# Regulatory Compliance Category > Consumer Protection Act Forum >  Suppliers' friend or Parasite?

## tec0

Upon visiting our IT suppliers I noticed how nearly impossible it is to keep up with some of the resellers running around lately. Just by adding VAT, the price is already too high to compare. Not to mention quality The GPUs available in South Africa is pathetic low quality watered down pieces of tech and it is starting to tick me off because our importers are importing these inferior parts and sell them for the same price as what an original up-to-speck card would cost. 

Then there is the question of fair-trade, wholesalers/importers selling directly to the public at import prices basically killed off t a few industries, IT being the biggest falling industry at the moment and my question is how? 

Flooding the market with BS quality tech is one thing but it seems that the world is ok with this because the customer thinks she/he is benefiting but fact is they are not. Quality goods will always last longer perform better have proper technical backing. But this doesnt stop the customer from buying cheep parts because the pretender looks good on paper.  This maybe be one of the reasons but the truth is the problem is not with the customer, it is with the importer/wholesaler getting really greedy    

So what about fair market trade? Is it just an ideal? From the looks of things lately it is no longer applicable. Yes the consumer rights acts are hitting companies but the companies have no recourse or protection when a supplier sells directly to the public. 

So what can companies do? It has been suggested to register a legal complaint but the custodians are excessively passive to stabilise fair trade again, thus it seems that as long as VAT is paid the government couldnt care less for fair market and healthy industry. 

Thus why must businesses still play by the rules? Why pay VAT if they are not protected anymore? Why pay VAT if there is no benefit? Why register a company? Yes we have many laws that is strictly driven by VAT intake and yet again there pure lack of interest resemble our TV license you are force to pay it but you dont GET anything for it! 

That said I do think that Government is the problem, every person is almost a business or registered as one not because they want too but because they have too. Thus where does it leave the small business owner? 

If everyone is a business then everyone is basically trading trough government via VAT number and company registration in order to live THUS and think about this, Government is the only true beneficiary.

----------


## SilverNodashi

That's why I got out of the IT supplier game a few years ago already. Clients want to pay less and less for the same quality, and then expect you at IT supplier to fix every problem they have, for free. 

And if you don't do it, they'll simply goto incredible corruption or Makro - who already killed the market a few years ago with the bulk volume discounts they get from the retailers. They can NEVER offer the same after-sales support as you do, nor can they fix a PC within a few hours, or days at least - but the client's dont' see this when they pay for the product. The initial purchase price is all thay see. And then they're mad at you for trying to charge them money afterwards to install an AV, or recover lost photos or something stupid like that.

Sadly the IT market is flooded beyond the POR (point of no-return) and the smaller IT shops / suppliers suffer the most.

----------


## Sparks

Yip, it is not Jan Van Riebeek any more. Madiba get the squeeze till the tears roll now  :Smile:

----------


## adrianh

I spent many years in IT and 90% of the times when I went to suppliers of any form with a problem I was told to re-install Windows. There are in reality very few good IT people out there. Like car mechs, replacing the engine may cure the dirty spark plug problem but it sure as hell ain't the most efficient way to solve the problem.

One customer did try to install a new printer by inserting the Windows NT install CD and following the instructions until it started formatting the drives. He then promptly turned the machine off and called me saying that the printer didn't want to install. After a bit of probing I figured out what he had done and no, this was not a problem that I was prepared to deal with because I sold him the PC.

The customer is allways right - my a..

----------

