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Colleen Lee

Hong Kong's image as a shopping paradise  took another hit yesterday when two more mainland tourists complained of being duped into buying fake merchandise.

At the centre of the scandal are suspect timepieces bought from Majestic Watch & Jewellery Company  in To Kwa Wan.  The shop was closed yesterday.

'I was cheated twice.  I will never shop in Hong Kong again, not even the big brands,' said Wang Guohua, a tourist from Harbin  who visited the shop yesterday to seek refunds.

In December, Mr Wang spent around HK$80,000 on two Swiss Paris  wristwatches for his sister-in-law. He visited Hong Kong on a 'zero-fare tour', which cost very little but usually require tour members to spend at designated shops. Back home he did an internet search for the watch model but turned up nothing and he suspected they were fakes.

On January 7, he came back  to demand a refund. Instead, he ended up forking out another HK$20,000 to exchange the watches for an Omega model and a Vacheron Constantin  timepiece. However, he soon realised that the Vacheron Constantin watch ran slowly.

'It runs an hour late every 24 hours,' Mr Wang said.

Returning to the shop yet again on January 15 he was coaxed into paying HK$20,000 more to replace it with a new Vacheron Constantin watch. Back in Beijing, he checked with a franchisee and was told the watch was only worth about HK$10,000 because the case was fake.

Another dissatisfied customer outside the shop yesterday was Sun Meilan from Changchun . She said she had bought a pair of Palais Cristalin  gold watches for HK$14,660 last September from a shop located at the same spot as Majestic. She had also travelled on a zero-fare tour.

A month after her purchase, the colour of the watches started to fade. She called the shop for advice and was told to rub them with flannel.

'But it didn't work,' Ms Sun said. 'I am afraid I can't get a refund now as the shop has changed its name.'

Both customers reported their cases to the police. Officers told them to forward their complaints to the Consumer Council.

The council said it received a number of complaints about the shop from mainland tourists yesterday and  would follow up accordingly. The council is already liaising with its mainland counterpart to increase public awareness about tourist shopping in Hong Kong.

Majestic was one of two retailers accused in a China Central Television  report last weekend of fleecing mainland visitors.

The other store named was Expo Global  in Hung Hom.

Customs officers have already seized almost 500 watches worth HK$4 million from  Majestic.

Shopping woes

Complaints received by the Travel Industry Council about the Majestic Watch & Jewellery Company from January to March 26

Number of complaints received about Expo Global in same period 12



Two more mainlanders claim they were duped by watch shop