Ah Siao

There's this tyre shop along jalan jurong kechil, for those who knew, the boss was known as ' ah siao', famous for the ridiculously low prices he could offer.
Desmond was thinking of changing rims so we went to experience this 'ah siao' that we heard so much about.

We drop by a couple of tyre shops b4 we went to ah siao to haf a feel of the market rate.
Conclusion: 16" taiwan rim - approx $150 each excluding tyres.

So armed with the prevailing market rates, ah siao, here we come...

When we reach, we were greeted by a uninterested teenager, the worker there, the shop looks run down, its in a mess you gotta see it to believe it... a few miserable rims stacking on top of each other on display, tires flooded the shop leaving oni a small passage the width of a man to enter, the passage was lined with all the unwanted lugs. No one was to to offer any form of service.
We started the ball rolling by asking "How much" pointing to juz 1 rim... The worker replied "Dunno, ask boss" pointing inside the shop.
So we went in, the boss was on the phone, busy entertaining an indian guy, which seem to be collecting old tires from him. The boss seemed more interested dealing with him than us.

Well, b4 we came, we haf already heard bout ah siao's attitude so we were more of less prepared. After he dealt with the non customer indian guy, my fren again point to the rim(15') and ask him... "how much". He juz glance and said "$350".
We were like wah... "erm... 1 set ah, got include tires?"
AS: Plus tires $400...

Wow... this guy is really crazy.

Then my fren ask about 16"... without even shown the design... AS said plus tires $500.
WTF? 16" rims + tires at $500????

That really got desmond interested. He ask to look at the rim. AS went into the messy store and appear with a box. Upon opening the box... it was the exact rim Desmond shortlisted at the other shop.
After showing desmond the rim, AS proceed to remove 1 of the wheels on desmond's car and left the car stranded on a portable jack and went off to busy himself again.... incredible...

Finally after a long wait for dunno what... he appeared with a tire - Dunlop Formula 1. Wat tire is that?! The tires he quote in the price were so called new tires... off new cars that were traded in to him... To be fair, the thread does look new but god knows how long were the tires there already...

After desmond decided to take up the deal, it was till then did AS started to rammage through his challenging shop in bid of the treasure hunt to find the other 3 rims. Its really amusing to see how he run the business.... It was pure entertainment.

I and patson were then feeling thirsty, and PLANNED on goin to the shell along the place to get some drinks and here's the best part...

Me: Ah siao, 你要不要喝？
AS: OK, 我要milo.
Me: eh, 我去shell买leh... 冷的可以吗？
AS: 我要milo， 烧的， 冷的我不喝。 对面有kopitiam...

Can you believe it?????

Back to the shop, workmanship wasn't anything to brag about, service not much to comment but AS wasn't rude at all... juz weird and not focus.

In the end, desmond's turn to get fleeced.... haha he got to pay $65 for the lugs... Lugs not included... wahaha. So total damage including 3% for credit card payment - $580, still cheap. Its like buy 4 rims, free 4 tires.... haha. Its definately an experience. After desmond paid up, we got into the car ready to leave, NOW AS started toking to us on and on and on and on holding on to the door. ARGH.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a damn cheap deal, dun mind wateva tires, wateva service, got PLENTY of time on hand, wan some entertainment, not much expectation of worksmanship, and wun get waver from the appearance of the shop. Ah Siao is the one!!!!