coolrajiv 1 Report post Posted August 18, 2007 Source - http://www.tech2.com/channels/story.php?id=51 By : Monica Khatri | Aug 18,2007 One of the least talked about scams in the mobile industry has resellers buzzing, but strangely no mobile company is willing to look it in the eye! We unearthed some real shocking facts in the mobile phone racket and here is the dope fresh off the stables. Sources from the gray market willingly displayed the difference between fake and original phones, while authorized dealers, Sony and Nokia representatives and those who pleaded anonymity, well… almost all, confirmed the same! Read on… The racket runs something like this - Industry sources tell us that “importers or wholesalers” have agents based in China who inform them about the latest mobile phones manufactured in clandestine factories, packaged and boxed and ready to be sold as the original. These naturally come at dirt cheap prices, but mind you, when sold to the unsuspecting customer, the price is obviously at a premium and as the original. Most “copies” have lesser features than the ones specified in the original model and on a closer look, these phones look like they have been made of substandard plastics and have a cheap look and feel to it. Moreover in terms of camera quality, a layperson will not realize that the camera in the phone would be of a lower resolution than the one he has paid for. The phone he has just purchased from the market might just have a 1.3 mega pixel camera when on the packet it says 2 mega pixel. Such mobile phones get sold in the gray market - ‘without the bill’. That’s why you will never get hold of a sealed packet in the gray market. Another recent development, which is even more shocking, is that these unbranded phones packed as Nokia and Sony phones have found their way in the so-called authorized dealer stores. They are commonly referred to as ‘china ka phones’. One Nokia dealer at Protronics, Lamington Road told us that till a while ago sometime back he would stock and sell these phones. “The market for these mobile phones is quite lucrative. Some of them are packaged and sold as Nokia phones. These phones have the same look and feel of the original but we realized that their shelf lives are short-lived. We got way too many customer complaints and because of the ill-reputation it was bringing us, we stopped stocking the fakes.” Another retailer at Fort disclosed that although this business was a roaring success initially, it fizzled out in Mumbai as customers became increasingly tech-savvy. Currently the fakes now see their way through the smaller cities and towns in the country. An authorized Nokia dealer admitted to the racket and also mentioned that even though there are chances that the phone may sometimes be an original, the charger and the hands-free are 99.9% fake. An interesting mention by another authorized Nokia is that mostly phones are also “modified” to an extent, that the phone is partly original and partly fake. While the chargers and headphones are invariably counterfeit. Our sources at Heera Panna, Mumbai’s gray market haven, out-rightly refused to admit that there are any faults with the phones. They claim, they have their own “sources” who frequently travel to China and Dubai on “business” trips and buy these phones without paying any tax, and hence this explains the lower than MRP prices of these phones. Right! When did the airport customs officials’ start permitting large-scale import of phones without their cut… err oops, sorry! Without the duty? Another claim, by a hawk-eyed dealer, of the widespread phenomenon is that these “smuggled” mobiles see the light of day in the country because of the ‘setting that dealers have with the customs department’. Retailers of mobile phones in the gray market pointed out that Sony Ericsson mobiles have a huge price difference in the gray market whereas most Nokia mobiles are sold at the original price. Which could mean that there are more chances of Sony Ericsson phones being refurbished than Nokia. Apart from the authorized dealers, we even spoke to a Nokia sales executive Imran, from Nutech at Fort, who further enhanced on the spicy details of this racket. He said, “There are both original and refurbished Nokia mobiles available in the market. This does not mean that only Nokia is prey to these scamsters, other popular brands have also fallen to this racket. While the original phones are available with the authorized Nokia dealers, one can avail of the refurbished phones through dealers either at Heera Panna, Musafir Khana or at Manish Market in Mumbai.” Imran added, “These unauthorized dealers have a huge network in China and Dubai where they make dyes of the phone boxes, seals and stickers. They even make duplicate bodies, batteries, chargers, and earphones. They assemble all these parts here in India and then sell them at a much lower price and that too without any guarantee.” “Some of these dealers even bribe the custom officers here in India and manage to get the original packed phones that are imported directly from the Nokia assembling factory in China. They unpack these phones, replace the original parts with the fake ones, repack and then sell them into the market.” When asked whether Nokia officials are aware of this huge scandal, Imran mentioned that Nokia is well aware of these racketeers and their activities and have even conducted numerous raids on these dealers. He laments about the strong networking amongst these racketeers in the gray market, “These unauthorized dealers are controlling the market to such an extent that information about the raids reaches them even before the raid takes place.” Ironically another dealer said “Nokia when launching a new product launches it in the gray market and then launches it officially depending on the response.” Although that piece of exaggeration did sound like a load of bull to our ears, his vociferous manner of stating it almost sounded true. Funnily enough, Nokia seemed to ignore this when we posed them with questions. All they gave us was some jargon on educating the customer! According to Devinder Kishore, Director, Marketing, Nokia India at Nokia, “We have been working closely with the Government and industry associations to encourage use of genuine phones and accessories. Additionally, we have also been educating consumers through campaigns for years on how to spot a genuine handset and accessories - our warranty program and the hologram is reflective of the same. As the largest manufacturer of mobile handsets in the world, Nokia has always looked to offer consumers the right mobile experience, be it at the time of making a purchase decision, buying the handset or at the time of using the device. We continuously work towards ensuring that consumers have the right channels to purchase authentic Nokia handsets and have access to our entire range of products in India. Today Nokia handsets are available across the country, giving consumers the power to make an informed purchase decision." Wonder whether the pressure of making a politically correct statement clouds the minds of vendor officials in understanding the gravity of the situation. An agitated Yuvraj Mehta, Marketing Head, GSM, Samsung India claimed that the gray market for Samsung phones in India is not more than 2-3%! I beg to differ on this one! Mehta further added, “ We are aware of the existence of refurbished phones and along with “Cell One” (Samsung’s mobile service) we have worked hard to firstly educate the customer on whatever platform possible. Secondly there has been a huge reduction in prices due to the gray market hence with hardly any difference in prices people would rather buy a phone from an authorized showroom. And thirdly we have reduced the time frame between Indian and global launches.” Our sources tell us otherwise! Samsung phones have a huge price difference in price between the authorized and gray market. Mehta tells us that sometimes there are phones the company might not want to launch in India that might reach the gray market via the Dubai network but that, according to him, (apparently) hardly exists anymore. When was the last time these officials made a trip to the by-lanes of Dubai or even Manish Market (Mumbai)! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted August 18, 2007 the best thing in NOKIA is that send the battery number to 5555 so that u can check the authenticity of ur battery others dont have this thing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HetalDP 947 Report post Posted August 20, 2007 If the Same Original 26 Digit Number is Repeated in Fake Batteries then ??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ashoksoft 83 Report post Posted August 20, 2007 Its now not just restricted to the Phones .. .guess what even Bluetooth headsets and even the normal in ear headphones have the same history ... fakes in the market ! lolzie cheers ashok Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
