There’s few folks in Australian tech retailing more controversial than Ruslan Kogan. His latest challenge? Rather than selling Kogan-branded gear, he’s selling gear from Canon, Apple and Samsung. Even the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which not even Samsung’s selling here yet.
Kogan’s no stranger to the value of self-publicity, and aggressively courts it. While I was en route to Tokyo yesterday, he announced that along with the existing Kogan-branded stock that he’s famous for his online store would now start selling a variety of brand name products, from Canon and Nikon DSLRs to iPad 2s and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. That’s in stark contrast to Samsung themselves, who are legally constrained from selling it at retail in Australia for the time being.
Kogan’s just becoming a grey market importer in this case, joining a large number of Australian online ventures that have been doing this kind of thing for years. There’s nothing implicitly wrong with grey market importing, at least on the surface. Kogan’s stated prices are a little cheaper than straight retail, but it’d be well worthwhile checking the other online importers for their prices in my opinion if you wanted to go down the online import route.
He’s also no stranger to name-dropping; in the case of this latest venture, he’s stating that his inspiration came from Dell, who sell brand-name products complimentary to their other lines, including Kogan TVs locally.
Kogan’s prices are competitive, but there’s the issue of warranty to consider. As an Australian business, Kogan’s tied to local consumer law and is stating that he’ll cover products he sells with a 12-month warranty. Over at AusCam, David Hague chased up the brands responsible for this equipment; the most positive response he got was from Apple — I’m impressed he even got comment from them. Hague quotes Apple’s Fiona Martin as stating that:
Apple’s one (1) year limited warranty for iPad applies to the hardware product manufactured by or for Apple that can be identified by the “Apple” trademark, trade name, or logo affixed to it.”
What do you reckon? For every person I’ve hit who’s been happy with a Kogan telly, I’ve hit another who’s been unhappy, but that’s just anecdotal. Moving into brand-name retailing changes the perceived quality equation profoundly — but would you buy from Kogan? [Kogan and Auscam]
glennc
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:24 AMkogan is just what this industry needs to expose all the shady rip off retailers such as harvey norman with their dodgy old school sales staff.
Franz
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 5:15 PMDown with Harvey Norman! *raises glass*
Dan Miller
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:24 AMI’ll never buy anything from him. He is just to dodgy.
Aaron
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:34 AMI’ve been happy with the vaccum cleaner, 32″ LED and 2 PVR’s I’ve bought from him, once I’m in the market to buy a tablet I’ll definitely take it into consideration
Mike
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:40 AMI’ve bought a vacuum cleaner and tv off them too, both work great! Especially the cleaner lol, best one I’ve ever used. Smelt funny when it first arrived, but after a couple days of use it was fine.
wsDK_II
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:28 AMDan Miller, amazing comment. Clearly you are a rational human
IanM
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:35 AMBought the soundbar for my TV… didn’t;t work for any channels broadcasting as “Dolby”. Sent it back. Got refunded. Won’t buy again.
wsDK_II
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:29 AMSo, you bought a product, it didnt work the way you thought it would and you got a refund…….
what is the problem here?
you are back to square one, ready to get something ele.
or perhaps you dont realise this?
Sam
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:39 AM@wsDK_II – I think the problem is more the quality of the product being sold, not the service received.
Keep in mind, even when a refund is issued, the buyer still has to front up shipping costs both in the initial sale, and to return the item. In having said that though, shipping for repair/replacement of a faulty product is free.
Sam
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:37 AM@IanM – I too was generally unimpressed with the SoundBar. The buttons were cheap and pastic-y (like that of a cheap digital alarm clock), the LED display was painful on the eyes, the left channel constantly hummed, and there was a huge sonic gap between the tweeters and sub. It got sent back to them for a full refund less return shipping.
Having said that though, the service I received from them through the whole process was second to none. I’d happily buy from them again as a retailer, but I doubt I’ll be rushing to buy another Kogan branded product.
Steve
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:49 AMTop Stuff. I’ve bought grey before and no problems but always concerned about the day something does go wrong. To buy grey from a ‘reputable’ brand (ie, not some hong kong store that might be gone next week, they do have a brand name to uphold) is fantastic and would be worth a few more bucks than a regular Grey Importer imo.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:53 AMI just bought the Canon EOS 550D sans lens for just under $600.00 delivered. So my old EOS5 EF 28 to 105mm dedicated lens should work a treat and save me a big wad of cash! #]
patterntangle
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:17 AM@EckyThump. You can buy it cheaper at loads of places.
http://www.eglobaldigitalcameras.com.au/canon-kiss-x4-body-only-also-known-as-eos-550d-body-only-digital-slr-cameras.html
Plus you can even get the 550D with lens kit for less than $600. or even the the current model 600D.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:43 AMYeah sure,.. now you tell me! Where were you this morning when I bought the bloody thing! Ah well it’s still bucket loads cheaper than Hardly Normal etc! #}
Joe
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:12 AMI agree with Ian the soundbar is terrible, the speakers on my tv were even better than the soundbar itself. Horrible plastic cheap sounds urrghh… Everytime I turn it on and look at the LED display the word “DUD” (dvd?)would appear constantly reminding me it’s a “dud”
Penmonicus
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:53 AMYeah, I’m pretty dissatisfied with both the soundbar and Android media player thing, but both were bought with vouchers my Dad gave me for my birthday, and I don’t know if I can be bothered trying to go through the process of sending them back for a refund. There’s not really much else on the site I was interested in =\
But yes, the soundbar in particular: I keep reading that as “dud”, too. And I don’t even use that input. I only use the Optical input, but it keeps reverting back to ‘dud’ every time you turn it on, and I have to cycle through the channels to make it work again.
Aaron
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:16 AMdude yeah if it doesn’t work just email them or call em – I did with my previous vaccum that wasn’t working well after 10 months and they sent a courier to my door to pick it up and refunded within the same week once they received it – real simple and great service
Ian
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:24 AMI was looking at importing a waterproof handicam and during my searches, I discovered that I could buy the same product the the same price locally. It wasn’t a grey import either and had a full Aussie warranty. It was Digital Camera Warehouse if anyone is interested (I have absolutely no affiliation with them other than I’ve now made a couple of purchases from them).
Conversely, a friend of mine imported a Canon SLR camera form HK and the mirror was broken somehow. Long story short, it took very long time to get the camera back and after about 2 months, she ended up with a refund (not that she was after one but that’s what transpired).
I’m definitely open to grey importing but it’d depend on the product.
Under Kogan’s brand however, I’ll never do it. I don’t like what he stands for and in my opinion, he’s as much a glory seeker as is Gerry Harvey.
I’d prefer to pay more to the little guy.
Dan
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:19 PMSo you’d prefer to pay more for the same product? Not everyone has money to waste like you.
Obviously there will be times when retail may be cheaper, that is up to the consumer. There are a lot of great deals from Kogan, and I would treat it as simply another avenue to look at when shopping around.
Sicarius123
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:29 PMIf this is the place I think it is, they are grey imports, but they wont tell you that.
Afira
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 2:19 PMIf they ask you to send the item to them and not to Canon/Nikon/Panasonic/Sony for warranty repairs – it will be grey market. If they are actually an Australian registered company, they’ll require GST and have to state implicitly that they charge GST.
I am pretty certain they are grey market suppliers though; I’d rather purchase products through Canon USA and dealers like B&H.
Ian
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 4:05 PMNope. Not grey. They are very up front about being genuine market and almost get offended at the notion if questioned. Research people before posting opinions
Adam
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 3:11 PMB&H are a great option. A photographer buddy of mine put me onto them. I have seen cameras and lenses from B&H at 2/3 the price of HN or Teds.
Guy
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:46 AMThe prices for tablets are not that much better than retail, once you take into account the $34 per item for shipping.
I tested this by putting 4 items into the cart and was charged 4 times the shipping.
Realistic savings of just under $20 and I have to wait for it to be shipped.
Penmonicus
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:54 AMAside from my comment above, though: I’d be more than happy to buy a DSLR or iPad through Kogan.
Another Aaron
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:28 AMI’ve been considering getting the Kogan sound bar. But there’s a severe lack of reviews on it. Has anyone used one?
Another Aaron
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:31 AMoop sorry, just read comments above. I am flagellating myself for even considering buying one.
Penmonicus
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:21 PMIt could be good, but the speakers on my TV were already pretty good, and I live in a townhouse with my girlfriend, sitting 2 metres away from the TV. I don’t really need a subwoofer.
Matt L
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 1:48 PMThen how are you supposed to hear/feel the sub bass frequencies? You’re missing half the movie right here mate…
Penmonicus
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:23 PMFor anyone interested: this thread has helped me make up my mind to return the Agora Android IPTV Portal [+ keyboard] and Soundbar I got last week, since Kogan have a 7-day money back guarantee. The only thing is: I bought through a Spreets voucher deal [$99 for a $200 Kogan voucher] so I don’t quite know how it’s all gonna go.
I’ll keep you updated on the process.
First response: “Are you able to provide more details as to why the products do not meet your expectations?”
Penmonicus
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:28 PMSecond response [pretty much the best outcome I expected]: “We can certainly process a refund as per our 7 day money back guarantee, however would you like to exchange the items for any other products in our range?
Alternatively, we can process store credit to use with any future purchase from our website.”
Though I’m not quite sure what the difference is between “exchange” or “store credit” =\
Chemenski
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:07 PMBasically the same thing. Store credit allows you to get something at a later date (but with a time limit if I’m not mistaken), something like a gift voucher.
MDolleySnr
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:32 PMCanon announced only a week or so ago that they would only provide warranty in Australia on Australian purchased goods. So if you buy a Canon DSLR from Kogan and something goes wrong with it, you have to send it to Kogan who will then send it to HK or wherever he got it from.
Sorry, I’d much rather pay marginally more and buy locally from places like Digital Camera Warehouse.
Terry
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 1:15 PMIf it was in fact only “marginally” more, so would I.
Unfortunately it’s all too often a LOT more.
Also, Grey market supply is NOT illegal in Australia, and Kogan (as with any other vendor in Oz) are required by law to cover the warranty on any items they sell. So.. no different here.
I’ve never heard of anyone having problems with any legitimate warranty claims.
MDolleySnr
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 2:08 PMTerry, no-one is suggesting that kogan is doing anything illegal. Just remember that, at least in relation to the Canon DSLR’s, the warranty is not with Canon, it’s with kogan. It might still be a legit warranty and the repairs may still be done by Canon, but you won’t know for sure and the repairs will almost certainly take longer.
As for prices, others have said that they’re finding very similar prices in some B & M stores for the same products. A LOT more? You’re clearly not looking hard enough.
Afira
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 2:24 PMDid that include the L-series lenses? As far as I was aware, the L-series lenses have a valid warranty anywhere in the world, no matter where they were purchased.
I buy Canon US regardless, typically easier to deal with reputable companies Stateside than possibly dodgy eBay grey market sellers.
Chris
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 1:27 PMAs of Sept 1st, Canon Australia are no longer honouring the international warranty on L-Lenses.
Gage
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 1:19 PMThey have 3 x pictures of the 10.1v and 3 x pictures of the 10.1 sitting under the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on their page… which one are they selling?
Dave
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 4:46 PMIt wouldn’t be really that disappointing if something were to happen on his flight into space…. As much as I like Richard Branson it’s a price that I would be more than willing to pay