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Question of the Day: Have you ever flown Business Class or First Class?
Demand to pay less, says MTN
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
I doubt if any of that will work. Some retailers are intent on maximising profits, whether reasonable or not, so a reseller agreement would really bother those who are selling the airtime at the 'inflated' price. In any event what is MTN gonna do to enforce the agreement - NOTHING, cos they want the business.
We have a free market economy (sort of), so if the consumer feels they're not getting value, they should move on. Why this even an issue worth raising? Price of Bread, Milk, Maize, etc. Yes definitely. But Airtime - HAHA
Related to the cost of bread. Has anyone noticed how the bread manufacturers cut the weight in subtle ways. It should be 800g but I doubt if it actually is that. I noticed the difference recently when making a cheese sandwich.
I feel for the poor people who can hardly afford to eat - only to be ripped off by these w*nkers like Tiger Brands
We have a free market economy (sort of), so if the consumer feels they're not getting value, they should move on. Why this even an issue worth raising? Price of Bread, Milk, Maize, etc. Yes definitely. But Airtime - HAHA
Related to the cost of bread. Has anyone noticed how the bread manufacturers cut the weight in subtle ways. It should be 800g but I doubt if it actually is that. I noticed the difference recently when making a cheese sandwich.
I feel for the poor people who can hardly afford to eat - only to be ripped off by these w*nkers like Tiger Brands
That depends, if e.g. Vodacom resellers stick to the 'correct' price then that means Vodacom becomes more attractive than MTN just because of MTN's bad resellers, i.e. it could harm them. If everyone OTOH does it then they'd probably be less bothered, in fact they'd be happy because it would increase the attractiveness of being an MTN reseller over other business ventures (or the competition), thereby pushing more of their product and growing their brand and market. Ideal solution is to flood the market with more resellers, so it's easy for customers to find cheaper deals and thus force the resellers to compete. There could be an incentive for MTN to try do so if it can grow their market (assuming a competitive state amongst the cellphone companies which is unfortunately still doubtful). OTOH that makes being an MTN reseller less attractive to people, but that's how it should work in competitive economies, it's not supposed to be easy and that's why ur lazy reseller arses are supposed to differentiate by coming up with other improvements to their service or otherwise 'improving their efficiencies'.
I've grown to realise that countries tend to either be competitive all the way up and down the value chains in every market and every respect, or uncompetitive all the way through (e.g. fatcat MTN protects fatcat resellers and colludes with competitors), and unfortunately we're generally a case of the latter (Malaysia is a good case of the former), ultimately more competitive efficient economies will eventually hand us our collective asses on a plate. I don't think it's even possible to begin to understand and appreciate the magnitude of the difference without visiting a country like that, so much of how we completely come to take for granted of how we think societies "should" be structured, is wrong, and done differently elsewhere.
Surely this would represent an opportunity for somebody else to enter the bread market with cheaper bread, why doesn't this happen I wonder? What kind of govt. regulations are in effect over the bread market, I wonder if you need govt 'licenses' or something? I admittedly know nothing about that market.
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AirWolf
Honorary Master
Maybe the higher priced resellers are buying from other resellers and not from MTN directly, hence can't sell at the printed price?
Interesting how people do not seem to say thank you to other larger retail outlets who discount the vouchers. We all bleat about regulation of the petrol price and ask for it to be deregulated etc etc. Here is something which is not regulated and people can simply choose where to buy. Possibly pay the premium for the convenience of down the road may just make sense - after all the retailer may be a lot smaller than typical retail stores. This free market thing goes hand-in-hand with democracy 101, the text book version
Thank you MTN for reminding us that we have choices. I pre-empted the advice and took my 083 number elsewhere in January...
Thank you MTN for reminding us that we have choices. I pre-empted the advice and took my 083 number elsewhere in January...
I agree with you on the larger retail outlets but disagree on the "premium for convenience" viewpoint, that's (a very small example of) exactly the kind of entrenched uncompetitive widespread attitudes in our culture ("differentiate on one thing and one thing only" marketing 101 bulls--- and "middlemen deserve fat cuts" nonsense) that make our economy so inefficient and crap. There is absolutely no reason why we should not only be able to have convenience AND low prices, but be able to *demand* that. But as I said, our approaches are so culturally ingrained, and entrenched up and down the chain so it self-reinforces, that I don't think one can even start to see how bad the problem is until one goes to a different (non-Western) country that has "free markets" running in their blood.
I'm honestly not terribly bothered about the petrol price and seldom bleat about it, even though I'm not crazy about the price fixing, that's OPEC not the SA government.
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I am not saying that convenience must have a premium, however, do not be upset to discover that there is a premium. Prime example is the 24-hour outlets at filling stations. You are on your way home and passed all supermarkets - phone call from home - need milk. Stop and buy it from your friendly Engen or whatever. Your PC needs attention - either you load it in your car and take it to the shop or expect an added call-out/travel charge for the convenience of somebody coming to your house/office etc.
Just for interest' sake (and OT). Most of our cruide oil is from Singapore, which is notably cheaper than Brent Cruide (which is always used on tv). Also, a significant portion (maybe over 60%) is sourced on fixed term contract price. Only the Rand price changes with ROE. Real economists would stockpile oil when the rand is stronger, but most of them have probably emigrated and are now doing just that abroad - to supply us.
DragonLogos
Expert Member
while MTN are going on about prices, is it not time that they looked at their prepaid data prices. the fact that they, VC & CC are all R2 a meg smacks of price fixing - the baking industry has a long history, the baker's dozen, loaves and fish with miracle ingredients
mancombseepgood
Executive Member
Exactly my thought (with exception of the fish and miracle bit) - what is the matter with MTN - they blame the little guy for adding on 50c when they charge what?!
It's called distraction - like Alec claiming we are victims of our own success a few weeks ago.
Donald Bradbury
Well-Known Member
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Cell phone networks are the problem
The cellphone networks are the cause of the sale above printed price. The wholesale cost of airtime is around 6% cheaper than the printed price.
At that margin, one cannot afford to buy say R1000.00 worth of cards, travel 20-40km to your store on a bad dirt road, and make R60.00 profit. This is the case in the Eastern Cape which the article points fingers at.
Most of the resellers that are selling higher are small stalls in rural areas. If two MTN R30 cards get lost/damaged, then your profits are gone.
The networks make huge profits from prepaid time, "force" the reseller to sell at their decided margin, and now bitch about that reseller trying to make airtime a sustainable product to sell. (Surely an anti-competitive behaviour)
THe networks that want to point the finger, must remember that their are more of their own fingers pointing back at themselves.
The cellphone networks are the cause of the sale above printed price. The wholesale cost of airtime is around 6% cheaper than the printed price.
At that margin, one cannot afford to buy say R1000.00 worth of cards, travel 20-40km to your store on a bad dirt road, and make R60.00 profit. This is the case in the Eastern Cape which the article points fingers at.
Most of the resellers that are selling higher are small stalls in rural areas. If two MTN R30 cards get lost/damaged, then your profits are gone.
The networks make huge profits from prepaid time, "force" the reseller to sell at their decided margin, and now bitch about that reseller trying to make airtime a sustainable product to sell. (Surely an anti-competitive behaviour)
THe networks that want to point the finger, must remember that their are more of their own fingers pointing back at themselves.