Dubai Airport would be a fantastic place to do duty free shopping. Ah, the choice and the price. I did get a few items for myself and of course, my family. It would have been more shopping if it was not for the terrible check-in service provided by the ground staff for SIA. SIA should really look into this. As a group, we had no idea where to, transferred from counter to counter, which made it a pain.
Anyway, after my shopping, I was walking around the airport, near the departure gate. Suddenly, my a pretty gal from our travel group called out to me. She looked worried and angry. An Indian chap was talking to her, asking her for the receipt of goods purchased. The shopping was done one floor below.
This Indian chap, did look like the guy responsible for the trolleys. He wasn't security. He said something about computer error to me and he wanted to check the receipts.
In reality, he was hoping my friend Y could not produce the receipts. Y was already frantically searching for the tiny pieces of paper amid her shopping. She did Shop! Y said that when she had trouble locating the receipts, he asked for some money. This made Y angry. When I showed up, the guy pretended that all was OK and disappeared.
In hindsight, I should have asked him for his ID and made some fuss. When I returned to KL, I found out in Bangkok, there is a ploy to trick visitors. In the duty free shop, after shopping, the salesperson would offer a gift to the visitors - say, a box of cigars. Since it is a gift, thinking it is part of the purchase, the visitors will take it. Alas, the visitors will be arrested later and be charged with theft. Certainly, a sum of 500,000 baht will make the charges disappear. This was actually published in the New Straits Times.
In short - be darn careful when we do duty free shopping. Keep receipts. And ensure that all free gifts are properly labelled as "free gifts". Oh yeah - this is why I pay with my credit card - if I lose the receipts, the credit card will still have a record.
Anyway, after my shopping, I was walking around the airport, near the departure gate. Suddenly, my a pretty gal from our travel group called out to me. She looked worried and angry. An Indian chap was talking to her, asking her for the receipt of goods purchased. The shopping was done one floor below.
This Indian chap, did look like the guy responsible for the trolleys. He wasn't security. He said something about computer error to me and he wanted to check the receipts.
In reality, he was hoping my friend Y could not produce the receipts. Y was already frantically searching for the tiny pieces of paper amid her shopping. She did Shop! Y said that when she had trouble locating the receipts, he asked for some money. This made Y angry. When I showed up, the guy pretended that all was OK and disappeared.
In hindsight, I should have asked him for his ID and made some fuss. When I returned to KL, I found out in Bangkok, there is a ploy to trick visitors. In the duty free shop, after shopping, the salesperson would offer a gift to the visitors - say, a box of cigars. Since it is a gift, thinking it is part of the purchase, the visitors will take it. Alas, the visitors will be arrested later and be charged with theft. Certainly, a sum of 500,000 baht will make the charges disappear. This was actually published in the New Straits Times.
In short - be darn careful when we do duty free shopping. Keep receipts. And ensure that all free gifts are properly labelled as "free gifts". Oh yeah - this is why I pay with my credit card - if I lose the receipts, the credit card will still have a record.
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