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| YUMBO
Centre Floor: 3rd. Floor Local: 342/09 |
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DO
NOT TRUST FOTO DALLAS |
Foto Dallas is located in the Yumbo Centre which is a massive commercial centre in the Playa Del Igles resort of Gran Canaria. Shops range from your typical souvenir/tack shop to audio/visual 'specialist' outlets. Yumbo is also home to many restaurants, bars, clubs.
Our Travel Reps told us that electronic goods worked out cheaper for us because of tax cuts, so we made a mental note to watch out for bargains on the island. Yumbo seemed to offer a good number of 'Specialist' dealers for electronics goods, and we were thinking of purchasing a Sony Digicam. We'd checked out prices for similar models in Puerto Rico (a resort along the coast) and were willing to pay under $150 for a DV camera (significant saving in £££!). Our final decision came, when passing through the Yumbo centre one early evening. At Foto Dallas, you are greeted by several unsavoury characters who shout 'hello' in several different languages and then shove a camera right next to your face, shouting 'video camera, video cam-e-r-a!!'. OK, so this is probably the first bad sign, but everywhere seemed to be doing the same thing so we went in to do a price check at least!
Once inside, you feel the slight change in temperature, unmistakingly the effect of two badly placed air conditioning units and wide open doors. The shop inside is packed with display cases and mirrors, each and everything covered with a fine layer of dust. We wanted to buy their cheapest version of the Sony DV Handycam, and were offered a price of 170 Euros which was soon haggled down to 150, so we went for it. He had written out the credit slip in seconds and swiped our card using the now-old fashioned carbon recorders. This again another warning point!! He then told us that because we were using a credit card, that he'd have to wait for authorisation from his bank before we could leave, hmmmm... so it was our fault!
Tension started building, when he invited us to sit down at his desk/counter. He started telling us about his latest camera while we waited, which was fine at first, at it did look like a good camera, much smaller and worked on SD (no tape!). He showed us the quality difference on a TV, lieing through his teeth about the newer functions. Admittedly on the TV it looked like a better output, but i'm sure he was tricking us by showing us the preview (low quality) TV output. Soon he tapping away at his calculator, much faster than we could see, comparing the two cameras, again mixing up terms and language into a technical slur from his mouth.
We are two IT professionals with advanced English language skills, but didn't know much Spanish (the traders were from India originally, so it didn't matter!), so English was the universal middle ground. The language the dealers used was pigeon-based and quite confusing. Although we knew most of the terms he was using, they were thrown at us and very fast, he basically wound us in a very exciting lie, just grounded in enough technical terms to be believable.
We ended up buying the JVC branded all-new DV camera, for 435 euros, including case and did a deal on a genuine looking SD card. Suddenly, he pulled out a digital POS card reader and swiped our card through the machine a couple of times. He ripped up the old carbon copies and advised us that he should keep the box because we'd never get it through customs! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! but good point, we didn't care it was so good just to be out of the shop! But, how disturbing was his behaviour in there? What had we got ourselves into? It was time to check the camera. We started filming immediately using the half charged battery provided, but it was dark and coudln't see much at all.... in fact we could hardly see anything, the next clue was that it didn't come with a optical zoom (and the man in the shop said it was) so every time the pixelised zoom went further we realised just how low quality the camera was. We saw the lights go off at Foto Dallas and decided to get down to more testing.
In a bar, we ordered two stiff drinks to calm our nerves, and checked the contents of our black plastic bag. The camera did kind-of work, but dropped out terribly in the dark. The manual had no JVC logo on it, or mention of the company anywhere. By now, alarm bells were going off in our heads, but there was nothing we could do but go back to the hotel and test further, as Foto Dallas had closed early (no doubt in case we came back!)
Further analysis, revealed that the JVC logo was badly stuck on the bottom of the unit and the logo itself was printed on a red gradient (something JVC never do!). Quickly rushed downsatirs to the hotel lobby, and used the internet to search the JVC website and there was no such model....
As you can imagine, we had a great nights sleep,not understanding how we could have been conned so easily. The answer was in his unscrupulous sales tactics and his capicity to lie so easily and profusely! He used the language barrier to hide any gaps in his web of deceit, and diverted our attentions from his dodgy financial transactions.
We went back the next morning in hope of a refund, but were fobbed off at first, as the person we dealt with would not be in for 'half of thirty'. We waited in the cafe next door for a while with sick stomachs, watching other unsuspecting tourists being conned. Sunglasses were sold as originals, pirate game console games reeled off the shelves and at least two dodgy cameras were shifted while we waited.... these people were professionals and would stop at nothing to get their buck!!
When asked for a refund, he said it was absolutely not possible. When confronted with the accusation that it was a fake, he agreed and said that he never actually said that the unit was a JVC (he had!) and they were a new batch in from China, still no refund, but he could offer a swap, but suddenly all the cheap handycams were out of stock and none of the other looked worth the 435 euros paid. With no choice but to go for a slighly newer handycam model, he slapped on a further 70 euros because the retail price of the unit was higher (confused, so are we!) but he did throw in a fake-branded travel case and set of 5 tapes (bargain). It seemed like it was the only way out and the trader was getting nasty, so we closed the deal again, hoping that this camera was legit. We took the box this time and had a stamped guarantee, but were still aware we had been totally ripped off!
Having afterwards checked the RRP for the cam, it would have actually been cheaper to buy the camera in the UK, with much less discomfort, a sales man who would have known what he was talking about without lieing and proper guarantees. This incident spoilt our holiday, and wasted a lot of our time. Do not shop here, you will be conned and law in Gran Canaria seems to suport this illegal activity, and you have no consumer rights in the matter, so be careful! You have been warned!
We are specialized in electonic goos like video- and photocameras, watches, Game Boys, etc. As well, you will find glasses and tabaccos.