On Dec 19, my wife and I went there in search of a high-end digital camera. I started walking around and asking prices. Since I was a serious buyer, I did not bargain since I wanted the seller to give me his best price. So I never made any offers which would 'upset' the seller. I was never rude and remained calm and courteous during the whole experience.

Soon, it became apparent that most of the salesmen were unfriendly and arrogant. It started by them insisting that I take a look at their products and, when I was not interested, they became very rude. I soon realised that I was being lied to as well. Some of them pretended to have a certain model of camera but when I went to them to buy it, they all claimed that they had just sold the last one. Many of them became aggressive once it became apparent that I was not going to buy another model.

I have a message for these people: Your lack of sales skills is shocking! By being rude and impolite to customers, you are offending them and losing business. You have to treat potential customers with respect in order to maximise sales. You have to understand that you cannot get angry every time someone walks out of your shop. Being abused by a salesperson is unheard of in Western countries because they know how to treat their customers well. Secondly, you are damaging the reputation of your shopping centre and your city. Remember, you depend on us to make a living.

Eventually I bought my camera from the seller who treated me with respect and not the one who gave me the best price. It was a highly unpleasant experience and I have decided to never shop at Sim Lim again and would advise others the same. Rather, go to the Funan Digital life mall where the price is a bit higher, but at least the salespeople have manners.

It seems that the salespeople at Sim Lim need to take a few lessons in good manners, politeness and common decency. They forget that this kind of behaviour brings nothing but bad luck on themselves and their business.

Louis Marais