What you pay is what you get!

Am too often told that my prices are expensive and yet i ask compare to what?

I think it is important that people will once and for all understand that paying a bit more or bit much more is not that expensive and that there are actually things that cost more then what we sell.

So lets start with people comparing us (Technet / PROA AV Africa) to online shopping – Amazon and co. The prices one see on amazon and other website do not include shipping and taxes etc. and that’s not all, when you buy online in the US, you get a product that is of the US market not for the African market, therefore no warranty for it and no support will be given in case of any issue.

Do you value warranty and support? How about training on the product? When you buy online, the moment the item shipped (even if you buy / pay for the 2 years extended warranty) it is for the US or the country you buy it from and so if you have any issue, you will need to ship it back to them, and then they will send it back to you (you will pay for the shipping again) and taxes will apply again.

When you buy locally – yes you pay more – but you get service, support, and most impotent – warranty is valid for your products – some of our products have 7 years warranty , some 2 years and the rest with 1 year, i believe that this is a value and it worth paying for a bit more, or a bit much more.

Then beside that – there is the shipping and it is NOT just the cost of shipping, (to ship to Africa is double the cost of shipping to any where ells in the world) BUT – there is the headache involve in shipping goods to Africa and “fighting” with customs. if you never imported any thing here – try – if you did – you know that customs in 95% of the times will tell you that the price you paid for your goods is not the price, and they inflate it so you pay more taxes, however it is not the only issue, we also have here something called pre-inspection (i will publish another post about this alone) that many don’t know of. Once goods arrive – especially electronics (but not only) if you didn’t do this thing called per-inspection, the Standards Bureau will “eat” you, often NOT only, you will need to pay heavily, but they will ask to take your products for “tests” …. yes – 1 month more before you get your goods.

OK – so you don’t ship – you “smuggle” the items in your suit case, fine – please when you calculate the cost of the item – add the cost of your air ticket to the cost of the products so you get the cost of the item and then again – no warranty, no support or training. What if the product got damaged in the case coming? that’s it – item / money gone. By the way i know of few people that even items shipped from amazon and co by DHL and the items arrived damaged or faulty – fact your item/ money is lost.

Don’t get me wrong i also buy online, but computers, mobiles and items that i would need support for i will pay more and buy locally.

For example – wifi routers – sure i can get them cheap from Amazon but the good ones like Mikrotik and ubiquiti or Firewalls are best to pay a bit more so i could get local support, training and warranty.

Now – that was about buying genuine items online, but in our local market there are so many cheap products. how about those?

Always – WHAT YOU PAY IS WHAT YOU GET.

Don’t think or believe that if you buy an “original” “shure” microphone at $30 “it is original” and it would work for you. IT CANNOT BE that you can buy an “original” “shure” microphone cheaper then you will get it online in the USA while we have the highest taxes (i think in the world), it is just not possible! even if those are smuggled, it is simply not possible! Those mics MUST be fake.

Don’t think or believe that you can buy a speaker that cost you $100 will sound great, or think it would last the time you expect it to serve you… it wont! and by the way again – the warranty you get for those items? NONE! the moment you paid, its up to you, no warranty! no support! and also no one will advise you or teach you about the products.

That is another thing we offer– we advise people – what to buy, how to match a speaker to an amp, which is the right microphone for the application etc …

Beside speakers, amps and microphones the next important thing in the Audio Visual setup are the things people don’t pay attention to – the cables and the connectors. You will find that some people buy original and good speakers abroad with good original microphones etc. but they come back and buy “cheap” cables and connectors locally…WHY???? because they believe that they can find cables cheaper here … yes they can – but then again – what you pay for is what you get!!!

If you have very good equipment but the cables and connectors are of low quality don’t expect the system you listen to abroad to sound the same and or to have no issues… ALWAYS – what you pay is what you get!!!

Can you buy / import a Mercedes Benz and then let a local mechanic do the wires? Do you expect it to still behave as a Benz?

When it comes to connectors i think we are not expensive compared to the internet BUT people only knows the cheap connectors, if our Neutrik XLR cost $3.1 (while online it cost $2.4) it is x10 more expensive then those available in the market. However people buy what they find, they don’t think of the fact that they actually come ever few months to buy new / more connectors for the same cable… why? Those “cheap” connectors are simply not good, making noise of loose connection among other issues. The problem is that some who do want to buy original don’t know where and how to get the. The shops don’t want to invest in costly stock – as they make very good money over the cheap products, and then again – in the market – it is not about giving value to people or giving service, it is about making money!!! If a clients insist on quality – in few shops in town they will actually refer the clients to us (Technet).

The bottom line – either you buy a phone, laptop, a sound system, gadgets or any thing ells to that matter, always know that what you pay is what you get – you cant buy a speaker at less then 50% the cost of what you see online and think that you can import it and remain the same cost or you will get the product with the same values that you get when you buy locally.