Company Stores - Cheating Customers!

My last post was about purchasing a phone from company owned store rather than a local retailer but my own recent experience was a shock to me. While reporting news for My Mobile magazine (where I work as a reporter), I came to know that a much hyped phone had made a silent debut in the market.

While enquiring about a GPS-enabler at Nokia Priority Store, South Extension, I learned that the Nokia N 82 was available at the store. When I enquired about price, the sales person disclosed that it is priced at Rs 28,000. It was news but I thought of checking the availability of this phone at other retail shops in the city just to be sure. A bit of research disclosed that this phone was not only available at Nokia exclusive stores but was with local retailers as well.

Bingo! Here was my news but there was something else too. There has always been a difference in the market-operating price at a company owned store and local retailers. So I was not surprised to see this handset at Beechams, Connaught Place for Rs 25,500. But when I stepped into another Nokia Centre in Connaught Place, I was stunned. Here the same device was available for Rs 26,500! This means that there was a price difference at the company owned exclusive stores as well.

And this is not the case only with Nokia stores. A similar thing happened at Reliance Web World. Samsung Max, is priced at Rs 9,000 at Reliance Web World, Nehru Place but when I enquired about the price of the device at the Connaught Place outlet, the price tag was announced to be Rs 7,500 (even though phone was not available at any of the two).

What else can I say? Next time you plan to buy a phone, just check the price of the device at various stores. You actually might land up paying a few grand extra at a particular store.