Consumers purchasing iPads through grey import channels may be setting themselves up for costly repercussions.
With Apple claiming the sale of over 300 000 iPads, the downloading of over 250 000 ebooks from its iBookstore and over one million applications from its App Store by iPad users, all during the first day of release, South African fans were probably even more impatient for the much-hyped tablet.
Some consumers have taken to grey imports of the product, since there is no release date for SA in sight, according to Rutger-Jan van Spaandonk, executive director of local Apple distributor, Core.
Grey importing is when a product is brought into a country and sold by businesses that are not official resellers of the company, explains Van Spaandonk.
He says grey importing, with regards to Apple's terms and conditions, would result in the loss of warranties and could possibly result in fines for the business providing the grey stock.
Van Spaandonk says there is no international warranty for grey stock and emphasises that marketers lie to customers, since no matter what they say, warranties are not valid for units bought through grey imports.
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