This archive report was first published on 11 July 2021.
Costly Mistakes Kenyans Make When Buying Phones ¶
Mobile phones have become a human necessity, and it is almost impossible to survive without one today. They are essential to people in different ways, as others use them for just communication, while some people use them to store data, including pictures, texts, videos, and audios, to enable them to carry their files wherever they go and many other functions.
According to Caren Namu, a mobile phone dealer on Moi Avenue in Nairobi, there are costly mistakes Kenyans make while buying phones without noticing the dangers. She has been in the business for 10 years and has observed that Kenyans have a continuous taste for famous phone brands that in most cases are expensive, even though they perform exactly the same functions as the existing brands with lower prices.
Some of the costly mistakes Kenyans make when buying phones include:
- Buying second-hand phones, which are either fake or damaged and would need special repair leading to extra cost. According to Namu, almost 80 percent of second-hand phones are fake or damaged.
- Not comparing prices offered by different dealers, ending up spending more than the real price of a specific phone. Namu confirmed that most traders will always start with higher prices so that if the customer agrees to pay, the better for them.
- Having a taste for expensive brands, even though they perform exactly the same functions as the existing brands with lower prices.
- Failure to identify the need for the phone, with about 50 percent of customers buying phones without understanding their needs and end up picking unnecessary expensive phones.
- Buying from unreliable dealers, especially in the streets of the Nairobi CBD, who sell stolen or fake phones.
Namu advises that the best thing to save the situation is to have a clear specification of what you need to save you money as well. She also advises that one should never buy phones from unreliable dealers and should walk to a licensed phone dealer and get their phone without any worries.
