Know what you sell.

I recently bought a computer backup device, called Maxtor, at Low Yat, Malaysia's answer to Sim Lim Square. I was looking forward to having a simple way to backup my computer data. At first, all looked well. The box was impressively packaged - solid and secure. The Maxtor device itself is sturdily constructed. It looks built to last and to survive knocks that might take down the computer itself. So, I was impressed. However, it didn't last. Then, you see, I looked at the cables that came with the Maxtor device. One of them, unfortunately, was the strangest looking cable I had ever seen. Sadly, it was the power cable. Attached to the end of it, was a plug, the like of which I have never heard rumoured, never mind seen: it had DIAGONAL pins. That is, each of the flat pins (two of them) was set at a diagonal tilt. Not only that but they were pretty close together. I looked at them, somewhat disheartened. How, on Earth, were they going to fit into a power socket?

I tried. I really tried. I even attempted to squeeze the pins in the socket, with a little bit of additional force. However, they would not budge, not even with a special two pin socket adaptor. This power supply cable had been built for no country I had ever been to. Somewhere, in all the packaging I read the words: "Made in China". Ah, I see. Perhaps this plug fits Chinese wall sockets. However, the rest of the world had a different opinion about how to make a socket. My brand new Maxtor backup device was, as it was, completely unusable. I had been sold something which could never work, without me buying a new cable. Now, it strikes me, this is no way to do business. That rather well known Low Yat store, on the floor below the top of Low Yat really should CHECK what they are selling. They have no business selling devices with accessories that are incompatible with the power supplies in Malaysia. That is doing a disservice to their customers. It also means that next time I come to buy some electronic equipment, that I will look elsewhere, lest I find myself in the same situation.

I hope to be able to use the Maxtor device - which looks a great idea - someday soon. But first I shall have to go shopping, again. The real cost of this is much more than a single cable, of course - for I have to travel there and back again. So, it might add another 20 % to the cost of the device, just to get it working. That is unfair on every customer they sell to.

So, this is a message to every computer store in Malaysia: please get to KNOW what you are selling to your customers before you sell it. Why not actually open the box and look into it? It wouldn't take a minute, but would save your customers much wasted time and money.

The same message applies, of course, to computer stores in other countries. It is just that I have only experienced this, personally, in Malaysia. I would rather not be so inconvenienced again. So, stores, get checking!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

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