I was just looking around for notebooks and specs. I have asked around Dell about their Alienware, pricey, but that's what I want, a bleeding edge high end notebook that'll usable in couple of years in future. Set up my mind buying an alienware next month.

Then I scout around at MSI booth I spotted MSI GT 628 gaming notebook. I ask the salesperson everything, then we went into the pricing. Sales A is young. Prolly in college or something. Sales B is kind of at the age of 30 something. Sales C is the head who stand by at the cashier.

We went talking a little bit, what do I get for bonus, pricing, warranties, all those usual stuffs. Most of the time sales A called sales B for most of my questions. The GT628 already using the 1xx nvidia chipset, which I don't understand. I have better understanding of the 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx series. Other than the graphic chipset, the notebook have a very impressive specifications. Core2quad processor and 4GB DDR3 RAM

So I ask the sales B, what's the equal graphic card that the GT628 have (nVidia 160 M). "It's equal to GeForce 9800 M". Good, the guy knows about technical stuff. They displayed a game demo on the notebook and all those stuffs. It went really smooth, no lag or whatsoever. Me like. Then we started to bargain the price. The brochure said $2899. I ask for lower price. The sales B said he'll give me 10% discount.

Later on I take a look at the notebook, checking the dxdiag, checking on my handphone calculator how much is the final price and I try to bargain again. I recheck with sales B

"you'll give me 10% discout right?"
"No, I'll give you 5%"
"But you just said 10%"
"Go ask all the other sales, I told you 5%"

Okay fine, prolly I misheard him.

I don't like Vista, so I ask him can I get a downgrade from Vista to XP.
"Yes sure, but the license will cost $250"
"250? Nevermind, I still got some spare licenses, but in case I will downgrade the OS from you, what will happen with the vista that comes with it"
"You'll still have it"

Good enough. These guy sounds legit.

So I ask the guy,
"are you a direct reseller/distributor of MSI? I mean like those dell guys there, they aren't a store themselves, but they're a direct Dell representatives"
"Yes we are authorized reseller"
"So how do you give your store warranties?"
"What's that?"
"Warranties that you give me for purchasing from your store"
"You just go to the MSI service center"

Okayla... prolly most of the electronic shops here in singapore don't give store warranties. It's better for them being honest like this rather than like what I've experienced at Ji* X*n D*gital Simlim. He gave me 1 month of store warranty but less than hour after the purchase "it's none of my business anymore." LOL.

So I ask them about name card. This is where things started to get weird. None of them have any namecard. When I do ask him about namecard9 (see attachment), the sales B only brought a stamp, and stamp it to my brochure.

Weird huh? No storenames, not much informations and all those stuffs. "For enquiries". What's that? LOL.

And their booths? I don't see any store name there on their booth, only the brands. Asus, MSI, etc.

I walk around and think for awhile. What the hell, I want this notebook anyway. I've learned my lesson from simlim so I just thought I have to be careful with these guy. So I came back to their booth and ask Sales A, rechecking everything, making sure they're consistent with what they're saying, then he throw me to Sales B which then lead me to Sales C.

I re-bargain the price again with sales C, then we had a deal. I said I'll pay cash. We had some arguments then we had a deal. I said to him

"I'll be back"
"What do you mean by that"
"I have to get some money at the ATM"
"Do you have any cards?"
"I said I'll pay cash."

I show him my card and said

"Can you use this card with those machines?"

he went confused with the card. It's ATM card, indonesian bank.

"is it visa or something"
"That's why, I'll pay cash. I'll be back"

Then I went dispensing my money. I went back upstairs. Sales C looks very happy seeing me return.

"So let me get this straight. The price we had in deal is the net price, no GST, or DST tax or all those other craps like that is it?"
"Yes"

I'm interested.

Sales B pushing me the invoice and told me to fill my name, my address and my phone number.

I said to sales C
"I want you to understand, I'm not signing anything before I can check the goods. What are the bonuses?"
"A Bag, a mouse and a free 4 GB ram upgrade"
"Now can I see them?"
"Sure"
"You have to understand, I got coned once at simlim"
"But we're not from simlim"
"Yes I know, but $2000 is not something I can earn within days."

He went to his storage and took out a unit. He took everything out and I check most of the things. It's all there. Good. Then he asked me

"Do you want to take the whole box with you or carry it with the bag?"
"I want everything inside the box just the way it is"

The next thing I know, he cut some parts of the box. I get suspicious of this.

"What are you cutting there?"
"It's the serial number I have to send it to the central office"
"Let me see."

I pull out the notebook and make sure both have the same serial number. It has the same number. Good, so far.

Then I asked for the battery and check whether everything is just as what we deal.

He said

"Sir you have to pay first if you want to open the seal"
"I have to check it first then I pay."

He allow me to check it. Otherwise I'll just leave them at this stage.

I saw something wrong with the stickers. The notebook that's on display is T628. The one I check at that moment is T627. I first spotted this from the Nvidia stickers. It said Geforce 9800 M. Not GTS 160 M.

I ask him why is this isn't the same as what was displayed and demonstrated to me?
"It's the same thing" sales B said
"The chipset isn't exactly the same thing"
"It's only different numbering but the chip is still the same"
"If that so, then why nVidia bother releasing two different chipset?"

Sales B went quiet with it.

Then I spotted another thing. It said 4GB ram... but it said DDR2. I check with sales C he said "don't worry it's only the stickers, inside it already use DDR3, you can check it with blablabla"

I started to get annoyed by these idiots.

Then the last thing I spot is the different type of notebook.
Me : "This is not even the same notebook on display. I don't want this, I want what you have in display, that's what we deal for. Do you have any ready stock of that one on the display?"
Sales C : "Yes sir. But you need to wait for a moment I'll go fetch it for you from our storage"
Me : "Fine. But do you have any READY stock RIGHT NOW?"
Sales C : "Yes. But you have to know, with $**** price, I can not give you that one. If you can get 628 by that price I'll buy from you"
Me : "That's not the deal"
Sales C : "Fine then I won't sell it to you"

So I just went and leaving the goddam booth without saying anything. On my way home I got a flash, I have left my name, my home address and my phone. So I went back there and told him to destroy the invoice. He refuse to do it. But instead he ask whether it is allowed for him to make the writings unreadable. Good enough for me. Altho he went very grumpy and pissed about it. Eff him. He's the one who tried to con me.

"You have to understand. I have a weaker position and you do trying broke the deal first"

Then sales B said

"What do we have to understand sir?"
"I'm a foreigner. What do you expect? And the address aswell please?"

Sales B throws a sinister laugh. I don't care.

After I check the invoice I said "thank you" and went.

Quite surprising. At this kind of high class, big event. This kind of incident still happen. I feel like shopping at a lowclass fish market. Thanks to the experience at Simlim, I don't get coned by these morons.

The GT 627 and GT628 sport a DIFFERENT spec. 627 is a lower class than 628.

Having twice of this kind of experience makes me think, there's no use being polite and friendly with them anymore (electronic store sales). I have to be very strict and explicit with them.