Stop Core

This in from a reader:

The semi-colon key on my one year old MacBook Pro popped off yesterday. I took it into Core to see if I could get it fixed. Despite the fact that the broken part is a 50c clip, they wanted to replace the entire keyboard at a cost of R2,500. I took out my pocket knife and fixed it myself while arguing with the service agent. The clip is still broken, so the key does not sit straight, but at least it works again.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Just to prove that we are not a bunch of annoying bloggers we’d like to take a moment to point out something good that Core did this week.

You’ll remember a few days ago that we broke the news of the new Core pricing and commented that it was somewhat exorbitant. Now the next time we checked the prices have come down. While the drop is not mind boggling it certainly is a step in the right direction. For example the 2.53 Ghz 15-inch model was R22999 a week ago while this week the price has gone down by two thousand rand to R20999. Now these decreases in price are more pronounced higher up in the Macbook Pro range but the decrease is anywhere between R1000 and about R2500.

This makes the range of Apple products a lot more affordable and frankly more accessible. It’s still expensive, but a step in the right direction. Ultimately it does not solve the service and attitude issues but we’re happy anyway.

Good work Core

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

If you go down to ZAStore today, you’re in for a big surprise. Today Core released the prices of the new Macbook Pro range and again, the prices are quite confusing. Take a look at this page for the pricing.

The new 13-inch Macbook Pro is now R18999 for the top of the range 2.53 Ghz model. Now this top of the range 13-inch used to be R19999 so you might argue that Core is going in the right direction right? Unfortunately the price of the old Macbook 13-inch was $1599 and now it’s $1499 so that drop in price is actually coming from the top rather than Core. Long story short, $1499 equates to around R12100, a near seven thousand rand more expensive than buying the laptop from the states. The situation is even worse with the entry level 15-inch which goes for R23000 rand when the equivalent price in the states is $1699 ie R13600 so we’re looking at an almost ten thousand rand mark up.

You see, Core raised the prices last year due to the exchange rate jumping from seven rand to the dollar to over ten rand to the dollar. However, with the rand at around eight to the dollar pricing is still closer to where R10/$ rate rather than the R7/$ rate.

Again, it’s a fair assumption that as the distributors Core does not pay the retail price and instead gets a wholesaler discount. Now based on some (highly impossible to verify and thus supposition and not fact) information Core gets a further discount by taking what is known as a “domestic” license meaning they don’t offer the international warranty. Again, I cannot confirm this but if someone has tried to take their Apple product to an international store for a warranty claim and been laughed at, I would greatly appreciate that information.

All in all, the situation continues to be fairly gloomy.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Originally from Macgeek.co.za

This is an open letter to Greg Hill from Core asking him to answer a few questions. Firstly, whether Core apply 51% markup to all of their products. Secondly, if Core hope that people reading Stop Grey will really be convinced to not buy grey Apple products. And lastly, what Core is doing to engage Apple users in South Africa.

The email reads:

From: Roger Saner
Date: 31 May 2009 11:52:28 AM
To: Greg Hill
Subject: Pricing for MacBooks, StopGrey.co.za and Core’s strategy to interact with Apple users

Hi Greg

I’ve been directed to you by Rene Firsing, who gets the contact emails sent to ZA Store via the website. I’m very confused about a few things, and she said that probably only a Core Executive could answer my questions.

My first question is about prices. Today’s Rand/Dollar exchange rate is 1$ = R7.94. You charge R24,000 for the 15 inch 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro ( http://www.zastore.co.za/macbookpro0810.php ) and it’s available from the Apple site for $1,999 ( http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro )

Using the above exchange rate, $1,999 = R15,869.16. That’s a difference of R8130.84 which is 51% markup. Do you apply 51% markup to all of your products?

My second question is about Stop Grey.co.za, a website which makes no definite claims, but makes lots of hints – and uses a fair amount of scare tactics – as to what will happen to someone if they buy a grey Apple import. Do you hope that people will be convinced to buy from Core, even when they are so much more expensive than grey imports?

Core is widely perceived as a command-and-control old-style organisation who doesn’t understand that who you are is more important that what you sell. My final question is this: what is your strategy to start and continue an online conversation with Apple users in South Africa, so that you can continue upholding the good reputation Apple has, while at the same time repairing the damage Core is doing to the Apple brand?

Regards
Roger
[Update: No response yet. Resent to Greg on 7 July 2009.]

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

(This post is not built on fact but supposition)

The cost of a top of the range Macbook (2.4 Ghz) is 1125 pounds or roughly fourteen thousand rand. Somehow in South Africa this exact same laptop costs twenty thousand rand from essentially every Apple outlet in the country. Where does this margin come from? I’ve heard some rumour that Core imports from the UK rather than the US for shipping purposes

Assuming that Core would buy their goods from the UK at the price of fourteen thousand rand (it’s extremely, if not impossibly unlikely that they would buy at retail prices) they still need to factor in the costs of shipping, taxes and eventually sales in South Africa. I’m no import/export expert but here’s what I can tell you:

When it comes to taxes there is no cost on computers except for the 14% VAT. Now since we’re assuming a R14K price that’s a substantial R1960 in vat. This pushes the price up to close on R16K but there are two issues to consider here. The first is that Core most likely pays wholesale prices for their laptops thus making the VAT amount lower anyway. The second issue is that they will claim VAT back so it seems odd for them to charge extra for that. This is possibly showing a vast ignorance of the SA Tax system but this is, as I said, supposition.

Now the shipping is a difficult issue to consider due to Core bringing in bulk orders and also there is little info about the costs of shipping. What I did find is that you can pay up to 180 UK pounds for a 30 KG piece of cargo; equating to 6 pounds per kilo for shipping. Again, this is a rough calculation but the actual laptop weights two kilograms so even if in total the box is five kilograms then you’re looking at a cost of 30 UK pounds to ship or a massive cost of R360. Now this price is excluding bulk shipping discounts so would be most likely different but this still takes us to a grand total of R16360.

Now considering there’s no way Core pays the prices I’ve mentioned as they buy wholesale it seems excessive in my opinion.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

This post is originally from http://www.mpieters.com/

In South Africa we are pretty used to monopolies who do not actually care about the consumers. Over the years we have dealt with Telkom and Eskom amongst others, and only recently we have started to see the results of competition in our communication industry. Now if other groups can just also follow suit.

Apple products in South Africa are imported by only one company, the Core Group. Core has a its own retail stores (iStores) and they also resell to other retailers like Incredible Connection and Digicape. The service at the iStore in the Waterfront has always been horrendous – for example, walk in a week after a new iPod has been released, and their staff still would know NOTHING about it. Like about a year ago I had this little conversation:

“What do you mean new iPod? With Touch? I think you mean iPhone…” Pathetic.

Today I just checked out what is the price difference of Apple products in South Africa. Here is some examples:

Computers:

Baseline unibody Macbook in SA: R15999

Baseline unibody Macbook in US: R11041 ($1299)

Price difference: 30%

Baseline New iMac 20 inch in SA: R14999

Baseline New iMac 20 inch in US: R10191 ($1199)

Price difference: 33%

8 Core Mac Pro in SA: R40000

8 Core Mac Pro in US: R28050

Price difference:30% (or more than R10000 on a single computer)

iPods:

iPod Nano 16GB in SA: R2699

iPod Nano 16GB in US: R1699 ($199)

Price difference: 38%

iPod Touch 32GB in SA: R5800

iPod Touch 32GB in US: R3400 ($399)

Price difference: 42% !!!!!

Peripherals:

Mini Displayport to DVI adapter in SA: R510

Mini Displayport to DVI adapter in US: R246 ($29)

Price difference: 52%!!!!

Now I know VAT is 14%, which I accept. But as long as there is a sole importer of Apple in SA, we will never ever get decent prices of Apple gear in SA. How can an iPod cost almost double in SA? Shocking!

In the US, Apple is trying to defend its high prices in the current economy, while in SA we pay even more than the rest of the world (Prices for a 8GB Nano accross the world, obviously changes with exchange rate fluctuation:).

1. Brazil $369.61

2. Bulgaria $318.60

3. Argentina $317.45

4. Israel $300.80

5. Peru $294.08

6. Chile $294.06

7. Malta $293.83

8. Egypt $269.10

9. Romania $266.60

10. Uruguay $260.00

11. Turkey $256.12

12. Hungary $254.50

13. Azerbaijan $252.11

14. Serbia $249.14

15. Croatia $245.41

16. Czech $242.54

17. Slovakia $234.13

18. Estonia $226.67

19. South Africa $226.60

20. Finland $225.82

21. France $225.82

22. Russia $220.32

23. Norway $220.20

24. Sweden $215.35

25. Belgium $211.62

26. Austria $211.62

27. Italy $211.62

28. Portugal $211.62

29. Ireland $211.62

30. Germany $211.62

31. Netherlands $211.62

32. Denmark $209.26

33. UK $201.92

34. Mexico $201.87

35. Cyprus $201.85

36. Luxembourg $201.12

37. Poland $200.52

38. Philippines $198.39

39. Spain $197.42

40. Greece $196.51

41. Switzerland $195.43

42. India $183.47

43. Malaysia $181.82

44. Korea $180.60

45. New Zealand $180.58

46. China $179.63

47. Pakistan $179.48

48. Australia $175.42

49. Thailand $174.89

50. Canada $169.68

51. Singapore $167.31

52. Taiwan $165.82

53. Japan $154.21

54. U.S. $149.00

55. Hong Kong $148.12

Source: CommSec, Apple

Over at 2Oceansvibe, Seth has managed to start a small frenzy about the ridiculous service of Core South Africa. Give it a read.

If someone over at Apple is reading this, we in SA are tired of the poor service and high prices that Core forces on us. Please give another group import rights as well, the sales of your products suffer because of their incompetence.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

I stumbled upon this article the other day about how Core (the distributors of Apple products in South Africa) were unhappy that one of their bigger distributors CAB (Cool Apple Buddy aka the Apple store in Sandton City) was no longer selling Core products and rather brought in the stock themselves. CAB basically felt they were losing business due to the poor delivery time of stock by Core.

I must wholeheartedly agree with CAB, Core is one of the worst companies I’ve ever had to deal with and this is assuming you can ever get hold of them. When I was told to phone them about getting my HSDPA modem working they basically had no recourse for me and told me to bring in the laptop. Sure, I understand it’s hard to diagnose over the phone but that’s just indifference on their part. They could have at least given me some generic steps to try fix it. Core knows they are the only distributors and frankly don’t really care about customer service. Why should they, you have to buy from them either way.

Whining about the Core situation aside, I think it’s rubbish that they should have to be the only company bringing in Apple products and if CAB wants to get the products from a different source then good for them. The problem is however that whether you walk into a CAB store or a Core store you’ll pay the same price for your Mac products. One would hope that CAB could lower their prices somewhat considering if they are importing the products themselves there should be some cost savings.

It seems that despite the distributor South African consumers are going to get shafted with regards to price. So ultimately let Core and CAB fight it out, once one company wins we’ll just get to pay more than we currently do to get our Apple fix.

Such is the life of a South African Mac lover.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed.