Tuesday 4 August 2009

Thanks Panasonic for the free air conditioner!

Sometime back in April i bought a cheapo Panasonic air con for my house's guest room where my brother-in-law's family would be staying for a few months.

It was the most entry level model that anyone can find in the market. And if air cons were shoes, then this would be the Croc knock offs that is being sold in the pasar malam. Basically it just blows cold air out. No fancy ionizer, plasma cluster, allergy free, death rays, or what ever new technology is being put into an air con nowadays. I got it for RM 1050, including installation, which i was lead to believe was a good deal.

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Anyway, few days later, while i was reading the newspaper, i saw that Panasonic is having a contest, which is giving a way 333 prizes every month, for 3 months. That's like 999 total prizes up for grabs!!!
So without waiting, i quickly went online to check for details of the contest.
Found my way to the Panasonic website to download the entry form and get a better understanding of how the contest works.

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So basically the contest is pretty simple.
Each RM 300 you spent on any Panasonic product entitles you for 1 entry. So the RM 1050 i spent got me 3 entries.
Answer 2 very idiotically simple questions. And no slogans whatsoever (thank god!)
Complete the form, attach a photocopy of the receipt and the original copy of the warranty card and send it back by post.
Cross your fingers, count your lucky stars and get ready for a lucky draw.

Pretty simple right?

Each draw happens at the beginning of the month, eg. i purchased my air con in April, so i am entitled for the May lucky draw. And each month, 111 lucky person would win an air con, another 111 would win a refrigerator and the remaining 111 would win a washing machine (crap prize).

I mean how hard would that be right? After all, i got 3 entries. Eat dust to those who bought a measly rm 300 product hahahaha

But then later only i realized that at that time, Panasonic was having a lot of promotions, especially with the Viera plasma and LCD TV (i too was almost tempted to swipe my card for a cash and carry 32" LCD TV promotion)

Then it hit me that my measly 3 entries might not even win me anything. Sure, there are 999 prizes to be given away, but we could be talking about thousands of entries. Anyone who bought the plasma and LCD TVs would get no less than 9 entries alone! Thats 3 times higher chance than me.

Well, if it is mine, then it is mine.

Very quickly i forgot about the contest. I did remember checking the newspaper in the beginning of May for the result but didn't see any. In fact the May results came out sometime in mid June i believe. Talk about being slow!

Then one fine day, i got a call from Panasonic that i had won the air con in the 333 contest. She asked me to check the past few day's newspaper. At first i thought it was a prank. I mean, i need to see some proof before i get too happy for the wrong reasons.

Sure enough, when i checked back the newspaper at the date she mentioned, there it was, the results.

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Wohoo!!! That's my name!

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Ok, so now i have to wait for a letter from Panasonic, informing me which Panasonic dealer i should contact to collect my prize.

After a few weeks of endless waiting (surprisingly the more you expect of something, the longer the wait seemed), the letter finally arrived.

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The dealer was the shop where i bought the cheapo air con from. I promptly called the dude up and demanded my well deserved prize inquired about the prize.

"Erm, your air con haven't come yet lah"

"So when can get?"

"Donno leh. When come lioa, i give you a call"


Well, that's what basically happened and after another few weeks of waiting, finally the dude called me to inform that the prize is in his shop. After doing some research, i tried to persuade him to trade the prize (1.75 hp inverter) to a non-inverter 2.0 hp, which should roughly be the same price tag. But no deal he said, since the prize came directly from Panasonic and he won't make a cent from this (apart from the RM300 commission for being the dealer of the contest winner)

So after haggling with the installation price (yeah, inverter uses different piping and is much more expensive to install and service, which is why i preferred a non-inverter version), I finally got it down to RM280 (non-inverter installation is around RM150) and asked him to come today.

Installation was a breeze (well, i would assume so. But heck, i wouldn't know since i was at work today but my dad did called me up saying they broke a few roof tiles which by the time i got home was already repaired but the question is where did he find some new tiles to replace the broken ones?)

And why the heck was the air con unit installed so high up? And whats with the ugly white cable concealer?

* Note to self: remember to paint it over.

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Now still testing the air con performance.
For a 1.75 hp, the blower is quite strong and effective to cover the whole living room.

Though at first it took some time to cool down the whole area (area was not confined and the air escapes everywhere), but once it is in high gear, we found ourselves shivering under its strong cold currents. Don't play play ar.


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Ah... Panasonic... you complete me. my living room.

3 comments:

Dennis Lim said...

Congratulation... must be damn happy. So good luck.

calvaryzone said...

Dennis,
Thanks thanks. Didn't think that i'll win anything. Yeah, good luck i guess.

Unknown said...

Panasonic ran the contest well and many people with great enthusiasm took part in the competition and won prizes. Congrats that you won the prize.

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