Disclosure of grey or parallel imports
16 March 2009 – Pretoria

Phonatics (PTY) Ltd is the sole distributor of the Freemate (registered trademark) headset products in the South African telecommunications market and has been distributing the brand for more than 8 years. Phonatics also directly import and distribute original Plantronics products, thus making them a parallel importer. Read more about parallel importing by following this link to a previous IT web article: http://www.itweb.co.za/office/phonatics/

Companies that are parallel (‘grey’) importers are required by law to notify customers by means of disclosure on documentation, that they are not authorised by the manufacturer as an authorised distributor of the branded product and that the authorised South African distributor of these products is under no obligation to honour the manufacturers’ guarantees/warrantees or to provide after-sales service, and that the parallel importer will support and service those clients they supply.

A few factors contributed to the decision to import these products directly: the local Plantronics distributor appointed ‘Master dealerships’ to a few companies to supply to the dealer network. The dealers in return, are meant to supply the products to the end-users. In practice, ‘Master dealerships’ approache the end-users directly with dealers’ pricing, cutting off the chain of supply to their dealers. The only way for Phonatics to offer competitive pricing on Plantronics products, is to supply the original product via an alternative channel– direct importing.

Phonatics supports all headsets in their new on-site technical workshop and furnish clients with a 24 month warranty on the top-end Freemate headsets - the same as its competitors. The company also supplies a 24 month warranty on Plantronics products and do not rely on any local support for this. Phonatics delivers a 48 hour collection service and commits to a 48 hour turn around time on Plantronics and Freemate headset repairs and as a result, both these products have an excellent reputation in the industry. Tracking of Phonatics products is made possible by adding a unique bar code to each headset by which the repair centre can track the date of purchase and the relevant warranty periods of the units.

Phonatics is the only headset company that offers a two year unlimited guarantee at a minimal additional fee of R350 (excluding VAT) upon purchase of the Freemate brand due to the fact that spare parts for each headset are independently imported from the headsets.

The company would like to thank their loyal clients for their continued support and ensures them of their excellent products and service well into the future. Phonatics is dedicated to supply their valued customers, with the best headset solutions and believe that any product is only as good as its support.