Page 3 - Simply Electronics Case

HOW DID I GET SCAMMED?

(Simply Electronics Limited)

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On 16 June 2016 I placed an order for a
GoProHero4 Silver (Appendix 1) camera from

Simply Electronics Limited (SE) through their
web site. Forty days later I was still awaiting
delivery. During the intervening days between

placing the order and taking out a dispute
through my credit card provider the realisation
dawned, that I had fallen foul of an elaborate
grey market operation that was, if not an

outright fraud (Appendix 2) certainly bordered on it. Moreover I felt, not simply
cheated but foolish for falling for such a scam. How had Simply Electronics

convinced me to part with my money and what did this reveal about their
business model?

Examination of Simply Electronics’ sales pitch and their subsequent handling
of the order placed should allow a clearer understanding of their modus
operandi to emerge. To achieve this, scrutiny of the communications between

the company and me will be undertaken whilst an examination of the
numerous on-line forums that commented on Simply Electronics Limited will
be juxtaposed with my experience. An experience that was embedded in the
machinations of the grey market vendor whose strategies circumvent in

general the objectives of original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Simply Electronics Limited was a small business built by an entrepreneur who
was not an authorized retailer of the goods being sold. It traded from 2008 to
2016 ultimately employing twenty people with sales of $55million. In a sense
Simply Electronics Limited capitalised on manufacturers’ adoption of

skimming strategies which allowed it to exploit price differentials between
countries and regions by buying low in one country and then legally import

them into another where the authorised channel was selling the product on