Tech shop salesman 'withheld' passport
THE experience of an expatriate at an electronics shop - Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises in Lucky Plaza - has left him fuming and airing his grievances to the online community.
The customer, who wanted to be known by his online username, noblewolf, i s a 28-year-old project manager.
He told my paper the incident happened last Saturday.
He had written about his experience in a VR-Zone online forum posting.
His unpleasant experience came after he refused to pay for a $570 mobile phone, which he claimed the shop initially told him would cost only $190.
The expatriate said: "The salesman, Lucas, said that if I did not pay up, I would not get my passport back and he would call his friends down and something would happen to me.
"I didn't want trouble so I paid up. It's an extortion because they heldmy passport hostage."
He had handed over his passport to the salesman, who asked for it in order "to register the phone to my name". He thought this was a normal practice, as was the case in other countries.
Subsequently, when the phone turned out to be faulty,
he was denied a refund and ended up getting a Jabra BT 3030 bluetooth headset in exchange.
An electronics shop at IMM Building told my paper the Jabra headset costs $98.
Lawyer Anand Nalachandran, head of dispute resolution at ATMD Bird & Bird LLP, said that in civil disputes like this, neither party involved has the right to seize identification documents like passports or identity cards.
"Only the court has the power to do so," he said, adding that the expatriate should report the case to police.
The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) said there have been
41 reported cases involving Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises since 2006.
Last July, the shop reportedly charged $2,600 for a PlayStation Portable game console, which costs about $300.
On the latest complaint, Case's executive director, Mr Seah Seng Choon, said: "What the retailer has done would be considered an unfair practice under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act. This is a civil wrong."
When contacted, a Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises employee, who gave his name as Michael, said he did not think his colleague Lucas - who was "on leave" - would threaten the expatriate by calling "the mafia" or withholding his passport.
He said: "The company will check to find out what happened."
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