Vax
New member
I wouldn't call this a rant, and the purpose of this isn't to flame anyone in particular, but I thought it'd be helpful to share this encounter.
I was slated to sell an amplifier to a Malaysian SOFTie, who asked me for its dimensions so he could find a suitable bag to fit it. Apparently, there'll be a tax imposed should he be found carrying it by its handle across the border, and the way to avoid the tax is to fit it into a personal carry-bag.
It's a small solid-state amp, so it shouldn't have been a problem. I measured it and informed my buyer of its dimensions.
Alas, when I met up with him, we found that the amp couldn't fit the bag he originally intended to use. 10 minutes of scouting the nearby supermarket and stalls were fruitless in finding a suitably large plastic bag. In the end, he decided not to buy the amp as he didn't want to buy a bigger bag to fit it in.
So the sale didn't go through, wasting both our time and effort to meet up.
The lessons we learnt from this encounter are:
1. For SG sellers, provide dimensions of whatever it is you're selling, and if you can, over-measure it by 5% or more so that your buyer is aware that he'll need a bigger bag to comfortably fit your item.
2. For MY buyers, if your tax issue is a problem, do bring a larger bag than what's required. It's better to "suffer" a little in carrying a slightly more cumbersome bag. It will mean that your trip down to SG will not be wasted.
Hope this helps us some.
I was slated to sell an amplifier to a Malaysian SOFTie, who asked me for its dimensions so he could find a suitable bag to fit it. Apparently, there'll be a tax imposed should he be found carrying it by its handle across the border, and the way to avoid the tax is to fit it into a personal carry-bag.
It's a small solid-state amp, so it shouldn't have been a problem. I measured it and informed my buyer of its dimensions.
Alas, when I met up with him, we found that the amp couldn't fit the bag he originally intended to use. 10 minutes of scouting the nearby supermarket and stalls were fruitless in finding a suitably large plastic bag. In the end, he decided not to buy the amp as he didn't want to buy a bigger bag to fit it in.
So the sale didn't go through, wasting both our time and effort to meet up.
The lessons we learnt from this encounter are:
1. For SG sellers, provide dimensions of whatever it is you're selling, and if you can, over-measure it by 5% or more so that your buyer is aware that he'll need a bigger bag to comfortably fit your item.
2. For MY buyers, if your tax issue is a problem, do bring a larger bag than what's required. It's better to "suffer" a little in carrying a slightly more cumbersome bag. It will mean that your trip down to SG will not be wasted.
Hope this helps us some.
