Georgetown, Guyana: Samsung, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer is investigating dozens of complaints that were made against a Guyanese electronics store by consumers who felt that the store is selling mostly fake mobile phones that were not procured from Samsung.
According to the South Korean company, several complaints were made against a Georgetown, Guyana Company calling itself Electronics City, that have been offering Guyanese consumers various ranges of supposedly “Samsung” devices at unbelievably low prices.
However, Hu Lum Kee, a consumer affairs specialist at Samsung explained that several consumer complaints, IMEI number checks, price checks, and preliminary analysis of various device images coming from consumers in Guyana have lead Samsung to believe that the many ranges of “Samsung” phones sold by Electronics City in Guyana may be fake.
Lum Kee further stated that it is more than likely that the Guyanese company is procuring high quality duplicates from a certain manufacturer of fake mobile phones out of China, and have ensured that the camera among other hardware are of comparable quality to the original.
“This company is not a Samsung devices reseller, and is simply selling devices that are not genuinely Samsung, or is probably mixing the genuine ones with the fake ones. But we are certain that they deal in a lot of fake Samsung goods”, said Mr. Lum Kee.
He concluded that there is very little that Samsung can do, except to either seek damages in U.S courts or protest to the Guyanese authorities to curb the continued infringement of the company’s products by this particular company in Guyana.
Samsung is now advising Guyanese consumers to verify the authenticity of mobile phones bought from Electronics City (or other retailers in Guyana) by registering the product and its IMEI at www.samsung.com or by checking the IMEI number at other bogus-phones-detection websites such as Numbering Plans at; http://www.numberingplans.com/?page=analysis&sub=imeinr
However, an IMEI number check on certain websites can show even a fake phone as a Samsung model, when it is really not, since an entered IMEI basically shows whatever information the manufacturer wants the number to denote.
Guyana is an English-speaking South American country that has a large but mostly unmonitored trade relation with China.
The sale of smuggled and fake electronic goods are widely carried out in Georgetown, since most underpaid enforcement officials readily accepts bribes to overlook these discrepancies.
It is also understood that a senior member of the Guyana Bureau of Standards, which is tasked with seizing fake products, also sits on the payroll of the Guyanese electronics company that is being investigated by Samsung.
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