LAU Digital (sole distributor for Velbon tripod?)

twiki · 11th March 2009

Hi,

A couple of points on tripods.

What does it mean to be the sole distributor for a product? Lau Digital makes such a claim.
Does it mean no one else can legally sell Velbon products? Clearly, this is not the case, as there are a few stores in Funan that do.

I was at Lau Digital on March 10 and found that their store prices for Velbon (and other makes too, I would imagine) tripods are higher than those advertised on their website. They claim that their prices were 'just' increased (maybe a few days ago), and their website was not updated.
The 435A is priced at S$190 on their website, but at S$229 (or was it S$239?) in store. That's almost S$40 more (assuming the lower price), which is a 20% increase.

If anyone from Lau Digital is reading this, cut the crap, and don't cheat your customers by luring them to your store with lower (and false) online prices. Is there a law in Singapore where we can force the seller to honor the lower advertised price?

geraldkhoo · 11th March 2009

A sole distributor would mean that they are the official ones who have tied up with the principle company to distribute the product locally. Shops, of course, can do their own imports from other places, and they become parallel import items or grey sets.

For example, CP is the distributor for LowePro in Singapore. Because they are the distributors, they distribute to other shops to sell. At the same time, they cannot undercut the other shops in their pricing else no one will buy LowePro from other shops, so... you will find that LowePro prices at CP would not be the cheapest around.

11th March 2009	#1
twiki Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Simei Posts: 331	LAU Digital (sole distributor for Velbon tripod?) Hi, A couple of points on tripods. What does it mean to be the sole distributor for a product? Lau Digital makes such a claim. Does it mean no one else can legally sell Velbon products? Clearly, this is not the case, as there are a few stores in Funan that do. I was at Lau Digital on March 10 and found that their store prices for Velbon (and other makes too, I would imagine) tripods are higher than those advertised on their website. They claim that their prices were 'just' increased (maybe a few days ago), and their website was not updated. The 435A is priced at S$190 on their website, but at S$229 (or was it S$239?) in store. That's almost S$40 more (assuming the lower price), which is a 20% increase. If anyone from Lau Digital is reading this, cut the crap, and don't cheat your customers by luring them to your store with lower (and false) online prices. Is there a law in Singapore where we can force the seller to honor the lower advertised price? __________________ Canon S10 G2 10D G10, Casio EX-S3, Chinon CM-4S Fuji F30, Nikon F3 D200 D40 D700, Olympus C2020Z

11th March 2009	#2
geraldkhoo Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: The Tiny Red Dot Posts: 2,027	Re: LAU Digital (sole distributor for Velbon tripod?) A sole distributor would mean that they are the official ones who have tied up with the principle company to distribute the product locally. Shops, of course, can do their own imports from other places, and they become parallel import items or grey sets. For example, CP is the distributor for LowePro in Singapore. Because they are the distributors, they distribute to other shops to sell. At the same time, they cannot undercut the other shops in their pricing else no one will buy LowePro from other shops, so... you will find that LowePro prices at CP would not be the cheapest around. __________________ A picture tells a thousand words... make yours speak a million! My Flickr \| My Blog