12 hours ago, SilverNodashi said:

A woman walks into a fancy carpet shop.As she bends over to feel one of the nice soft Persian carpets, she lets out a fart. At that very moment the sales rep appears. Ashamed, she asks, "how much for this rug". The saleman replies, "woman, if you farted by touching it, you will surely shit in your pants if you hear the price!". 

Friend of mine told this story of how he walked into a mattress store in some part of the country, you know, not really out to buy a mattress, just whiling away time while the wife is doing other things. He innocently asks a salesperson how much this (obviously very nice) mattress costs, and the sales person replies that for the sort-of entry-level one they start at around thirty... so this friend of mine quickly realises that that is obviously not R30, the three zeroes are implied... so he kept his pose, oohed and aahed and got himself out of the shop without losing too much face :-)

When we went shopping for a mattress recently, and I heard those around 30k prices when we looked a range, I packed up and laughed out loud. The sales person did not.

<Rant Start>

That R30k mattress is near damn the same as we bought for R5k, I asked the salesman (once he found my sense of humour) and he showed us, both mattresses come from the same damn factory and use the same sponge. One just has springs in with a few frills and add-ons, not costing R25k. And it may not last as long as our R5k one is going to.

Was watching The Profit last night. This lady makes high end clothes for woman. Garment sells for $99. Cost to make it? $11.00 !!!

That is 900% profit ... (facepalm)

I am very serious when I say that I do my best to cut out the bloody middle man sharks ripping me, the end user, to shreds with prices that are 900% more than cost.

Watch The Profit - it will shock you to see what stuff costs and what YOU are paying for it - ja it is American but the same happens everywhere in the western world.

Snuff the staff salaries and make more profit, at all costs. 

Note: The Profit guy does focus on staff, I do give him that: People. Product. Profit - in that order. But 900% on a garment, se gat man!

EDIT: Sign costs $45 - sells for $450 - 90% profit.

<Rant End>

2 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

cut out the bloody middle man

Middle-men are important. Sometimes. If they add value to the chain, value that makes me life easier, I don't mind them. If the value they add is disproportionate to the cost... they deserve to bypassed.

Example at hand: Insurance brokers. Worth their weight in gold (if it is a good one) despite what Outsurance is telling you. What people don't know is that insurance companies essentially pay the brokers to do their admin for them. That's how they get paid. Cut out the broker... but please don't ask clever questions like who's paying for the call center. :-)

I promise you, none of these direct-companies have ever been able to beat a straight deal via a broker. I've changed brokers a few times though.

47 minutes ago, plonkster said:

I promise you, none of these direct-companies have ever been able to beat a straight deal via a broker. I've changed brokers a few times though.

Our clients are short term brokers, so you hit the nail on the head.

And so true, change brokers till you find the right fit, you can work with broker and broker can work with you.

Seems to me, I think @cvanzyl mentioned something along the same lines end of last year, that Eskom is still not doing it right.

I quote: "If the lights went out in the past 12 months, then it was a distribution failure, not load shedding," says Maposa, MD of resources at Accenture Management Consulting."

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-01-12-electricity-distribution-on-the-verge-of-crisis/

On 9/2/2016 at 0:13 PM, The Terrible Triplett said:

When we went shopping for a mattress recently, and I heard those around 30k prices when we looked a range, I packed up and laughed out loud. The sales person did not.

<Rant Start>

That R30k mattress is near damn the same as we bought for R5k, I asked the salesman (once he found my sense of humour) and he showed us, both mattresses come from the same damn factory and use the same sponge. One just has springs in with a few frills and add-ons, not costing R25k. And it may not last as long as our R5k one is going to.

Was watching The Profit last night. This lady makes high end clothes for woman. Garment sells for $99. Cost to make it? $11.00 !!!

That is 900% profit ... (facepalm)

I am very serious when I say that I do my best to cut out the bloody middle man sharks ripping me, the end user, to shreds with prices that are 900% more than cost.

Watch The Profit - it will shock you to see what stuff costs and what YOU are paying for it - ja it is American but the same happens everywhere in the western world.

Snuff the staff salaries and make more profit, at all costs. 

Note: The Profit guy does focus on staff, I do give him that: People. Product. Profit - in that order. But 900% on a garment, se gat man!

EDIT: Sign costs $45 - sells for $450 - 90% profit.

<Rant End>

You have Victron equipment so it's easy to say this: You do realize that those exuberant costs often come from the manufacturer and not the middle man? Looking at what goes into an inverter, it's very difficult to see why one company would ask say R10 for a 4Kw inverter and another would ask R40K for a similar model. Without an MPPT charge controller. Does the R30K really justify the little differences in the charge algorithms? Or the "research they did to get there"? Both companies probably have a similar yearly turn over as well. 

 

Point: Look at cars: go purchase a replacement part for any care, at the dealership and see what it cost. A chinese knock-off could cost 500% LESS, and sometimes even work better. 

7 minutes ago, SilverNodashi said:

exuberant costs often come from the manufacturer and not the middle man?

True, but one should not wrongly assume that the extra costs isn't worth anything, ie that the manufacturer pockets it and gives you nothing in return. One should look at markup percentage, not total cost. I have some insight into what it costs to build those blue inverters. The markup is definitely not extreme... they really cost that much more to build. The cost price (to manufacture) of a Multiplus really is more than the Axpert retails for. Which makes you think init? :-)

Re cars: At least with the Toyotas I love and drive my experience is that I get value for the more expensive parts. Stuff like those steering column stalks, which generally survive decades despite temperatures (car parked in the sun) and kids yanking on them and so on and so forth. Without bursting into flames like a Kuga. Each point has to be evaluated on its own merit though. Do I buy brake disks from the dealer out of some misguided sense that they are better? No. I know that Toyota gets their parts from ATE... so I go find the equivalent ATE and fit that instead. Quarter of the price, same spec.

Analogies are of course just that... analogies :-)

1 hour ago, SilverNodashi said:

You have Victron equipment so it's easy to say this ... 

Have Victron for there was nothing else really at the time. 

I echo what Plonkster said.

And yes, what I said above was also in line that the "manufacturer" adds the profit. 

Listen, I am not against profit but seriously, there is a decent profit and a ludicrous profit margin. I am against ludicrous and will do my best to circumvent this.

Like yesterday I found out that a specific sweetner costs double in the shops than what they are landed for at a profit. That is BS.

15 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

costs double

100% markup is pretty sane, widespread and a good benchmark. I have nothing against 100% markup, given storage- and insurance costs these days, there are actual handling costs. What gets my goat is the clothing stores with their 900% markup (or similar). Ironically that opened the door for the online guys, the Zandos, Superbalists and Sprees of the world.

Shoes turned out to be one of the easiest things to buy online. You know your brand and your size. Click click. Ding Dong, as the old Kalahari ad said.

Did all my Christmas shopping online. All of it.

The market retaliates. I love it.

I hate going to malls. What I always find curious is the endless string of clothing shops with no one inside apart from the shop assistant. No wonder they have to mark up 900% to make a profit. 

14 minutes ago, plonkster said:

100% markup is pretty sane, widespread and a good benchmark.

The problem is the longer the product is on the market, the bigger the markup gets for the supplier inevitably also increases when they see the profits made by their dealers.

Everything gets unaffordable over time until someone takes the initiative taking it online with little costs - for yes it is giving the retailers a huge knock.

I see Woolies has taken a knock in Dec ... And Eskom is feeling it too.

Bottom line, ludicrous profits are wrong. Be fair, be reasonable and we all win.

What got me going was when I saw how expensive Cpt is compared to Jhb/Pta ito food, property, eating out entertainment.

1 minute ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

property

That's an interesting one. Houses cost more down here, but by the looks of it rent is better up there, at least compared to purchase cost. If you want to make money in real estate, don't do it in Cape Town. Do it up in Gauteng. Break-even (as in the rent pays the bond) happens quickly, 5 years or so. Break even (as in all costs covered) in under ten years. Cape Town... not so much. And that is despite the credit crunch and a shortage of housing. I'm not quite sure what is going on, seems like die Kapenaars are just generally more difficult :-)

Whaaaat!? 

"The Dentons report also raises new questions over Eskom’s rationale for load-shedding. Dentons said there had been no significant increase in electricity demand for five years from 2008.

Yet it was during this period that the country was subjected to daily load-shedding that cost the economy billions of rand — R438m/day, according to Ngubane."

http://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/cover-story/2017-02-09-damning-eskom-report-exposed-awkward-details-family-dealings-and-self-inflicted-load-shedding/

What are the chances that in order to bring in a real "grass roots" "regime" change, your do that by breaking the country systematically down, over decades, by cutting electricity until everyone is on the same level, being one step?

If I was so inclined, that is what I would do.

I would break the school system, then higher education then everything education and adhoc I switch off the power, blaming everything on racist apartheid to distract from my nefarious goal - break it all, break it down, for you must all listen to Papa. Papa is in charge. Papa will help you. Papa will protect you ... Papa will break you. 

Sounds like Z, not?

28 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

I would break the school system, then higher education then everything education and adhoc I switch off the power, blaming everything on racist apartheid to distract from my nefarious goal - break it all, break it down, for you must all listen to Papa. Papa is in charge. Papa will help you. Papa will protect you ... Papa will break you. 

The problem with all such theories is that it requires someone with significant planning skills to pull it off. Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. That rule, sadly, still applies.

Of course, we know there is definitely some planning involved, a systematic plundering, but I don't think the education system actually factors into that planning. The education system is merely a victim of the neglect resulting from not doing your job (because you're too busy plundering you see...).

If I may touch another touchy subject: The farm murders. There are people who claim that it is a coordinated and well-planned campaign to systematically murder people, textbook genocide in other words. I think the reality is that there is nothing systematic or planned about it at all... and that actually makes it worse in some ways. For one, the people blamed for this alleged campaign are deemed as sufficiently skilled to pull it off, yet in the same breath denounced as so horribly incompetent that they can't do anything right. Isn't that how the argument usually goes? You cannot have it both ways unfortunately.

Yes, agree.

But a thought. Making it look like it is due to incompetence is also a very good way to hide very well organised actions.

I don't think that the Government is behind it, what we are alluding to here. I think there are long term planners and do'rs at work here.

Eskom says "Eskom proposed to charge its clients an average 19.9% more in tariffs. Municipalities could pay 27.3% more for bulk electricity purchases. Eskom said the increase was needed as revenue was being recouped from a lower sales volume."

So IF NERSA approves said application, we are looking at above 27.3% increase? Am I right?

I am taking bets it is aimed at more nefarious dealings like hidden nuclear agenda or Zupta's last ditch exit strategy.

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/energy/2017-06-05-eskoms-proposed-20-price-hike-will-severely-hurt-municipalities-and-firms/

2 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Eskom said the increase was needed as revenue was being recouped from a lower sales volume.

Say it with me: Death spiral, death spiral, death spiral... come one, guys in the back, pretend I'm Steve Balmer... death spiral... death spiral...

1 hour ago, plonkster said:

Say it with me: Death spiral, death spiral, death spiral... come one, guys in the back, pretend I'm Steve Balmer... death spiral... death spiral...

Not when I become president. You will get micro grids and be done bothering me to go grid tied.

I will charge you XkWh to be connected, used for the poor though. Will sort the irritating little details later see. 

I wonder if anyone gets the Steve Balmer reference, or if only the old software people will... :-)

1 hour ago, plonkster said:

I wonder if anyone gets the Steve Balmer reference, or if only the old software people will... :-)

Enlighten us?

Go to YouTube and search for Steve balmer developers.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

17 minutes ago, plonkster said:

Go to YouTube and search for Steve balmer developers.

Geez, something seen cannot be unseen. Eish.