A visit to Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur's shady electronics mall
Summary: Low Yat Plaza is a seven-story, 500+ retailer electronics mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is regarded as "IT heaven" and a place for outstanding bargains where haggling is the norm. Low Yat is also a buyer-beware marketplace. It's not out of the ordinary to walk out with defective goods and in 2006 the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs raided Low Yat Plaza, confiscating more than 27,000 copies of pirated computer software and movies. While in town for the Hack in The Box Security Conference, we paid a visit to this amazing electronics bazaar.
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The dizzying view from the top floor. Each level has a general specialty.
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Glad you visited Low Yat
And normally the price you saw in the advertisement normally reflect the truth, or you could even get lower (as the advertisement may be some time already, and generally price goes down in electronic goods). If you paid higher price than the advertised price, then something was wrong. :P
GDex is located at the basement car park, just under the escalator (air-conditioned, don't worry), but I agree it is quite hard to know if you're not familiar with the place. It is good for small business, like the shops you saw, if they engage with online business too.
And normally goods you purchased could be exchanged within 7 days. No guarantee or return for cash in 7 days, and it is the norm in Malaysia (unless you shop in Tesco). If you noticed there were a lot of small shops selling laptop with amazing cheap prices (by non-malaysian), they were the units returned from customer in US (within the 7 days period), and after recondition, shipped here and sell.
But no doubt, Low Yat is the most successful electronic shopping mall in Malaysia, and is well known in the country.
Glad you visited Low Yat
And normally the price you saw in the advertisement normally reflect the truth, or you could even get lower (as the advertisement may be some time already, and generally price goes down in electronic goods). If you paid higher price than the advertised price, then something was wrong. :P
GDex is located at the basement car park, just under the escalator (air-conditioned, don't worry), but I agree it is quite hard to know if you're not familiar with the place. It is good for small business, like the shops you saw, if they engage with online business too.
And normally goods you purchased could be exchanged within 7 days. No guarantee or return for cash in 7 days, and it is the norm in Malaysia (unless you shop in Tesco). If you noticed there were a lot of small shops selling laptop with amazing cheap prices (by non-malaysian), they were the units returned from customer in US (within the 7 days period), and after recondition, shipped here and sell.
But no doubt, Low Yat is the most successful electronic shopping mall in Malaysia, and is well known in the country.
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I love my 'Apple' charger.
Low Yat
Oi ! get it right!
indeed a fun place to visit
Unfair to label Low Yat Plaza a "shady mall"
It's great that you enjoyed yourself when you were there but I must take offence at your labeling the mall as a "shady" one.
In general, if you buy a big-name brand like Sony, Acer, HP, etc., the item will come with the standard manufacturer's warranty. However, if your aim is to buy the cheapest model of the gadget that you're interested in, then you're on your own.
As mentioned by wyeechen, most shops will, at the very least, provide you with a 7-day or, at times, a 1-day warranty for these "unbranded" items. It's best to confirm with the seller the conditions of the warranty before you pay up.
It's not "shady" in any way. It's just that you are expected to know that these off-brand items do not carry any long term warranty.
Concerning the items on offer, I am rather surprised that you were asked to pay more than the advertised price. Unless the offer has expired, I have never experienced this problem. Also, if the offer item has sold out, perhaps they tried to push you an alternative which was more expensive.
I certainly hope that you'll have another opportunity to visit Low Yat Plaza and enjoy a better experience the second time round.
Panthip Plaza in Bangkok
As Alan Sherman once said
when i go to that mall w/ friends
l like your nail polish... it's definitely you :)....