In a previous life I played music almost constantly, and in support of this I had a rather fine hi-fi system built around Mission speakers and Audiolab amps. Over the years the need moved more towards video, and the amplifier became a Yamaha processor, and the number of speakers more than doubled to provide a surround sound experience. My last condo even had cables routed under the floor to feed the rear speakers and to minimise marital strife.
But my viewing nowadays is almost entirely fed from movies downloaded (completely legally) from the internet. These tend not to include the level of sound detail that my system could handle, and the whole mess of cables and gear was becoming somewhat superfluous. The issue came to a head when I forgot to tell the contractor to include under-floor wiring in our new home, making the inclusion of rear speakers a messy option. Time for a change.
The problem is that you need something to improve the sound. Modern LCD TV screens are impressively slim, which is great for looks but crap for pushing out punchy sound. For those who want to improve their sound but don’t want to wrestle with spaghetti wiring, there is now the soundbar.
Soundbars sit in front of your TV and use clever electronics to simulate surround sound; or even create surround sound by bouncing sound off side and rear walls. They usually come with a separate sub-woofer to make the walls shake when appropriate and you can pay anything from around 10,000 baht to nearly 60,000 baht for the actual surround sound Yamaha offerings.
I decided on this:
It’s a 21,990 baht package from Samsung with myriad connection options and a meaty, wirelessly connected sub-woofer. So I popped down to PowerBuy to acquire it.
PowerBuy is an unremarkable store; but it is owned by Central, and the outlet I chose sits within a Central Mall; so at least I could look forward to a straightforward transaction. It was not to be.
I entered the store shortly after opening and attracted the attention of a young salesman. I pointed to the soundbar and told him I wanted one. He confirmed there was one in stock and off we went to the cashier area. He brought out the rather substantial box and I gave him 22,000 baht. He disappeared, although not to the usual cashier, and came back with my change.
“OK, I take to your car now”. “Where is my receipt?” “You want receipt?” “Of course”. “OK, this way”
And he led me off to a corner of the shop and proceeded to search through a file. After a couple of minutes he produced a form and asked me to write my name and phone number, which I did.
“I can’t find receipt. I will call you when I have found it”.
Like that was going to work….
“I am not leaving this shop without a receipt”. “OK, wait here”.
He scurried off in the direction of the cashier and after a few minutes he returned with the missing invoice/receipt and hands it to me. “OK. we go now”.
But we don’t because although the invoice displays my name (which means it had been generated after the salesman said he had lost it) and the price of 21,990, it also shows amounts of 5,358 and 16,632; the latter being the amount at the bottom of the invoice. What the fuck? Which is pretty much what I say to the salesman.
He peruses the invoice for a while, declares himself at a loss and then resolves the problem by crossing out the 16,632 and writing in 21,990 instead.
My knowledge of Thai does not extend to reading column headings (to be honest, it doesn’t extend much beyond saying hello and enquiring as to the price of vegetables), so I take a photo of the document and tell the salesman I am sending it to my wife to explain to me. At this point he becomes quite agitated, disappears with the document and then reappears with a bundle of cash and presses 5,358 baht into my surprised palm. “OK, we go now?”
At this point I could have called the manager who would have been fed a pack of lies by the salesman and I would have been regarded as just another crazy and confused farang; or I could write it all up in a blog post and then send the link to PowerBuy.
I chose the latter. I am still not clear as to whether he planned to appropriate the entire cash price, or just the undeclared discount; but either way it was a feeble attempt at a scam and most surprising from an employee of such a reputable company.
On the positive side, the soundbar sounds great and the price I eventually paid was a bargain.
Comments 🔗
2014-08-27| Chang Noi saysThis really surprises me from Powerbuy (but I assume you bought it in Pattaya), as they actually always have all the discounts on the price-display. I would have canceled the sale and tell him to stuff it where the sun does not shine. At Sukhumvit road near Soi Siam Country Club is a big electronic story where I used to buy all electronic things for in my house.
BTW you could have bought a wireless speaker system.
2014-08-27| Spike saysWireless speaker still need wires for the power supply…. The place to which you refer is Numchai; they didn’t have the soundbar in stock, plus I get Central points which are essentially worthless but I feel compelled to collect them.
2014-08-29| Barry saysScratching out the price and changing it reminds me of the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch, when the shopkeeper shook the cage to make the dead creature move. He must have thought you were as stupid as he is.
2014-08-30| Barry saysIf you have a spare moment, unlikely I know, why not pop by the store and see if Powerbuy has ignored your blog and the idiot is still working there. I’d lay odds that he’ll be there.