Looking for an aircon

Foreword: The purpose of marketing is to create a perception in the mind of the buyers. Marketing does not improve the actual performance of a product in anyway, and the fact is that most buyers are not concerned with facts, instead they would rather listen to opinions of friends or that of a marketing campaign. When it comes to buying a can of coke, the effect a marketing message on you costs you a few cents, when you buy an aircon, that effect will cost you a few hundred at the least.

In tropical Singapore, an aircon is considered a must by many. A quick look at the aircon ledges that I could see from my corridor outside my flat showed me out of the 8 I could see, 6 were branded under Mitsubishi Electric. So most home movers moved in in early 2017, and even if you have never heard of any aircon brand, you should be quickly able to tell which brand is most popular.

So I started my search for Air Cons on the same note as most other renovation items, without any brand or model in particular, but of course I was looking for value for money. I eliminated a few brands from the onset, as either had bad experiences with their aircons or related products. Namely elimated were LG, Panasonic, Sharp. So those in the running were the 2 Mitsubishis, Daikin, Samsung, York and Midea. After quickly searching several Air con retailers, I found that York had the cheapest packages for what I was looking for, for a System 3 aircon with each unit at 9000 BTU for the 3 bedrooms.

I already had a few quotes for Mitsubishi Electric 2 ticks (2 tick is their lower end model)(at the time of my purchasing, Mitsubishi Electric (the aircon company with the best marketing perception in consumers eyes (maybe because of Jack Neo). So after viewing a bunch of them, I decided to call Creation Aircon, a company based in Jalan Tenteram (Whampao Area) and the man over the phone told me that he was offering a York 3-system for $1899, and plus $270 for trunking parts upgrade (the top end consumer-grade stuff in Singapore, 23 gauge copper wire, Armaflex Class 1, 26mm pipe). So I was sold, on Gain City's website, I saw the price was $2400, so thats a saving of around $250.

So I went down to their showroom, with the intention of paying them a deposit, and met with the salesman. I did not take down the saleman over the phone name, so I did not know who exactly to meet. Anyways, the sales pitch went bad when I said I was keen in the $1900 aircon deal. He said no such thing, only Midea had that price point. So I walked away, thinking rubbish, if don't have such pricing, dont say over the phone. Then again, the person I met might have been greedy in his commission and just whack the price, higher than Gain City (the benchmark in the air con industry).

So I threw away Creation and went to Gain City at Boon Keng, and went there with the intention to by the York series, maybe their 4 tick (better) model, if not much cheaper. When we walked in, the salesgirl straight away brought us to the Mitsubishi Electric models and told us the story about the 5 tick model being out of stock till December and to take the 2 tick model. So of course energy rating is not the only measure on how good an aircon is, but in simple terms, would you pay more $500 more (+20%) for a 2 tick ME aircon or get a York 4-tick. So you can see how powerful the marketing of ME is, even the salestaff did not waste time with other models.

To be honest, I had never heard of York before scouting for an Air Con. I read up about them, and found its the consumer brand of Johnson Controls (a US building electronics company) and started its consumer business in Singapore only in 2012, so thats why I knew Carrier Man but not them. But I had heard of Johnson Controls and that turned me from thinking it was a China Brand and something worth buying especially if it is cheaper than the competition.

So we settled for York 4-tick (their better model), listed price at Gain City Boon Keng was $2550 ($100 less than online). After printing out or receipt, the salesgirl then told us that this model was on promotion, going for $2450. My wife decided to go for the Gain City 5-year warranty, so we paid $2600 in total. Also I signed up as a member and instantly got $26 in vouchers from them and they also threw in $60 worth of gain city vouchers, so in total they gave us $86 to spend at their stores. And of course for trunking they offered (and seems only to offer) the best parts.

So I felt we got a reasonable deal, paying less than the well marketed ME obsolete model. Kudos to ME marketing team!