Beware of CD-R King

By Pet MellizaTHE BEEKEEPER

I rarely go to CD-R King due to unsavory tales spun in its wake by irate customers. Its products are substandard and many have sad tales to tell about CD-R King. Last Saturday (June 5) though, I violated my own rule and found myself shortchanged. I bought from its SM City branch (Mandurriao, Iloilo City) six optical  disks that had no brand name.

I was bummed not only by CD-R King’s substandard good but also by its callous disregard for customer welfare.

Blue on one side, the disks can be distinguished with the symbols “DVD-RW 2X …Made in Taiwan”. It was almost 1 o’clock in the afternoon when I bought them. Of the six, only one worked. In other words, five out of six disks I had bought from CD-R King were defective. I returned to the store at past 4 pm of the same day to complain and ask for replacement.

Its branch head, Agnes Alcala, refused to replace them. According to her, the DVDs had scratches from repeated attempts to “burn” them. I should not have done that.

Is there any higher company officials that customers could turn to? Alcala referred me to CD-R King’s web page. No thanks, I shot back. I might as well write about this incident.

CD-R King blamed me for doing what I had to, that is, use them according to my purpose of buying them. I bought them not to stare at them but to copy a video on them or, using the PC lingo, “burn” them. A DVD of that model costs only P20 each. In other words, the damage goods (five DVDs) was P100 only, not much but quite significant if the principle of honesty and customer service that CD-R King defies again and again, were considered.

I posted a short note on that experience on the social network FaceBook that same afternoon and got two favorable comments from colleagues in the Integrated Bar of the Philippines – Iloilo chapter. Atty. Dan Valenzuela shared a sad experience of his friend who picked an item with price tag of P6.50 but was made to pay the “actual” price of P7.50. He was merely informed by the cashier that the price tag was “erroneous”.

CD-R King should have removed the tag immediately after that but it continued displaying the product at the misrepresented price. Atty. Jeelie Espinosa commented in the same thread that he joined me in my disgust of CD-R King.

Indeed, customer service is the last in the mind of CD-R King people. Its greed for profits is outrageous.

Two or three years back, columnist Herbert Vego wrote a piece unflattering to CD-R king, also for the same cheap gimmickry. He bought a defective product that CD-R King refused to replace.

That will be my last transaction with CD-R King. That same afternoon, I bought blank DVDs at a nearby store whose goods might have been priced higher  but has one virtue that attracts customers -  warranty for quality service  – something which is missing at CD-R King.

As I browsed through the net, I stumbled on a comment from one Andrew de la Serna titled “CD-R King – Pirate King of Smuggling?” Part of that reads: “The Optical Media Board (OMB) slapped CD-R King with a P1.5 million penalty for failing to produce permits for some of its optical media disc importations.

“CD-R King is a registered company allowed by the OMB to import blank, rewritable optical discs. Valenzuela (of OMB) said that the OMB is also seeking the cancellation of the license of CD-R King to sell optical media in the country.

“As if things couldn’t get any worse, they were even found using pirated softwares in their business operations. Tsk tsk.

“Coincidentally, OMB has recently conducted its ‘validation inspection’ to verify a tip it received that the same company was using unlicensed software in its operations in the country.

“CD-R hit the jackpot years ago after setting the trend of selling dirt-cheap recordable compact discs…” I can’t agree  more. CD-R King is just like a pirate that robs customers blind.*