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Recently I have noticed that >50% of the time when a "deal" from Kogan is posted in the electronic section it is by someone with an L plate and they make one post, respond to a handful of comments and then never post again. To me, that screams of Kogan reps making fake accounts to post their trash.
I don't know if it is possible but it would be awesome if you could post a Kogan "deal" unless you had X number of deals, comments and time since joining OzB. Just my opinion. I just hate the idea of not being able to trust an OzB post because of Kogan posting BS.
PS. I put "deal" in quotes as Kogan regularly jacks up their prices so that they can discount them down to the regular price.
Kogan is permanently banned from anyone associated posting. Anytime an L or P plater posts deals for Kogan, our system notifies us and we do investigate the account. The short answer is no these aren't associated accounts with Kogan.
P.S. Ruslan does use OzBargain btw.
EDIT: I should add that just because a new account posts something doesn't mean they are a sockpuppet. Most of the time they are just new accounts. Everyone has to start somewhere . Please don't accuse people of being shills as this isn't welcoming to new members so best to just hit the report button and we can take a look.
Oh jeez no, I was not assuming/accusing that all new accounts that post a kogan deal are a sock puppets. I just thought it is interesting that I have noticed it a lot recently. I would not want to have a newbie feel intimidated or attacked.
Knowing that you get a ping when a L or P plater posts a deal is all I need to know. It is good to know that there is some QA on those posts.
And I hope if Ruslan using OzB he takes note that people are not happy with how poorly the CS is with Kogan. Only having an email option is not right and the fact that people pretty much need to go to NSW Fair Trade to get anything done, is not acceptable. It backfired for sites like android-enjoyed and will eventually to the same. I've met him in the past and he seemed like a nice enough guy, so I have nothing against him personally, his business is just not doing right by Australian consumers.
It's probably a side-effect of Kogan's widespread online marketing and, as you say, jacked up RRPs. People see their ads, see what looks like (and to be completely fair, most times ARE) decent products, and then also see the heavy discount from RRP (which isn't that high compared to similar name-brand products of the same type/design), and they think - hey what a bargain, let's post on OzBargain.
I won't lie - I've bought Kogan stuff after seeing both deals posted by others and their (targed?) ads here, including most recently their 10,000mAH USB-PD battery bank. Decent price for the specs and capacity, and works as advertised so far. Can't speak to longevity just yet though.
My issue has been with their post-sales support… or lack there of. And making false representations of their products capabilities. However they are in hot water at the moment with the ACCC for playing with pricing during sales. So there are a few questionable things they seem to be known for.
@curtturtle: Eh. Their post-sales support is what you expect from a budget online retailer. Their messing with RRP is… irrelevant imo. You shouldn't be looking at how much of a discount you get as part of your purchasing decision anyway - at the end of the day you're paying the final price (regardless of discount) for the product.
Otherwise you end up looking at Baccarat knives (House's own store brand) with their RRPs of $1,300 for a set, selling for $300.
The ACCC is a lot of the time over-zealous and just protecting people from their own stupidity.
@curtturtle: I've read many good post sale support comments here on ozbargain. Well, in particular with the mechanic keyboard which is so popular, I can't guess how many have been sold to ozbargainers, probably thousands, but I've seen around 4-5 users claim shift keys issues, and after videoing and asking for refund, Kogan has offered no questions asked replacement and users keeping their existing keyboards. I could just find those comments, but I cbf. But mostly positive reviews, though plenty of blanket " yea Rus sucks, hate that guy" comments etc too.