Phone ads delight rival distributor

By RICHARD WOOD

Despite Nokia's advertising campaign attacking parallel importers of its mobile phones, one high-profile importer is revelling in the attention.

Mobile Phone Traders manager Wayne Denby said Nokia had increased awareness of parallel-imported phones.

"People call us up and we cover all of the points. It's all fun and games. I'm enjoying it," he said.

The Auckland trader has been operating for five months, importing phones and digital cameras. It seeks to undercut authorised distribution channels by taking advantage of cheap supply deals available overseas.

The firm sells a range of brands from Nokia to Motorola and Sony Ericsson, targeting phones for Vodafone's GSM network because they be connected by buying or reusing a Sim card.

"Telecom's a bit more difficult so we're not going down that route at all," said Denby.

Nokia's ads in the mainstream press point out the benefits of buying through official channels - better warranties, qualified sales professionals, after-sales service and an assurance of genuine product.

The ads provocatively end with "Buy elsewhere and you'll receive", followed by nothing but a picture of a Nokia phone.

Nokia country manager Michelle Moore said the purpose of the ads was to advise buyers of the benefits of going through an approved dealer.

"It's not to say that if they buy from a parallel importer they aren't going to get a level of service, but it's not going to be the same level of service."

Some parallel importers had been offering different levels of warranty for different prices and generally they could not guarantee continuity of supply, she said.

But Denby said supply was not an issue for his firm as it had at least two stable suppliers with regular stock.

The standard warranty was for three months, but a 12-month warrantee was available for an extra $10.

The Consumer Guarantees Act also states that if you are buying for your personal use, goods should function for a reasonable period that cannot be contracted out of. Consumers' Institute chief executive David Russell said he thought this might work out to around 12 months for a mobile phone.

Moore confirmed that Nokia would service, for a charge, parallel-imported Nokia mobile phones, as long as the equivalent model was a standard product in NZ.

She said there was an issue internationally with counterfeit product, but buying from an authorised dealer guaranteed a Nokia product. A Nokia call centre operator took a much tougher line, saying a Nokia phone was genuine only if it was distributed through authorised channels.

But Denby said Nokia would have responded with legal action if there was any question about the legitimacy of the phones. "They haven't done that. These are the genuine article."

Moore said Nokia's global pricing strategy aimed to provide price parity. Parallel importers got lower-cost products by unbundling package deals in countries where phones were subsidised by networks.

The importance of parallel importing had to been seen in terms of volume, she said.

"We certainly haven't had an impact on our sales."