Why Don't Buy Electrical Appliances from Giant Supermarket

Giant hires so-called department managers who always blame the customer. Whether Seafood department or Electrical department, these "managers" are the same. Low education, poor PR & unreasonable.

Buying an electrical appliance from Giant supermarket is a waste of customer's time & money.

1) Product has no QC (cheaply made in China). The Safety Mark logo on the box is fake. **
2) It is defective, you have to spend time taking it back to Giant for refund/exchange
3) When you take it back, you get rude & unreasonable attitude from the department manager who blames you for the defect (& even refuses to admit it is defective).

Wed 12 March 2.15pm: I recently purchased a Toyomi Handheld Hepa Vacuum Cleaner VC8088HP  1000W from Giant @Vivocity. $56.90.

Today, I used it for only 5~10 minutes, to clean a little of the mattress of my bed & a little along the wall corner. During this time, the machine heated up very fast & was very hot. So, I had to turn it off every less than 1 minute of usage.  Not only was it very noisy, it stank up the room with the motor smell.

When I turned it on again to continue vacuuming, the back filter cap fell off. I was surprised that it was so hot,  I couldn't pick it up.  The side of it was twisted. Bro said the plastic had melted.

How can a brand like Toyomi make such crap??

(Update 1 April Tues 2:26pm: Bro has since confirmed that Toyomi makes crap. Previously, he bought something from the brand & it was crap too. I said he should have told me before he asked me to buy this vacuum cleaner that I didn't want because it looked so unreliable. I only agreed that we buy it after much delay & consideration that we needed to vacuum.).

I was vacuuming normally & lightly.  And this was only the 2nd time it has been used. The first time, Bro used it a few weeks ago for just 5 mins on the top of his bedhead. At that time, the motor already heated up very fast & hot. When I went back to Giant & mentioned it to the Toyomi promoter man, he had said it was normal.

Today, I tried it & the back filter cap melted.

Without that back cap, the suction of the vacuum cannot work anymore. After it melted, I tried it again without the cap & the vacuum couldn't clean the mattress as before.

I was also afraid it would suddenly catch fire or discharge electricity. Bro said it is likely to catch fire suddenly & told me to stop. It was really hot & incapable of dissipating its own heat. Even after 1 hour when we arrived at Giant for a refund, it was still hot.

At about 2.15pm, we went to the Electrical department counter where a male staff wearing a wig said we could select other items for exchange. I had explained & showed him the melted back cap & he took it.  I was actually reluctant to give it to him because it is the only evidence I have.

While Bro & myself were considering what item to choose for replacement, he came over & pointed to the counter direction, saying the department manager wanted to talk to us.

Alvin Lau, the department manager did not even greet us. Right away, he was very antagonistic & said that the vacuum cleaner has already been used.  I said, of course it's been used, that's how I know it's defective. 

He then opened the vacuum cleaner and exposed the debris saying he couldn't return the product to the supplier. Then he fingered the accumulated white debris off the filter & accused me of using it on some construction debris. 

I said, "Come on. I only used it on my bed & a little of the wall.".  (Even though I had already told him I used it only on my mattress & wall. Another case of staff accusing customer of lying).

He said that the debris of their display model they use to vacuum the floor isn't like that.  (I find his comparison has no connection to the matter. My mattress & wall versus the store's floor? So everyone's dust must resemble the Giant store's floor, is it?).

I said I didn't know why the debris looked the way it did, but the motor heated up very fast. Before I could finish, he said he was not concerned about the motor heating up fast, but the debris didn't look as expected to him.

Since he didn't care about the rapid heating up of the motor, I said, the fact is that the back cap melted. This is a defect. No QC.  I asked for the melted cap evidence & nobody replied.  I looked for the melted cap and couldn't find it anywhere on the counter top where the other contents of the vaccum lay.  (I think they will be hiding the fact that this product is defective).

He vaguely said (without proof) that 100 customers bought with no complaints. Said if it's another one & if it's like this, he can only cover for this one & not the other one. (Bro said it just means he's lazy to do the paperwork. And what is there to cover? Shouldn't he inform Toyomi about their defective product & stop selling this?).

When I said I didn't want to exchange for another one, he said even if it's another brand & if it's like this again, how?  (he leaned forwards & pointed to himself).  He said, "You go Best Denki and buy.".

While he was talking, I glanced at his name tag. He noticed.

He finally said he will refund & asked the male staff to handle it. Then he just walked off.

After that, we went to customer service to get the refund in cash, and happened to see the Store Manager. I told him what happened & he said "Terrible!" three times during our conversation.

How can a department manager blame the customer, then tell the customer to go buy from Best Denki?

Why upset the customer in the first place? It's so easy to handle. Just say sorry to the customer & make the refund. That's all. Why open the vacuum cleaner casing & go through the shit of accusing the customer? And then finally ask the customer to go buy from a rival company?

The rest of the day after that, I was really displeased with this department manager. So unreasonable. He is proof that education is important. Without education, a person will be unreasonable & illogical like him. What he said completely had no intelligent bearing on the matter.

One day, if Giant is not careful, it will close down like Carrefour.  In which case, I welcome a change to a better & newer supermarket.

This time, I'm tired of e-mailing the Giant headquarters customer service. I did it twice before regarding 2 incidents & they responded swiftly (warning the staff etc..). But these department "managers" who handled the matters badly are still around (example: Francis who goes in & out of the back door at the fruits & veg section).  Quite tired of making them improve.

If they don't improve, the supermarket will die out eventually.  
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Update 1 Apr Tues 2.30pm:  A few days after I e-mailed SPRING & didn't get a reply, I e-mailed Giant.  Reply came within a day (faster than before, although it was a different woman).  As expected, they would merely talk to their staff about it. No mention of removing the product or informing Toyomi.