Well, this one’s for you…
FREE…but only if you pay for it! Sounds like I’m contradicting myself, right?
Well, I was trying to keep a flu at bay, so I went searching for some fruit juices at the neighbourhood mini supermarket. They were selling this particular brand of fruit juices, pre-packed two by two, together with a tote bag that was supposed to come as the free gift, at RM11.70 each.
However, I noticed that they were selling the individual packs at only RM5.30, so two of them would be RM10.60 only. That means that I actually paid RM1.10 for that tote bag! This certainly gives a brand new meaning to the word “free”!
There had been occasions also when I bought something and was supposed to get a free gift with it but they kept very quiet about it. By the time I realised it when I got home, I was too lazy to go back to the shop to claim the gift. Eventually, you may find them selling those “free” gifts for a ringgit or two just to make those few extra bucks. These business people really!
I also hate it at the bigger supermarkets where they make you go to a special counter to join the long queue just to claim one miserable free gift!
Then, there was this one time when I bought quite a lot of things at a stationery store here. The sign said that I would get this free tote bag for purchases RM50 and above…
I spent over RM100 at the shop that day, and they packed them all in plastic bags, including the free gift. When I got into the car, I checked and discovered that they had given me one tote bag only.
I promptly went back to the shop to claim the other bag but they told me that for purchases over RM50.00, I would be entitled to ONE bag only. I argued that I bought over RM100.00 and therefore, should get two but they were adamant in their stand. Then I said I could split the items into two and pay separately – each over RM50.00 and then I could get two bags. They nonchalantly told me that it was too late as I had already paid and the payment had been entered into the cash register. Tsk! Tsk! Now, who says that the customer is always right?
And I am not going to start on that misleading “Buy one, get one free” thingy, otherwise this will be one helluva long post!!! Tsk! Tsk!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
a new meaning to the retailer is always right!
I guessed as much. All the retailer’s doing…and there are many other stories beside just this!
I just believe nothing is really free these days.
I guess so. Even love has a price tag…but thankfully, most but not all the time!
Nothing free from this world except oxygen. XD
Even that you may soon have to pay…like in Japan!
free? no such things anymore. hidden cost bla bla bla … actually they can just void the payment and make a new one, as in 50 per receipt. just that they don’t want to do it or they are just being an ass.
Plus don’t forget who you are dealing with here! Why do you think they are so rich? But I still cling to the very remote hope that in this materialistic day and age, love can still be free. Friendship. Unconditional!
this experience will certainly make u wiser… so next time split the items.. i also kena before once…
No lah! I just avoid the shop. Actually not long after that, the proprietor was looking for a private English tutor for her children and asked someone to ask me. I just turned her down flat. Don’t want anything to do with that kind of people!
Last week, I wanted to buy something (I forgot what but it was at Watson’s I think) and they have this pre-packed 2 by 2 supposedly for a cheaper price but when I found out the actual price for individual ones, I put the 2 by 2 back and took 2 individual ones.
Ya…like the time they had this promotion of two packets of soya bean milk and one cincau, supposedly nice if mixed together. I also found out that the total of the three individual packs was less than the one on promotion, so I also put it back and decided not to buy. Dunno whether the pricing is done by the manufacturer, importer/wholesaler or the retailer – most likely the last one!
These people always cheat. I bought this cooking oil once and claim my free gift and they insisted no free gift eventhough the word ‘free colestrol’ was printed on the packaging.Aiya.
It’s “cholesterol free” lah! That means a lot of cholesterol inside but they do not charge you for it. Hahahahahaha!!!
Now where have I heard of that one before…So it was you! LOL!!! 😀
What? You’ve been communicating with Kpenyu outside my blog? Interesting…very interesting! Hahahahahaha!!!
I also have Berri juice in my pantry! That is why have to read the labels all the time. I can spent hrs in supermarket just reading them! Especially toilet papers,don’t be conned,3 ply better than 2 ply n sometimes one brand maybe heavily discounted but you found that they have less sheets than the other! So what else is new?!
Yup…it’s imported from Australia – that’s why RM5 plus! I see they are also like that over there? Thought only Asians capable of such things. Oops!!!
Yeah, just like those Anakku baby wipes : 1 packet for RM2.50, and 4 packets for RM9.90. Cheaper by a few cents if you buy 4, right? That was before I hopped into another shop hoping to find cheaper Anakku baby wipes. 2 packets for RM4.20 there!
That’s why we should be wise shoppers…but I’m usually hopeless at prices. Can’t remember…so I wouldn’t know even if they rob me blind! Many compare prices all over first before buying.
Hope you don’t mind my saying this but there a typo in your blog:
Eventually, you may find them selling those “free” gifts at very cheap prices.
Once you’ve corrected it, just delete this comment.
Corrected already, thanks. That was not a typo, but a slip or a careless mistake. If I had types “cheep” or “cheat”, then it would be a typo. Now why should I delete your comment? I DO make errors, and I always encourage my (better) students to point them out. After all, English, though technically a second language in Malaysia, is a foreign language in my case and therefore, I reserve the right to make errors. I’m quite comfortable with it. Are you, Higgins? Or perhaps on your case, you never make mistakes?
Is there?
It’s this thing about things being cheap/expensive and prices being low/high. Malaysians always say that the prices are cheap…as in cheap fares etc…but then Malaysians do say a lot of things that are in fact not correct. Ah well! That’s Malaysian English for you…and they do not call it Manglish for nothing! LOL!!!
I see! I thought really typo. Cheh! 😛
I think he was trying to be discreet… Very un-English, typically Asian! LOL!!!
Didn’t you see my typo in my comment? Neither am I immune to mistakes for I’m after all fallible like all humans.
Is there one? Gee! I would think I have much better things to do than to go round checking everybody’s mistakes…
Oops! I meant my slip. If it’s a typo, it would be their. 😛
By George! You’ve got it!!! Yup…a slip, but not an error or a mistake. I am pretty certain that you know only too well that it should have been “there is a typo…” Now what about this clause of yours: “If it’s a typo…” Is there a slip or an error there? Hahahahahaha!!!
That was not a typo.
Yup…a slip! LOL!!!
LOL!!! 😀
Goodie! 29 comments! Been quite slow over the last two days! Hahahahaha!!!
I guess there is no free lunch in this world. There is no governance to the situation. Our government is sleeping!
Aiyor! Why do people blame the government for everything? I think there is the Consumer Association around right here in our own country. They have articles in the papers regularly but awareness regarding consumerism and consumer rights among the general public is low or nil, plus generally, they are not bothered unlike people overseas where they will sue left, right and centre. Perhaps the Consumer Association needs to be more pro-active and active as well…
Out of curiosity.. why do you need so many Tote bags?
Well, let’s just say I have a fetish for bags… You should see the ones I got from buying branded perfume. Perhaps I should post on that one of these days!
For the environment, you know, use less plastic bags that are not biodegradable. Hahahaha!!! OR…just to carry on the shoulders for the fun of it 😛 Fehshen mah! LOL!
Yalor…I am SO environment-conscious! Friend of the Earth! Hahahahahaha!!! For me, cannot carry on shoulders lah…so pondan like that! LOL!!!
KNB, free mah!!!!!
I do use them regularly…put students’ compositions, photocopied handouts etc…instead of using plastic bags (tear easily)…
‘Buy one free one” has new meaning now. Free 1 pen or pencil also ‘free 1’. Dont assume you get the same item for the price of 1.
As long as they give you. Very often, they don’t. Just keep quiet…and later, they will sell!
I think hor “buy 1 free 1” means if you buy one item, by rights you should get THAT one item for free. So you don’t have to pay anything. If “buy 2 free 1”, you should take 2 items, only pay for 1, the other one free mar. Get what I mean? Hmm…next time go try argue with the shop people liao. Hahahahahah!!!
Argued on this at Kuching airport – choc shop – buy two, one free. Was too early for my flight – a lot of time. Said that if I bought two, I would only need to pay for one as the other one would free… The girls blamed the supplier, said they put up the signs themselves. Later I bought one…and found that they had put two in the plastic bag – paid for one, got the other one free… Usually, not bothered to do that!
at a higher level of deception, remember buy 1 business class plane ticket with credit card X & your companion travel for free?
actually, the full priced business ticket is twice that the travel agent normally charge. so, comes back to the same thing.
EXCEPT, if you travel on company’s account, you buy the full price ticket with your credit card, then claim expense, & bring a companion along & your company is no wiser. heh heh!
Ya, wasn’t there a case of a woman in West Malaysia who sued MAS over the cheap fare to Melbourne and she ended up paying over RM3,000 return? Nothing heard of the case after that, dunno the outcome.
Hahaha… lotsa complains and unhappiness i can sense.. ^^ Well, you can hardly blame these people, after all, times are hard for everyone to get by..
Business people lah!…This has been happening since time immemorial! That’s why Chinese New Year, they would donate to old folks’ homes and other charitable bodies …I hear that they do that to atone for their sins – cheating the unsuspecting innocent to get rich!
Hey read this: http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20090525-143562.html
Time to change profession liao. LOL!!!
Ya…they’re ALL over Bukit Bintang which used to be like Orchard Road in Singapore (Long ago!!). Now the pimps are all over and those massage and foot reflexology joints make up the majority of the shops there…and the taxi drivers who refuse to go by meter!!! I find that place quite sickening now…unlike in the past when I would go there to hang out – those days when the “horrible” places used to be Chow Kit and Jalan Petaling and the pimps and whores in the vicinity had the decency to stay out of view in broad daylight and confined themselves to Jalan Alor…
LOL@ Kpenya’s “free cholesterol”…
Kpenyu…and now, THAT is a typo! Hahahahahaha!!!
Penyu i mean
Ya, we all know that! Typo! Hahahahaha!!!
they either sell those that’s not claimed by the customers or it becomes the staff’s annual party present at the end of the year.. hahaha… with regards to those unclaimed free gifts that is..
LOL!!! I bought some hand puppets (soft toy – free gift for some baby product) – cute elephants to give to those who sang at my retirement assembly. Only RM2.00 each… But everyone joked about the trunk being symbolic – and I went round giving them to those young lady teachers! Hahahahahaha!!!!
There is a promotion which read “Western Food…FREE soup” Of all places the stall is in the foochow associstion building in KK. Can imagine all my karliew friends asking ..” 5 free soup please …”
Did you get the email with the photograph of diners at Pizza Hut in China and how they beat the system? They helped themselves to the free “one serving of salad” but they piled everything up high – like one of the Petronas Twin Towers… LOL!!!
its sold for RM12.90 here..so Rm11.70 still a good bargain.. I told the sales asst. price salah… he go n chckd with the supervisor n cfmed thats the correct price..haha..did not tell him i got the price from STP. LOL.
Different town mah!…Your town with all the rich LNG people, of course things have to be more expensive! LOL!!!
nothing is free…….
Except when you want to belanja me makan! Hahahahaha!!!
You know, this reminds me of some (not all) Singaporeans’ behaviour that when some company is making a promotion to them, the first thing they’ll ask is “No free gift ah?”. I so LMAO when I heard that loh XD
Runs in the “family”…or maybe they’re even more “kiasu”! After all, I think that word came from across the Causeway! LOL!!!
LOL..at JL’s comment…Bay Lam Chiaw Chia(nissan bluebird)..saang Jee Chap Kow Chun Tua Chee Bye( 29″ toshiba)
LOL!!! Good one…but gosh! That should be censored. Please do not contaminate these young readers! Shoo!…Shoo!!!
LOL!!! Now that’s a good one, kpenyu! 😀
Good Lord! Don’t encourage him! Bad enough as it is… Tsk! Tsk!
I seriously don’t know what that means…*confused* 😕
Good! Let’s keep it that way. Half/Most of the things from that fella, you can do without knowing! LOL!!!
The only free things that I cherish were:
1, Free milo drinks during sports day
2, The free cigarettes by the sexy promoters(sometimes free too..LOL) in pubs.
I only know No. 1 but not No. 2. That’s your territory! LOL!!!
1) Pacik Sibu: if u want to keep flu/colds at bay, it’s usually too late to bolster yrself once u r already feeling unwell. Best to maintain a regime of low dosage Vit C (perhaps 200mg to 250mg per day). No one in my home has had a cold or a sore throat for abt 3 years since we went on to this regime.
2) Gifts with purchases: in s’pore, they normally put a cap of one person per gift, no matter how much more u buy above the threshold amt..
What about the age-old advice, “Starve a fever and feed the flu!” Ya, I do take supplements…but unfortunately, I’m not very disciplined these days unlike when I was still working – used to take all the different pills and capsules religiously every morning! …..I see! The people at the stationery store must have learnt that from Singapore! Then they should state very clearly that one person is entitled to one gift only.
Did you see Money Not Enough (2)? Singaporean even tapau the sweets from the Banks…hahahahahaha…and reliable sources say that’s typical…
Here too! What’s new? Like this lady at the Four Points buffet. She stuffed all the lollipops into her handbag to take home…
i dun like this juice brand.. not nice one..
It’s quite nice, not too sour…unlike some. What brand do you like? Joy? I know you serve that inflight… Can have free supply hor? LOL!!!