A note from our market
We now have Samsung and Redmi phones available for purchase on Pindula. Here’s some background on this:
Since we started retailing mobile phones, we shied away from selling phones not made by Transsion (itel, Tecno,Infinix). These were the reasons:
– Transsion offers 12 months warranty
– Maintenance for Transsion phones can happen easily as original parts are available locally
– Transsion phones are guaranteed to be brand new
As a result, we would only sell Samsung, Huawei, Redmi…etc phones here and there if a customer insisted and we could source.
Our approach
Ultimately, with mobile phones here’s our approach:
– We charge a fair price to make it as affordable as our business can sustain. Our prices are typically very low – so low that sometimes customers ask us if the devices are fake 🤔. Ofcourse these are genuine, it’s just that other retailers muHarare umu will hit people with 100% profit on a phone😨
– We want you to be happy with the phone – on the day you buy, a week later, a month, 6 months, a year later… We want our customers to feel really glad that we, as a business, exist
Given this background, here’s what we’re learning:
Fans of Itel and Tecno are really happy, yes…. but those of you who prefer the other brands (and will not be caught dead using an Itel!😁) feel left out. You tell us something along the lines of:
“I have been on Pindula since you guys started and I love being part of this community… but I prefer Samsung, so I have to look elsewhere for a phone!”
We’re also finding that people using Samsung, Huawei etc… actually understand 12-month manufacturer warranty is not on the table and they are generally ok with this. People receive phones from the diaspora, and they already know warranty haipo.
There are people that do not mind refurbished phones as long as the seller is clear with them about this and can offer a backup service for the phone. What people hate are sellers who lie about it.
So, starting last week we started to make available some Samsung and Redmi devices. Our warranty for these devices is 6 months. The warranty is backed by Pindula and not by the manufacturer. We cover the phone fully if it turns out to be faulty. Of course, we will not cover dropping or liquid damage. We’ll replace it or have it fixed for free.
The phone is also backed by what our customers already know about Pindula:
– If you’re not happy (a day in, a week in, a year) we will work hard to solve the problem. And we will solve it even at a significant cost to us.
– Always the truth. We will never lie to you even if the truth is uncomfortable. There’s just too much lying already in Zim business and politics, and we don’t want to be part of that.