Retailers rob you Blind!!

Yeah, that’s right. If you are shopping for computer parts or gadgets or accessories, you’ll do yourself a lot of good if you get as near to the source as possible!!

After having got my new digital camera, I needed a flash card for it since the internal 32MB memory isn’t enough. So I thought that I’d ask my dealer about the rates of a 256MB SD Card both unbranded & Kodak. On a whim, I also decided to ask about Kingston since I’ve heard that the memory modules from Kingston are pretty good. That said, when I called up my dealer, he gave me an estimated price, an unbranded 256MB SD Card would cost about Rs.1300 while one from Kodak will cost Rs.1600 and Kingston was expensive at about Rs.1800!!

Now this obviously shook me a bit, but then I thought I’d look around & asked my boss about it. He said that an un-branded one won’t be a loss & a branded one won’t be much of an advantage as usually its same memory. But he said that I should dig around for prices & if I can get a branded one cheap, then better go for it(to satisfy my inner feelings that I got a good one). So I checked on Kingston’s website & saw that their distributor in New Delhi is AA Infoways which is based in Nehru Place. Now I called these people up & after knowing that I’m an end-user, they told me that Kingston 256MB SD Card will cost about Rs.1250 while a 512MB SD Card will cost about Rs.2200, price inclusive of VAT. Nothing came out of my mouth, I thanked the guy on phone & decided that I might as well make a trip to Nehru Place, since the amount that I’ll save will be worth the 2 hour trip.

It was 6pm when I started & when I reached their office, it was already 7pm, about closing time. After knowing that I’ve come for a single card, they said that they don’t retail at that office & instead gave me the address of their retail outlet some distance away where I can get what I want. That shop is called Smart Infoways. I reached it after searching around & there I enquired the rate of the 512MB Card since I was tempted to get that if the rate was reasonable. Ofcourse it was, I got the 512MB SD Card for Rs.2150(inclusive of VAT).

Moral of the Incident: Don’t believe your dealer to provide you best deals always, try & check with others if you can. I saved atleast Rs.1000 here by getting the card from the distributor directly instead of my local dealer. :tup: And I was back in 2.5 hours & having burned about 1.2 litres of petrol, so ofcourse it was worth it, since I got an 8-in-1 card-reader for Rs.300 as well. And the benefit of the branded card? I’ve got lifetime warranty on this Kingston SD Card, I doubt an unbranded one would’ve given that!!

If you want the address, here it is:

A.A. Infoways Pvt. Ltd.
209, Bhandari House, 91 Nehru Place
New Delhi-110019, India
Tel: +91-11-26442261, Fax: +91-11-26442262

and their retail outlet is

Smart Infoways Pvt. Ltd.
107, Bajaj House, 97 Nehru Place
New Delhi-110019, India
Tel: +91-11-26239788/89
Fax: +91-11-26239790