Dick Smith safe to use?

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Kyanar

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#2060996 23-Jul-2018 13:40

RogerThat:

Dick smith still around then? I had no idea they even still had a website.

No. The brand and customer database was purchased by Kogan.

Purchases from them aren't covered by NZ's Consumer Guarantees Act, but they are covered by Australian Consumer Law (which states that it applies to Australian companies selling to NZ specifically). The protections are the same, the only difference is the enforcer is ACCC rather than the Commerce Commission, and Australian companies are much more frightened of it because the ACCC is quite vocal about enforcing it while NZ's CGA could do with some more visible enforcement (I remember JB HiFi once telling me the CGA is overridden by the manufacturer's limited warranty).

mdf

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#2061079 23-Jul-2018 15:31

FWIW, I've bought a few things from Kogan. Their home brand stuff is sourced direct from Chinese factories. Quality of such is variable - I've had a couple of really top notch things for a significant discount compared to the equivalent branded item, but one significant disaster (robot vacuum that was returned and replaced 3 times before everyone agreed to give up and just issue a refund). That said, even the disaster was reasonably well handled from a customer service perspective. I would far rather have had a functioning product and not have to video the same fault 3 times, but I did ultimately end up with a full refund. There wasn't much difference dealing with an Aussie outfit (return address was in NZ anyway) than a NZ online only business.

I haven't bought anything over the import duty threshold though so cannot comment about that.

RogerThat

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#2061104 23-Jul-2018 16:26

Kind of crafty of them to use the Dick Smith brand name. Its trickery and gives customers a false sense of securty when shopping with them. This is unacceptable behavior by Kogan, and I'm unsure how this is even allowed.

kryptonjohn

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#2061126 23-Jul-2018 17:02

RogerThat:

Kind of crafty of them to use the Dick Smith brand name. Its trickery and gives customers a false sense of securty when shopping with them. This is unacceptable behavior by Kogan, and I'm unsure how this is even allowed.

Kogan bought the DSE online business after DSE closed its bricks & mortar stores. So they own the name.

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#2061139 23-Jul-2018 17:38

RogerThat:

Kind of crafty of them to use the Dick Smith brand name. Its trickery and gives customers a false sense of securty when shopping with them. This is unacceptable behavior by Kogan, and I'm unsure how this is even allowed.

They bought the name from the liquidators so all is above board.

What's different to that to say, the James Pascoe Group who bought Whitcoulls when it went under? There are plenty of other examples of similar sales/purchases.

kotuku4

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#2061483 24-Jul-2018 08:46

I'm ok with dealing with DSE NZ (Kogan) for some items.

Recently bought two Xiaomi mi a1 phones for kids. They took about a 7 days to arrive, and came with good quality generic dual usb AUS/NZ pin chargers.

They were on special and made two separate orders, due to customs and gst.

I had previously purchased a cheap pod coffee machine that failed and had to go through the replacement process, that was a bit tiresome.

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