Anyone bought a phone from TK Shop in Kad Suan Kaew

[mat999]

We were doing Xmas shopping today and buying a phone. At TK Shop it costs a lot less than in the Samsung shop or other shops, which made us suspicious. I am guessing it is a grey import, which I assume to mean taxes have not been paid and there might even be a small problem with it. Or are we being paranoid? The lady said it is new and there is a 1 year Thai warranty.

Has anyone else purchased a phone or other device from this shop; the first one to the right of Tops, next to DTAC: http://www.chiangmailocator.com/chiang-mai-shops-3929:tk-shop-kad-suan-kaew and if so can you recommend or warn about them?

For the same cheap price there is a seller on Lazada, but they only have 3 and a half stars. Despite the good experiences about Lazada in the other thread, this makes me think the seller will also be offering grey imports and possibly even immaculate used phones. One bad thing about Lazada is that they keep the seller reviews hidden; we only see the star rating which is not enough.

Would you buy from a (possibly) dodgy seller on Lazada, TK Shop, or just pay 2,000 Baht extra for piece of mind from Power Buy??

Thanks.

Edited December 21, 2015 by mat999

[Lannig]

Beware, grey market is the least of your worries. Many, many Chinese imitiations of Samsung phones being sold at bargain prices.

These are entry-level Mediatek-based no-name phones dressed as Samsung devices.

Some of them are bloody well done, it's pretty hard to tell them apart from the real thing if you're not technically sound.

[true blue]

my mate bought a samsung 5 from there,as far as I now he never had any proplems with it,until he went to cham am,and lost it

[bangmai]

I think authentic samsung is marginal. Read about dead pixels on their TVs. They think less than five is normal, and will not do anything. I would take a Sony any day of the week over a Samsung. I'm shopping for a new a/c and sure enough Samsung has the best prices, but when my 500 THB phone was amonth old, there were several problems, and I thought they would just give me another one, but instead it had to go to the engineer in BKK. It turns out that the way the power is regulated with the batteries was the problem. They do a lot of their manufacturing in Thalland..I'm sure you could find out exactly what.

[Frank James]

TK is a fine shop. I bought my Samsung Note 2 and Note 3 there, and they are definitely the real thing, in a factory sealed box with all papers, earphones, charger etc. My wife has bought several phones there, including her own Note 3, an Asus Zenphone, and several cheapies for the kids. They know her there, and have always been happy to correct our blunders for us, when we've knocked something out of whack.

If you're nervous about it, there is an authorized Samsung dealer 40 feet away. I have bought knock-off phones before, and immediately rued the decision. I think everything at TK is straight up, and the staff is very customer service oriented. By the way, when it was time to upgrade, they gave me very generous terms on trade-in. I doubt they would have done that if they knew it was a fake.

[Oscar2]

I think authentic samsung is marginal. Read about dead pixels on their TVs. They think less than five is normal, and will not do anything. I would take a Sony any day of the week over a Samsung. I'm shopping for a new a/c and sure enough Samsung has the best prices, but when my 500 THB phone was amonth old, there were several problems, and I thought they would just give me another one, but instead it had to go to the engineer in BKK. It turns out that the way the power is regulated with the batteries was the problem. They do a lot of their manufacturing in Thalland..I'm sure you could find out exactly what.

typically you would be the only one who would complain about a 500 Bath telephone!

[MaeJoMTB]

I think authentic samsung is marginal. Read about dead pixels on their TVs. They think less than five is normal, and will not do anything. I would take a Sony any day of the week over a Samsung.

Samsung make the screens for Sony.

[mat999]

Frank James and true blue- thank you for the reassuring words. We just bought the phone and it seems fine. I didn't see Frank's reply in time and we went to Power Buy but they had sold out in the colour we wanted, so we went to "risk" TK Shop. Now that I see Frank's reply we feel like it is 100% legit- we did scrutinize the phone closely after looking at the same one in the Samsung shop; 3,600 Baht cheaper

[Frank James]

3600 baht cheaper! One Hundred Dollars! And remember, they will always be glad to set things right if you have a problem later. Speaking of trade-ins, always be diligent to save the box and all papers, the original charger (Note 3 has a completely non standard fitting going into the phone), the headphones, everything. Cover the glass with a good film, and buy a QUALITY protective case. Do all that, and you'll get a good price.

On a related note, I kept getting notices to "upgrade" my Android OS to whatever the latest is. I am frankly sorry that I did, because I'm getting all sorts of pop-ups and re-directs for crap I don't want. Classic bloatware, and apparently it demands more memory than previous versions. Beware.

[bangmai]

I think authentic samsung is marginal. Read about dead pixels on their TVs. They think less than five is normal, and will not do anything. I would take a Sony any day of the week over a Samsung. I'm shopping for a new a/c and sure enough Samsung has the best prices, but when my 500 THB phone was amonth old, there were several problems, and I thought they would just give me another one, but instead it had to go to the engineer in BKK. It turns out that the way the power is regulated with the batteries was the problem. They do a lot of their manufacturing in Thalland..I'm sure you could find out exactly what.

typically you would be the only one who would complain about a 500 Bath telephone!

but Othcar, your therapist has obviously not got you to look deeper. I'm sitting here with 30K for a new a/c, and they take two weeks to fix a disposable phone, and didn't recognize the actual problem, why would I give a company like that more business. Think, before you write.