400%- 1000% profit in my opinion is usury.

This was not my first visit to STOLZ ELECTRONICS, and usually, I have no problem with their service or the product range until recently when I bought six capacitors named “RUBYCON" specifications 3300µf 16v 85°C” (I got charged R240 which should have been R51)

The technician told the salesman that it is R40. I thought it was R40 for all six since these caps usually don’t cost more than R5 each. At the counter, the salesman told me it is R40 for one. I wasn't happy with the price and asked if they are sure it cost this much. The salesman said that is the price. I didn’t expect STOLZ to overcharge me and gave them the benefit of the doubt; maybe it is because of the brand that these are so expensive I thought. I installed the products the same evening, but I still felt cheated about the price I paid.

In early May 2018 I called a company called COMMUNICA I gave them the specifications of the capacitor, and they told me that the price for one capacitor was R3.50 cents. I also called a company called ManTech and gave them the exact specifications and brand name of the capacitor (Rubycon), they told me the price was R8.50 each.

After having this information I immediately called STOLZ electronics and informed them that they might have made a mistake with the pricing. I spoke to a woman named Karen who after consulting the technician confirmed that Stolz indeed overcharged me, but she refused to say by how much. She informed me that she had to talk to the financial manager first. Karen avoided in telling me the current price of the capacitor and never came back to me the following day. After two days I went to STOLZ personally, and asked the sales lady if I can speak to the Financial Manager she said I could only talk to Karen, but Karen never came down to see me and just gave a message to the sales lady to pass on to me. Karen said that because I bought the products and accepted it, they could not do anything about it and they will not refund or credit me the difference. I voiced my concerns to the sales lady and she took my number and told me she would call me.

10 May 2018

Karen called me and said that the boss fired her, but later I suspected it was not the truth. She then put me through to the technician (none of them is very friendly), and he just said if I didn’t want it, I shouldn’t have bought it and I can drive my petrol money out to Johannesburg next time if I want it cheaper or do my homework first and find out if it is not cheaper somewhere else. They said the reason the price is so ludicrously high was that they buy from overseas, and I can’t tell them who their supplier should be, here referring to Communica. Rubycon is made in Japan and Communica, and Mantech must buy from abroad, so this is not a valid reason for me to charge me x 5 times more than Mantech and x12 times more than Communica.

What doesn’t make sense is that the company acknowledged that they overcharged me and then later backtracked and refused to refund the difference. Based on this experience I feel this company is very dishonest. How can you justify R40 for a product that cost at most R8.50? and R3.50 at other places. It makes you wonder what other products are then overpriced in their store and how many times in the past have I been overcharged by that much.