porky

Porky' date=' please tell me what you actually want. If we have to increase our price it's wrong, and if we lower the price it's wrong either. You say you are a business man, maybe you should help us here and tell us how to run our business. So let me ask you a few questions, and I would like to hear your answer: 1. If this funny "Bungy-currency" called Rand drops from 7.3 per USD to 10.2 per USD in only 2 weeks and all your bike price calculations are suddenly fu..ed, what are you going to do: Increase the prices as much as necessary at lowest possible margin or increase the price even more than necessary to let your competition take over the market or keep prices as they are and ruin your business by losing money with every bike sold? 2. If then a few months later the Rand is slowly getting stronger again, and luckily there are still bikes in containers on the way to your warehouse, that can be paid at a much better exchange rate than previous shipments, and if also bike sales countrywide over all brands has slowed down that much, that you run into overstock problems at year end if bike sales don't improve, what would you do? If you see any other option making sense than what we did now, please let me know, I would love to hear that. I also must say I really don't appreciate you saying we don't care about our customers. Apart from the fact, that a business never works, if you don't care about your customers, how can you say that? Did you ever meet me? Did you ever speak to me? Come to PE and spend 1 day in our office. Look at what we do and how we treat other people. After that you can judge and say whatever you think is right. I take my job very serious. Caring about and listening to dealers and consumers is one of the most important parts of my work. I might not always be right in what I believe in, and no matter what I do, some people will never appreciate our bikes as long as there's a Raleigh sticker on the downtube, but please never ever say again, that I don't care about our customers! At least unlike you I have the balls to post under my real name. What is yours? [/quote'] Jan, Jan Jan, your post was very difficult to read as it appears you forgot to punctuate it, but worse than that you didnt read my post very well and got me mixed up with other posters, and on top of that you are trying to goad me into an argument, tsk,tsk,tsk ............never the less, I am a patient man, so I will answer you as if I was not wrongly implicated. I will break down your post into sections as I see it, - a)The currancy did not drop from R7.00 to R10.00 odd in two weeks, the decline was far more gradual over a period of around two months - check your bank statements before you reply - dramatic to the western world, Yes, I will admit, but not something importers in SA have never seen before.!! So, what should you do - (you asked this) - well, like most importers (ourselves included) when we saw the rand dropping, and we had about R3 million in future orders on the line for importation, we grabbed forward cover at the rate of the day, protecting our cost of imports and maintaining a stable price to our clients for the next 6 months - why did you not do that.? "Whats that Jan"??................... Oh, yes, like lots of businessmen out there you played "the spot market", gambeling the rand would stabilise or improve?? Bad mistake, thats your brokers job, not yours................... and consequently, not one the customer should be forced to pay for by increased prices.! b)Basically your second point (rand improving) is a moot one, because had you forward covered (like a good boy), the increase and / or decrease would be negligable - thats the beuty of forward cover Jan, use it.! c)Now we get to overstock issues - Hmmm, I hear you, stock is money, so you need to convert it quick - no problems, "have a sale", dont play yo yo with your price and my pocket!. d)Now the point on my alledged comment that "you need to care for your customer". You took exception,........... and I would too,............ trouble is you attributed that comment incorrectly to me, "when in fact another poster made the comment". Go check.! Even though you made a long drawn out diatribe, with various veiled warnings to me about the issue, its no problem, "An apology is not necessary".! e) I have no issue with Raleigh as a brand, show me one post where I have said anything controversial about the brand. Take that as a challenge.! f)My name has no importance to you, I am not in the industry (thank goodness) and I dont visit PE regularly enough for you to have met me - (terrible weather and a piss poor airport make it uninviting to me) I could be anyone, in the grocery que or behind you at the bank, it makes no differance....................what the hell, I shall tell you anyway.............its "Joe Soap."! Well Jan, its been fun, no hard feelings and if you are in JHB, PM me and I will show you how hard I work at my business as well.! porky2009-04-30 08:24:14

Are you bitching about bitching? I dont see it as "bitching" just an observation that had you bought a bike at R40.000.00 two months ago and now its R29.000.00 you would have a right to feel slightly aggrieved. Were it me, that would be the last purchase of that product I would ever make. I am also a businessman, I also have a good idea of economies and prices and markets and rand / dollar costs and freight and duty and so on, as do many others, - who do they think they are pulling the wool over?? Do they assume we are all fools and will just listen to everything they say as gospel?? I would say thats a very dangerous assumption. If you dont believe the power of an irritated and irked customer just look at GM. SA is a very small market for everything except bread and milk, and small markets traditionally have long memories.!

Why do they need to care about the end user/customer? They are supplying a solid bike at a price realistic in the current market. Sounds like good business to me. The price was too high for the current economic climate so they dropped the prices. Simple. Get over it and be happy! If they hope to stay in business, they had better "care about the end user" because they are the ones buying the product. Your comment assumes the public buy on price only, and as long as the price is right sales will follow, when in reality this is not always true, a sale is driven by many factors like, sentiment, emotion, locality, a positive buying experience, service, support mental history of the product, percieved quality and of course price. Their fast track "backwards" shows two things (a)They overestimated their dominance in the market and the willingness of consumers to pay their price based on this fact, and / or (b) even worse, they seriously underestimated the severity of the downturn.

Hmm, winter is a traditionally bad time for cycle sales and its barely begun (notice the timing of the reduced price) and the recession still has a while to run from all accounts I have seen - so there will be attrition, no doubt in my mind, Pro bike will probably survive, but like most others in a seriously weakened state. porky2009-04-29 13:08:05

Its a a very bad marketing move in my opinion, however as the economy tightens, credit becomes less available and disposable income for luxury items reduces the SA cycle industry is reeling - and winter hasnt even begun yet.!! Firstly, dont believe the story about setting landmarks in the industry etc, the fact is, in general, luxury lines are seeing a 50% plus drop in sales as opposed to 2008, this is dramatic and if they hope to survive they NEED TO SELL BIKES, its that simple, and if it means having to slash profit to simply stay in business, well so be it, they arnt the only ones doing it. Secondly, there is a glut on all luxury markets now, manufacturers / distributors are desperate to offload stock at any price, money in the bank is far better than standing on the floor - the problem is, if the market is not buying because they lack the disposable income, they wont buy at any price. Then theres SENTIMENT and EMOTION, many manufacturers / distributors / retailers have lost customer support just this way, people dont take kindly to been charged 20% more this month as opposed to next, especially when its a luxury item they have saved and planned for. Good luck - they are going to need it.! porky2009-04-29 12:46:17

I cant even understand why they want to produce a local copy. In my opinion the market is small and probably saturated with local bike magazines all telling you the same thing. It seems everybody here thinks they have a better way to skin a cat, so advertising budget, in an already squeezed and small market, is spread even more thinly between the publications, they all write about the same event at the same time, theres few products that have not been "reviewed" to death and the magazine ends up basically competeing on pretty pictures and lightweight editorial, eventually the the mag either dissapears or becomes a non entity. To my mind its far better to have one thick, professional top rate magazine we can all enjoy than three or four mediocre ones. The sport and the cycling economy here is just not big enough.

No' date=' just testostrone, but then as a male it is a good to have some.[/quote'] Methinks its more Ego and Posturing than testosterone, but hey, each to his own.

I find the whole thing pretty pathetic as well to be honest. Makes me think they have spent too long in the sun and its cooked their brain.

Ha,Ha, - fair enough, I generalised.!!

We use Locktite blue all the time in the engineering industry, its more of an adhesive than a threadlocker and as someone said, it remains slightly mallable when dry. Good for parts that may vibrate a lot. That said you could use the red, the differance is minimal, and if you use the basic low strength red it wont do any damage to the threads. ..................super glue?? Not sure. The advantage of Locktite is that it tolerates a bit of dirt / oil etc on the screw / nut and still works well (sets) - super glue would require very clean surfaces to adhere, so Yah, if the parts are really clean it would probably work in the short term, but, I would spring for the Locktite!!

Oh, okay Yang. Thanks. So nothing new hey, usual SA media type publicity. An el cheapo stand with no stock, a vacuous young bimbo who only reads picture books, and a credit card machine, all aimed at selling a FUTURE promise.!! Hmmm. Think I will flick through a few editions in the local Exclusive books before I cancel my international subscription.! porky2009-04-28 05:22:35

What other mag was he involved in Pornstar.? The name dosnt ring a bell with me.

I saw something about it, but never bothered to follow up. What is their marketing angle Yang, mostly local news or the same international info with a small local content. I may be persuaded to buy it if the international info is reproduced here, as it should reach us a lot quicker and more timeously, although this would put the international mag out of business here, soooooo..........................maybe, but I cant see it.! If its just local stuff, I am not interested. I have seen enough stories on Mr Lange and company to keep me avoiding local mags for the next 10 years at least.

Where did you get this info wheelz.? How factual is it, I havent seen anything about this on the news local or international and I am pretty sure there would be an outcry from some parties. Personally, unless I see some factual info I am going to regard this comment as unfounded and probably a bit of rumor mongering.

I dont get the post. 22 mil registered voters - no problem. 24 mil papers printed - fine no problem. 4 mill extra printed ?? - When were the extra 4 million printed?? Where are the papers - Who cares, if they wernt marked they get destroyed - why are unmarked ballot papers an issue?. I did the maths - I dont see an issue. What am I missing.? My guess is you are insinuating 4 million odd ballot papers were somehow mischieviously marked and got into the system.? porky2009-04-25 05:13:20

SA politicians have a very limited sense of humour when they are on the recieving end, imagine if George Bush had to have his party perform about every satire ever posted on himself?? With all his failings he was mature enough to ignore them. SA politicians are still too immature and sensitive about small issues, sadly Nandos were going to have to make changes the day this story burst, they are a big food player in the local market and the repercussions would have been dire financially and image wise, they tried to buck the trend, but here these companies need to be seen to be politically correct - I dont agree with it, but thats just SA politics.

Yah I agree, speaking of which dont you think there would be a lot more forests if it wernt for Lawyers and Bankers.

Yah, sure, the "price of eggs" - we havent mumbled about that since a few years back - but we can always start again if you like. People have opinions bud, thats all it is "opinions" Ill bet you have a few yourself, good, bad, medicore - so put them forward, if you find it depressing there is an interesting site about "the origins and evolution of the Mayan calender as related to the ancient Aztecs".................riviting stuff!!

Personally, I stopped watching ages ago mainly because I found it juvinile and boring. Another thing that irked me tremendously was the RA,RA attitude, if Mr Maclean or Owen attended a race their report would be, it was fantastic, best race ever, what a great crowd, the support was remarkable, the sponsor was (gives shameless plug) and they are just fantastic, the parking and boerie rolls were the best ever,................and so on and so on, ...............well I dont know sometimes I wondered if I attended the same race, cos I mostly found them pretty ordinary. Now as someone else said take Naas and the show Boots and All, - he climbs in and says his piece, this is great / poor tackling, this was a pathetic attempt at drop kicking, they need to get more players onto the ball, the (other teams name) keeps collapsing the scrum this is a tactic of theirs, ...................................one gets the feeling he says it as it comes. This is a mature show with commentators who say it as it comes, not glossy stories and pretty pics, with SC, one gets the feeling you are watching a disney show. porky2009-04-23 05:49:27

Of course they didnt, nowhere in the world do they, there will always be issues and enquiries, but at least we followed a recognised and approved international system of voting where checks and balances are tried and tested, where the basis of one man one vote is enforced by marking systems, where no 12 year old kid can make a vote, where no votes can be sold and so on. Its not necessary to re-invent the wheel.

Ha,Ha,Ha, - I seldom watch the show, personally I think the commentary and programming is infantile, the music is irritating and too loud and the show is generally aimed at 16 year old kids, - as I prefer more mature programmes I dont bother with it. ..........But honestly TNT when I occassionally did PVR it and watch the hour in 4 minutes with my finger on Fast Forward, it was already all about trying to sell you something, usually using "scare tactics" like "when you fall, you want the best protection", Ummm, heres a newsflash, I dont want to fall, or the three of them twittering away about how "the cycling industry is just going from strength to strength" which, as we recently found out is a load of codswallop anyway. Seems nothings changed hey.!

I just used that as an example, but whats to stop you GIVING your kids the numbers and saying, "I am off riding, vote for me". Think it wont happen?? ............think again. What about hackers, if they can hack the banks, they will certainly hack this type of system,.......... what about using multiple computers and fraudulent Id docs to register 20 times and vote 20 times, or 200 times even.? Or as someone else said, sell your vote,- your kids dont have food today, sell your vote for a few rand and they eat...................Hmmmmm, heres my vote.! Sorry mate, will never work, but its a nice discussion point.

How would the IEC know its YOU behind the computer and not your 14 year old teenage son / daughter who you gave all your passwords to and said have fun.?? You are lucky, here in Bedford it was a two and a bit hour wait.porky2009-04-22 10:07:28