Pikom PC Fair has, once again, come to Kuching city. The same old venue, the same old complaints.
Never mind about the location. Never mind about the crowd.
It was not my intention to take a step in to the PC Fair at Permata Car Park Building this year, not after the disappointment, and inconvenience I get from the PC Fair annually. However, a friend gave me a buzz on SanDisk Extreme CF being on sale in the fair. It is odd as it’s rare to have dealers/vendors bringing in SanDisk here in Kuching. In the past years, they prefer other brands, such as Kingston or KingMax over SanDisk. I presumed the cost to bring it the other brands is a lot cheaper if compared to SanDisk.
My friend wanted me to compare the online price, which we always use as a reference, to the one on sale in PC Fair. 8GB SanDisk Extreme 60MB/sec CF costs MYR 315.00 on Shashinki.com, and that should be the street price in Kuala Lumpur. However, this particular vendor, they listed this very same item at only MYR 199.00. It’s about MYR 100 difference, which is a lot. Price in Kuching is almost never cheaper than in KL. Judging from the price only, there are only two possibilities I can think of:
- Fake CF; or
- Grey Product
So, I’ve decided to pay a visit to this PC Fair, to see what the deal is. And when I was there, there are few suspicious facts raised some doubts, especially towards the vendor’s credibility. Here’s a summary of what I think is suspicious:
- Why the difference in pricing (even if compared to KL)? - This dude (probably angered by my friend’s first question whether if the product is a genuine product or not) insisted they are doing wholesale, therefore they have more margin to play with, so that they can sell at a lower price.
- Product without box – I was shocked when they first showed us the CF card. It was a naked product, without box! And again, we asked why without box, and again, they insisted they’re doing wholesale. I seriously don’t buy that! For one, I know for sure they’re not the distributor for SanDisk, it’s someone else. Secondly, their other products (of SanDisk) come with proper box/packaging! But why just this item?
- Later in the day, my friend returned to check on their item again. He wanted to test the item on his camera. However, this return trip brought yet another shocking discovery. They hiked up the price, up to MYR 288.00. Despite marking at a higher selling price now, they are still selling without the box. It sounds really weird to me. Mind you, at this point, it’s almost end of 2nd day of the 3-days-fair. How could you just realized that you’ve marked wrong pricing after almost 2 full days?
Now, the main points I want to highlight is the vendor may not be honest with us. We, as consumer, may fall victim to their illegal trading. I mean we could buy a fake product, if not a non-legit product. I mean, it could be a smuggled good, or maybe a stolen good. We just wouldn’t know!
Now I am pondering whether if I should reveal the company’s name. All points I have highlighted here are just mere assumption. There’s no firm evidence to support my theory here. Anyhow, I would like to remind you all to be extra careful when purchasing products like this. As a photography enthusiast myself, the last thing I want is corrupted images after a photography outing/assignment, as result of using fake CF. Or, maybe when the CF dies on me, I am not able to claim warranty due to the non-legit product.
I have also reported or brought this to SanDisk’s attention, I hope they can clarify for me soon. If there is update, I shall post it here.
