A STUDENT recently forked out an exorbitant sum of over RM1,500 for a screen protector for her phone.
The student, Ching Xinni, shared her costly experience on Facebook where she said that the incident took place in Petaling Street,
“I was roaming around Petaling Street alone and a promoter from a phone shop approached me to sell his shop’s services but I politely declined until he mentioned that he offered a phone cleaning service with a new screen protector for RM25,” she said in her post in Facebook group KL吹水站.
She figured since her phone’s screen protector needed to be changed, she went into the shop but as she entered their premises, the promoter asked for her identification card, which confused her.
“He told me that he needed my identification card to register for the screen protector’s insurance and at the time, I thought it was a reasonable request as I believed that the insurance was the same as a warranty,” she added.
As the promoter was keying in her details for the insurance, she noticed that the insurance cost a whopping RM2,099.
She then demanded an explanation from the shop’s staff about the price to which he said that she can claim from the insurance in case her phone screen protector was damaged. However she was not informed of the insurance pricing beforehand.
“I thought you were aware of the insurance charge. Now that the item has been registered, we cannot cancel the purchase,” the staff told her.
Hearing this, Ching and the worker argued about the price until the promoter pulled her aside and “tried to help her” by explaining the insurance pricing.
She then told him that she only had RM1,700 in her bank account only and she told the promoter of her finances, which he tried to meet her in the middle and naively, because she thought he was being helpful, and finally settled to pay RM1,575.
Later on, Ching realised that she did not have a receipt as her proof of purchase as the shop only accepted cash therefore she had no evidence of the transaction and could not remember further details such as the shop’s name.
She then decided to lodge a police report shortly after deciding to leave the matter alone.
In another update posted on Facebook, Ching approached DAP Bukit Bintang and then lodged a police report at the Dang Wangi police station.
With the political party’s help, she managed to lodge a police report against the shop. Ching then managed to get the full amount refunded back in her bank account.
“After less than 24 hours of posting the update, I finally got back the full amount of RM1,575 at 9.21pm,” she said in her post dated March 2.
She then advised victims who have gone through similar cases to go to lodge a police report as soon as possible and, in her case, also reach out to DAP Bukit Bintang for their assistance.
“After I posted my story online, I found that many others have experienced similar cases but since the police and DAP Bukit Bintang do not know who the perpetrators are, they would not be able to help further.
“Therefore, your report counts as it can help the authorities investigate such cases better,” Ching said.