Thanks for sharing Maverick. My friend bought a new canon from MS, and opened it up at home and realised that the battery pack has already been opened (in fact, the pack looks its been opened a few times), so he had the impression that the salesman at MS most likely have swapped his new battery for a 2nd hand one: there's no reason for the shop to open up the new battery pack as they should already have a spare battery for customer to do testing. heck, the camera itself could be a display set.... so, take note when purchasing a new set: check if the battery packs, or the main body packaging has been opened many times.
We went to Parisilk nee soon camp also to get a battery pack bp511 3rd party and was quoted at $60. when we told him our friends bought it at $28, he said he go and check and revert to us: "oh, erm, my mistake, we bought this battery in bulk, so the price should be better, its $28, not $60..." When we reach there, there was only ONE battery pack there, and its the old model, bp511. The new model is 511A which retails at the same price.... and asked for CF card kingston 133x speed and was quoted about $60! We just went to Sitex and got it for about $30-...... maybe we look like tourists visiting the mandai zoo who ran out of batteries.
On a lighter note, Cathay had given us the cheapest quote with no hidden charges. To share with other bros, most shops charge 5% if u opt for 0% instalment plan, but the price Cathay quoted seemed less than 5%, it is about 3% only . Considering the fact that the shop in Ang Mo Kio is fully paid (no rental costs) and the high rental in Marina Square and peninsula, Cathay can still provide better prices, I would support Cathay whenever possible. With low rental overheads, those shops outside the CBD should pass over some savings to customers by way of much cheaper prices, everyone agree?