SINGAPORE: A man took to social media to share awareness after his mother ended up paying nearly S$5000 for products in a mall, with the sales staff even accompanying the senior to a POSB ATM to make sure she transferred the money to the company, as she did not know how to do this herself.
On Sunday (Sept 24), Mr Hoh Kah Hui wrote, “My elderly mother fell prey to the aggressive and unethical sale tactics of VOOKA INTERNATIONAL GROUP PTE. LTD. (UEN 201532668Z),” on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page. He also found out the company has a history of similar actions and added negative reviews and complaints to his post as proof.
He wrote that on Sept 15 and 16, between 3:00 and 5:00 pm, his mother was on her way from work, and while walking through Compass One, she encountered a Vooka sales staff as the company was holding a roadshow event.
According to its website, Vooka markets its products, which are electrical appliances such as stir fryers and sous vide cookers, at roadshow events, and customers can try them out and then buy them right there and then.
However, Mr Hoh wrote, “The sales staff were very pushy and used aggressive sale tactics to persuade my mother to spend a total of $4,965.84 on their products, and even followed her to the POSB ATM machine to make a bank transfer to their own company bank account as my mother does not know how to do so on her own.”
His mum told him what had happened on Sept 17.
“When I researched the company online I found that there were others who shared similar experiences of their elderly parents being conned by this company and their sales staff,” he added.
However, though he has made “multiple attempts” to reach out to Vooka to return the products and issue a full refund to Mr Hoh’s mother, it has been to no avail.
“Hence I have filed a police report, reported this to CASE and sharing publicly to raise awareness,” he wrote, adding, “Please educate your elderly parents and protect them from being scammed of their hard earned money.”
He and his family are now seeking police assistance to retrieve the CCTV footage at the bank from the incident.
The Independent Singapore has reached out to both Mr Hoh and to Vooka for further updates and comments. /TISG
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