SONY HD TV - Rip off in SA

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mohammedm

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I've always been a SONY fan, even at inflated prices in SA. I have recently moved to Australia and just bought myself a 200Hz SONY Bravia Z-Series (52 inch). It cost me AUD$4300.

At an exchange rate of 6.5, that comes to R27950. The equivalent TV in SA, (http://www.sony.co.za/product/klv-52z450a) is selling at a whopping price of R80000 - a difference of over R52000 - what gives???

That's a huge rip-off - I just hope the TV works if/when I bring it back to SA.
 
well we are generally ripped off with anything that comes to electronics
 
mohammedm said:
I've always been a SONY fan, even at inflated prices in SA. I have recently moved to Australia and just bought myself a 200Hz SONY Bravia Z-Series (52 inch). It cost me AUD$4300.

At an exchange rate of 6.5, that comes to R27950. The equivalent TV in SA, (http://www.sony.co.za/product/klv-52z450a) is selling at a whopping price of R80000 - a difference of over R52000 - what gives???

That's a huge rip-off - I just hope the TV works if/when I bring it back to SA.
Click to expand...

That's a massive rip-off indeed and I tend to agree with you, it might only be a Sony SA issue. Just reminded me, not to be buying a fancy tv set sooon.
 
mohammedm said:
I've always been a SONY fan, even at inflated prices in SA. I have recently moved to Australia and just bought myself a 200Hz SONY Bravia Z-Series (52 inch). It cost me AUD$4300.

At an exchange rate of 6.5, that comes to R27950. The equivalent TV in SA, (http://www.sony.co.za/product/klv-52z450a) is selling at a whopping price of R80000 - a difference of over R52000 - what gives???

That's a huge rip-off - I just hope the TV works if/when I bring it back to SA.
Click to expand...

Why didn't you buy a better TV from Pioneer - Pioneer Kuro Elite. Rated better than any other TV on the market ATM.

Secondly yes, we do get ripped off in SA. It's the middle man. A TV like that at R28K is not cheap but affordable to many more people.

As the global financial crisis bites harder, Sony will hopefully decrease prices or go out the way of the dinosaur. Hopefully the local IDIOTS
who sell these TVS at such inflated prices will follow suit (or hopefully go out of business themselves). A consumer boycott would close
them down sooner IMO.
 
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Pioneer KURO is plasma and SONY BRAVIA is LCD - slight factor in my decision. KURO 50" is $6500 (R42250) and the top of the range 60" is $12500 (R81250). Way over my budget.

In my decision, I looked at picture refresh rates with DVD/Blu-Ray and HD TV signal - SONY is fantastic. The only other TV that had nice PQ was Samsung, but I was partial to the SONY.

2 main drawbacks - cannot connect to my network to play files and also only plays audio and JPGs - no MPEGs. As a result, I have a Lacie LaCinema Rugged connected via HDMI to play my movies.
 
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mohammedm said:
Pioneer KURO is plasma and SONY BRAVIA is LCD - slight factor in my decision. KURO 50" is $6500 (R42250) and the top of the range 60" is $12500 (R81250). Way over my budget.

In my decision, I looked at picture refresh rates with DVD/Blu-Ray and HD TV signal - SONY is fantastic. The only other TV that had nice PQ was Samsung, but I was partial to the SONY.

2 main drawbacks - cannot connect to my network to play files and also only plays audio and JPGs - no MPEGs. As a result, I have a Lacie LaCinema Rugged connected via HDMI to play my movies.
Click to expand...

I understand the cost difference. But don't let anti-plasma hype push you into the other camp, Kuro received more awards than Bravia. But you're right they are expensive. Perhaps SONY had a special deal in Australia.

Did you maybe compare the two?
 
Just out of interest, could someone from a 3rd county get a price on the Sony and lets see where that fits in??
 
Sparky_za said:
Just out of interest, could someone from a 3rd county get a price on the Sony and lets see where that fits in??
Click to expand...

http://www.google.de/products?q=SONY+Bravia&hl=de

Germany.

More specific:
http://www.google.de/products?q=SONY+Bravia+52"&hl=de&sa=N&start=0

http://direkt.jacob-computer.de/LCD...arz_(KDL52Z4500AEP)_artnr_189507.html?ref=124
http://sony.urano.de/Pages/Product/Details.aspx?SubSetID=2179&ProductID=352192&ProductCategoryID=JA

About 2,800 Euros, or 35,912.27 ZAR according to Xe.com

I don't know if the Sony KDL52Z4500AEP is the same as klv-52z450a, as they use different model numbers in EU, USA, Japan and Australia.
It's a 52 inch Z-Series - 4500 AEP.
 
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Whats the cost of a return flight to ozzie, maybe its worth it to collect it in person and bring it home and still save some money.

I guess the issue is of how close Australia is to china/japan that its a different price market compared to us. What else can it be?
 
Sparky_za said:
Just out of interest, could someone from a 3rd county get a price on the Sony and lets see where that fits in??
Click to expand...

I'd like to see the price from a 3rd world/developing country like SA - maybe Kenia or Nigeria.
I bet it will be way cheaper as well, just like the cars we send there to be sold at almost half the local price :mad:
 
The Rip Off gets even better...

As a reward for purchasing my SONY TV within a certain time period, I am eligible for the SONY Australia promotion for a new free SONY BDP-S550 Blu-Ray player. The player is worth about R6500 and will be posetd to me (free of shipping costs) within the next 10 days.

Sony Australia are giving away 20000 players free - one with every purchase of an eligible Bravia Full HD LCD TV.
 
The economy is crashing. Those BD players sit in factory warehouses rusting, so they ship them out, thereby keeping workers employed and hoping some people will buy Sony BDs (not to mention that every BD sold gets a cut back to
SONY for format royalties).
 
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