeared. or maybe i didn't click post.

1) does anyone know if SLS is a good place to repair my laptop (suspect fan died).
2) and do they charge extra for using credit card payments?

in Malaysia, is common for the merchants to charge 2% extra which is unjust and sneaky.
Yes for first 1. There are laptop repair shops in business for over 10 years ..

Subjective for 2. If you negotiate your price with low margin, some resellers will tell you there's a 3% surcharge, some have posted notice about the admin fee being charged by CC companies being transferred over to the customer, 1% for NETS ... some will say no credit card accepted for special deals, than get into needless arguments.

For NETS, most shops absorb the 1% fee, but 3% for items with pretty low margin ? No.

Especially when, say A branded router, selling for control price of 400$, with purchase cost being 350$, add 7% GST, You can guess how much margin there is ...

That's how much money there is, in selling branded computer equipment and accessories.

If you think the CC charge is sneaky, pay cash.

PS, Credit card and NETS merchants have to pay annual fee on top of the per transaction admin fee.
thank you good sir. that was very helpful indeed!

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by missyqiqi » Fri, 16 Dec 2016 11:56 am

maybe because im a lady. im very wary of Sim lim square nowadays.
too many dishonest retailers there.

but i heard they cleaned up good. Is that true?

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Re: RE: Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by ecureilx » Fri, 16 Dec 2016 10:51 pm

missyqiqi wrote:maybe because im a lady. im very wary of Sim lim square nowadays.
too many dishonest retailers there.

but i heard they cleaned up good. Is that true?
Errrr...

The cheating phone shops are here and there. But more have shuttered down including a famous first floor big shop who jacked up prices for foreigners ... not much but something like 10% and on top of it, happily sell parallel import - no warranty stuff.

As I said before, in the past 15+ years, no unscrupulous IT reseller has existed in that building and if they did, I never saw. Unless you claim a IT guy not giving better discount (until he makes no $) as cheater.

Why not read up the immediately past posts above yours ?

It's funny that folks go to Sim lim and argue for a discount over a 300$ SRP graphic card, claiming its over priced, and then go to Challenger and buy A 500$ router because of a 3% member discount, when the same router sells in Sim Lim for 450$. :)

and likewise see Lazada and Qoo10 items at 50$ which are parallel import - no local warranty, and expect the same price in Sim Lim, when SRP from local warranty stuff is say 75$, especially when distributors of Asus and such continuously warn shops not to get into price war and dump stock!

Funny world we live in.
Last edited by ecureilx on Fri, 16 Dec 2016 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by x9200 » Sat, 17 Dec 2016 9:25 am

SRP makes not too much sense in SLS for the IT good because all reasonable stores publish or display their price lists. Normally you just go around (or pre-check on their www pages), find what suits you best and the price-wise it will be the lowest or close to it what can be found in SG retail shops.

A completely different story is shopping for a camera. In this case an SRP is a good indication what kind of shop you deal with. If somebody tries to sell you a camera above the SRP or at the same level, I would just walk away . At least 5% below the SRP should be expected as the initial offer price and pretty often this is more than 10%. Usually, this price is already fair so I don't even bargain, but if one wants, and the shop is reasonable (a few only), they may go down with the price by $5-20 and then tell you honestly, they could not go lower, because of the obvious thing - they would not make sufficient (fair) profit.

Disclaimer - a LOCAL SRP, not what you find on overseas sites.

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Re: Sim Lim Square - Good, bad and ugly - READ BEFORE VISITING

Post by kimpak » Sun, 05 Mar 2017 11:09 pm

It's really good tips. When I first came to Singapore, my colleagues were always telling me to be careful and to avoid Sim Lim. They said it's not uncommon foreigners and even locals to get ripped off in that IT mall. I've always just visited Funan. However, now Funan is closed so these tips come in handy.

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