Does Mobile Air ring a bell? No? How about Jover Chew? Jover who? Never mind, how about Singapore Sim Lim Square? Ahh, the notorious electronic goods and services centre which even Singapore authorities have problem cleaning up, or rather refuse to clean up, ever since its establishment in 1987. Sim Lim Square, or simply SLS, is older than many of the readers here.
Just like the infamous prostitution centre “Red Light District-Geylang”, Sim Lim Square is the electronic centre of unscrupulous sellers, readied with thousands of scam tactics. Over the decades, thousands of consumers – both local and foreign – were tricked into parting their hard earned money with inferior goods, or simply cheated in other creative ways. Amazingly, Singapore authorities couldn’t do much about the problems.
While everyone has their own horror story with SLS retailers, none is as famous as “Mobile Air”, a mobile phone shop located at ground floor. Almost overnight, the shop owner – Jover Chew – shot to stardom, as famous as Kate Upton nude photos, after he scammed a Vietnamese tourist, 28-year-old Pham Van Thoai. The fiasco happened early last month when Mr Pham wanted to purchase an iPhone 6 as a birthday present for his girlfriend.
Apparently, Mr Pham was on a holiday with his girlfriend and the first shop he visited in Sim Lim Square was Mobile Air. He was quoted S$950 and thinking Singapore was a safe and honest place to shop, he paid and signed an invoice without scrutinizing it. As he was about to leave with the phone, Mobile Air staffs stopped him and asked if he wanted a warranty package of one or two years. He agreed to a 1-year package, thinking it was complimentary.
To his horror, he was asked to pay another S$1,500 for the warranty package or he would not be able to walk away with the phone. He then asked for his money to be refunded but of course, Mobile Air refused to do so. Understandable, Mr Pham who earns a monthly S$200 as a factory worker got panicked and reduced to tears, before got down on his knees and begged. But that was not the best part of Mobile Air’s notoriety.
The store’s staff laughed at Pham’s grovelling, filmed the incident and shared it with the internet. The shop offered to partially refund Pham only S$600, which was then reduced to a paltry $70 after his girlfriend called the police. Even after a complaint was brought against Jover Chew’s store, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) awarded him only S$400 of the S$950 he had lost.
However, thanks to social media and netizens, a crowd-funding effort initiated by Singaporean Mr Gabriel Kang raised over S$14,000 for Mr Pham. But the Vietnamese tourist refused to accept money from the initiative. Frustrated with their useless Singapore Police Force and CASE, Singapore troll group SMRT Ltd. started #OperationAirKangkang – divulging badass 32-year-old Jover Chew’s personal info such as his address, phone number, wife’s name, private photos and whatnot.
The heat on both Jover and Winnie Chew was so overwhelming that the wife had to defend her own business practices at her store, another mobile shop, J2 Mobile. Besides bombardment and harassment, the team even ordered pizzas on Mobile Air’s behalf (*grin*). But this is not the first time Mobile Air engaged in such a dishonest business practices. Earlier, a Chinese national student – Miss Zhou – bought an iPhone 6 Plus for S$1,600.
Using the same tactic, the shop demanded Miss Zhou to pay another S$2,400 for two years of insurance. Subsequently, the shop was only willing to give her a S$1,000 refund. She decided to go to the Small Claims Tribunal, who then ordered the shop to refund Miss Zhou of S$1,010. When Miss Zhou went to collect her refund, she was given the money in a bag full of coins (including 1 and 5-cents), thrown on the floor, spilling its contents everywhere.
Today, it seems Mr Jover Chew has decided to close his shop for good, after went into hiding since his unfair trade practices sparked public anger and gained attention from local authorities. Evening daily papers Shin Min and Lianhe Wanbao reported that the notorious Mobile Air owner has been moving several boxes out of the store since November 25. He was seen removing 10 boxes of items, including a 50-inch television set and a Playstation 4 on November 28.
He also told Wanbao that he could never set up shop again because netizens were “out to get him”. Mr Edmund Lim, a former employee of Mr Chew, was said to have taken over the store under the name H J Mobile. But it’s still too early to tell if Jover Chew will still operate, disguises under nominee Edmund Lim, Ricky Liew or Phua Chu Kang (*grin*). Still, the fact remains that Singapore authorities are toothless against scumbags like Jover Chew.
Between August and October this year alone, there were a whopping 25 complaints lodged against Mobile Air. Yet, the owner Jover Chew can arrogantly walks away a free man. It’s not hard to understand why Jover subscribes to such practices and refuses to sign a Voluntary Compliance agreement (VCA) put by CASE. It was a lucrative business, with each of his workers earning anything between S$10,000 to S$30,000 a month, by scamming.
But Mr Jover is so famous that he could face other social problems for a very long time. For example, an economy rice seller who recognised him decided to offer him a 1-year warranty for his S$3.80 two-meat-one-vege economy rice at special rate of S$1,000. The angry Jover left without buying the food. He ordered a can of Coke from another stall for S$1.30, but not before asked to pay an additional S$1,000 for a cup of ice (*grin*).
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December 2nd, 2014 by financetwitter
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He was quoted S$950 and thinking Singapore was a safe and honest place to shop, he paid and signed an invoice without scrutinizing it. As he was about to leave with the phone, Mobile Air staffs stopped him and asked if he wanted a warranty package of one or two years. He agreed to a 1-year package, thinking it was complimentary.