"Telkom’s PC–Internet bundle a fraud”

[ic]

I am encouraged to see that Tebogo Khaas has stopped being TelkoDemonopoly's lackey, AFAIK he used to work for TelkoDemonopoly as a "manager" of some sort, anyways TelkoDemonopoly do deserve to be hammered for any and all of these bundled packages that tie consumers in for 24..36 months when SNOTata is "immenently" about to open its doors [although probably initially only to businesses]...

 

[kobie]

I still don't see why the article slams telkom or where they pull the R12 000 figure from. If you do the simple maths it is not a R12 000 difference for the computer.

 

[ayanda]

is Tebogo running an SMME selling PCs and maybe Telkom is creating some unfair competition to his one-man shop, them with their deep advertising pockets!!!

 

[EchoZA]

Anyone have an account with MECER? Maybe they can check the TELKOM "Top Of The Range" system out and get a comparitive quote from MECER and then add +-15% (as this is what I would add as an overhead.) and then post the price here? I can get a comparite from RECTRON, but that wouldn't count as we need to compare apples with apples (in this case, MECER with MECER)

 

[Sneeky]

Either way, you're still going to be paying a fortune for connectivity and bandwidth, with or without the mediocre computer as an added sweet.
Lets keep our eyes on the ball here.

 

[werner]

I'm sitting on the fence on this one....but it's not a fraud as such, is it?

sure, you end up paying more for the pc than if you bought all the parts and built it yourself, or if you bought it from a mom-and-pop shop.

in other news, the sky is blue and grass is green.

for some people, depending on their circumstances, this may be the only way to get dsl+ a new pc. and they can pay it off monthly. yes, they will pay too much, but edgars seems to be thriving on the same principle, so obviously there is a class of consumer that this does appeal to.

we all have opinions

Perhaps, as a comparison, get a R6k pc and see if you can finance it over 3 years and what the total cost will be in that situation (because you are effectively financing that R6k over 3 years)....it may not be far off from the bundle price less adsl subscription.

I'm not saying it's a good deal , because I will rather build my own too, but obviously it appeals to certain consumers. And if it makes sense to them, who am I to argue??

 

[london]

The real truth emerges. see itweb's new post on the TOPIC. Mr Khaas is worried about his business being unable to compete against Telkom's PCs and not really worried about the penetration of PCs to the community.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Ranting and raving aside, but should the computer packs up in the warranty period, whose hot potato will it be then?

Will the customer have to deliver it? Or will Telkom collect it for repairs? How long will the repair period be?

Most importantly, suppose the PC goes south for three weeks. Do you get a refund for not being able to surf the Internet?

Will they substitute a loan computer for the duration of the repairs? Will they send a tchnician onsite to check for problems?

If something breaks (for example, monitor goes pouf! in a shower of smoke and sparks), how fast will it be exchanged? Will you need to pay extra for warranty exchanges?

And last, but not least, whom do you contact when the chips are down?

I'm a computer technician myself, and knows that these points can make or break a deal...

 

[Mean_Monster]

this deal according to the advert in the sunday times excludes installation costs and also excludes monthly anologue rental.