When you want to buy NEW

There is something that retailers in the country struggle with the concept of - and that is selling 'new' electrical products.
I was in the La Sirena supermarket in Puerto Plata some weeks ago, and watched with amusement as a loud American was berating staff about how the electrical item he wanted to buy had obviously been on display and therefore he should be entitled to a discount. He explained loudly in English how in the States these products were considered 'shop-soiled'.
Staff were looking bemused, and it didn't look like he was getting through.
I thought - well, that's just the way it is here - you can expect Western practices to be applied even in the large chain stores.

I thought no more about it until I wanted to buy a new TV. La Sirena had a 29" Hyundai for RD$9999 which for here wasn't a bad price (probably 10 times what it would cost in the States).
But of course, all the large items they have on display are the only units they have. This TV was clearly marked and grubby. When you press the volume button on the unit, sometimes the channel would change, so it was slightly faulty as well (normally you'd use a remote - so not a big problem).
Staff very helpfully told us they would find the original box from the storeroom, and yes, it was new and guaranteed.
But what about the fact it was clearly 'shop soiled' and had a fault?
Nothing they could do about that, they said.
Discount?
No.
So we left it.
It's still sitting there over a month later!

I understand smaller shops having products on display, and selling them as shop soiled. But for large national retailers to be selling effectively 'second-hand' goods as new is madness.

My advice? Don't buy large goods from La Sirena. We later bought a TV from PriceMart in Santiago. This one was better priced, and was actually new and boxed, and with a 'proper' warranty - we believe.

And now to the other pet peive, which even PriceMart do. When you buy an electrical product, they take it out the box after you've paid for it to test it.
Now in some ways this sounds sensible. I don't want to drive back to Puerto Plata with a faulty TV.
But, in PriceMarts case, they don't have any allocated area or method for testing the TV. We waited for 20 minutes while they eventually got a member of staff to unbox it off to the side of the store and switch it on.
That was it! 20 minutes wasted while he checked of the unit powered up!
No test of picture quality as there was no facility there to plug in a coax or digital signal cable.

To add the icing on the cake, we lug the 37" LCD screen back home, plug it in 'properly' and can now see that there is a missing pixel fault on the screen.
Not PriceMart's fault, and we assume that their warranty will cover it.
But if they are going to waste their time and ours testing a TV - at least test it!!

Now we still have to go back and waste another day!

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