One of our kababayan here in Singapore sharing his bad experience at Sim Lim Square, here’s the story:

I just want to warn everyone to AVOID going to unit # 02-76 in Sim Lim Square. They are grotesque scammers that has the tendency to be physically violent to customers. I was one of their unfortunate victims. Their signboad says ‘Evolution Gaming LLP’, but as I was researching on the net, they apparently regularly change their store name. They used to be called MH Electronics, or Mobile House Electronics. And a neighbouring store that’s unit # 02-72 also used to be ‘Evolution Gaming’. They were also called ‘Compact Camera’. I’ve read a lot of complaints from that store too.

Anyway, here’s what happened. My girlfiend and I went to Sim Lim to buy a PSP. I know, it was quite stupid of me to go there for a PSP. It’s all over the net that the last place to buy a PSP is in Sim Lim. I went anyway, thinking it’s “not gonna happen to me” (i was dead wrong). So we went to different shops to ask for prices. The prices we got were 360, and 340.. complete with all the necessary stuff like battery, 4G card, cable, case, and modification. When we got to unit # 02-76 (Evolution Gaming LLP), they quoted us $308. That was too cheap.. but it was almost 9pm and I was just tired and wanted the PSP. So I said I’ll take one. The sales guy was friendly. He’s tall, fat, and had a lot of pimples on his face. He took our money and said he’ll modify it in front of us. After the so-called modification, he showed the PSP to me… and it was lagging! He said the modification took much of the RAM and it needed an upgrade, and that we had to pay $200! Holy sh*t… and while he was selling the upgrade to me, he kept calling me ‘my friend…’. That was just annoying. I said we don’t have that kind of money, and we’d like to get our money back. From here, things got ugly. The store owner (tall, skinny, and also had a lot of pimples) started shouting at us, saying just take the PSP, the we’re wasting his time, etc. And another guy tried to talk to us,this short little guy with glasses, squeaky voice, introduced as the store manager. He tried to explain about the upgrade. But we’ve heard enough. We just wanted our money back, and we were not leaving. Finally they said we could have our money back, but since the PSP has already been modified, we should pay the GST (wtf!). After much debate, I just said fine.. if that’s what it takes to just leave this place, then ok. So they gave us our money, less gst (that’s $21 – not bad, but still hurts). We were so pissed leaving the store. I decided to take a photo of the store premises so I could have a ’souvenir’ for the event. Suddenly, this little guy with glasses (store manager, they say) started to slap me in the face! (I’m not sure if it was a slap or a punch.. looked like a punch, felt like a slap) He also shoulted at me with his small squeaky voice. I prepared to hit back, aiming at his small face.. but suddenly I see this tall lanky guy running from the store carrying a metal stool. And the fat pimply guy who tried to sell the PSP also came out running towards us too. The little guy’s got backup! So now there’s 3 of them, and one of me. I remember thinking, if I fight back, this is going to get ugly for me. But then, the short guy took a plastic chair and continued to hit me, as well as this tall guy with the metal stool! Unit # 02-76 Evolution Gaming LLP is situated at the corner of the floor. The beating continued until we reached the escalator. They hit me on the face, the arms, and body. My girlfriend was just shouting ‘please stop!’. Suddenly they demanded for me to delete the photo.. i had no choice but to comply. After deleting (they continued to hit me by the way), Sim Lim security came in the scene. The little guy gave me one last hit on the body with his reliable plastic chair. After that, security called the police. The police came to talk to me, then went up to talk to the store owner (tall pimply guy). The guys that attacked me where no longer there (of course). We went to the police station, I gave a statement, they gave me a medical form, we went to the hospital to document the scratches I obtained from the attack. The police said that they were going to launch an investigation about it.

So now here I am writing about it. The net has got loads of warning stories like this about the scamming happening in Sim Lim. Let this be an additional story about it. I haven’t actually read about any violence happening, so I think this is the first.

Reading up on the net, here’s a few more stories/complains about unit #02-76 / Evolution Gaming LLP for scamming and bad service.

This one is when they were still called Mobile House Electronics Pte Ltd (signboard MH Electronics): http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=1696186

Here’s another one about #02-76 where they have bad attitude: http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/archive/index.php/t-10687.html

Here’s another one about Evolution Gamming LLP:
http://imcomplicatedyetsosimple.blogspot.com/2007/12/scammer-from-sim-lim.html

And another one for Evolution Gaming LLP:
http://forums.gameaxis.com/showthread.php?t=1476878&highlight=Sim+lim+square

And another yet one… “Extreme Lousey Service in Sim Lim Sqare”. This time it’s in #02-72 but still called “Evolution Gaming LLP” (it’s either they like exchanging signboards, or its the same owner): http://forums.gameaxis.com/showthread.php?t=1482761

Here’s another on #02-72, but it’s no longer called “Evolution Gaming”.. This time their signboard says “Compact Camera”: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=1793609

And another one on #02-72: http://sgforums.com/forums/2535/topics/313622

So I guess # 02-76 and # 02-72 exchange names, and has the same modus operandi. Everyone beware of these shops!