Nairobi’s Luthuli Avenue, at the heart of the city, is a renowned one-stop shop for electronic goods.
So many shoppers flock to the area to purchase various electronics, including TVs, woofers, smartphones, etc., which are sold at a cheaper price.
With the number of shoppers in the area rising, rogue dealers have stepped up with various tricks to prey on unsuspecting buyers.
One of the tricks the rogue traders use to mint money from unsuspecting buyers is the ‘extra charges’ that one is only informed about after paying for the item.
Lucy Muoki is one of the customers who lost her hand-earned money in an effort to purchase a TV in one of the shop along Luthuli Avenue.
The lady revealed all was well until she paid for the flat screen as the dealer forced her to purchase a decoder and pay a “license fee” in order to leave with the TV.
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“First, the shop attendants demanded I buy a digital TV decoder. I told them I already had a decoder at home and that I did not need a new one, but they forced me to buy it, ” Lucy recalled.
“We argued, and I told them they were being dishonest. They refused to refund my money. I wish I had gone to a supermarket to buy the TV. You can’t negotiate prices in a supermarket, but at least you don’t get conned,” she added.
Another customer, Naftali Kibaara, revealed he experienced a similar incident after negotiating the price and making payment for a Hisense TV.
The TV, Hisense LED TV 32, was being sold at Sh19,000 but the trader agreed to sell to him at Sh16,000.
After making the payment, the seller gave him a receipt and told him to wait as he went to get him another TV from the store, saying the one on display was not for sale. The seller, however, didn’t return, leaving Naftali to deal with another seller.
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“This seller told me the TV I had paid for was only a monitor and that I needed to pay for the tuner, subscription, and other charges that I do not now remember. The extra charges amounted to Sh11,000,” he recalled.
After an argument, the seller offered to give him a different TV model, which he says he had never heard of, at an additional cost of Sh6,000. This led to another argument, forcing Naftali to pay Sh4,000 more.
The seller, however, gave him the TV without a remote, insisting that he had to pay Sh2,000 for the remote. He, however stood his ground and was given everything.
What puzzled him is that after making payment for the extra charges he was given a new receipt reading a different shop.
These criminal cases involving Luthuli Avenue traders have encouraged many people to speak up online.
Some have complained of being forced to take an inferior item after paying for a high-quality brand, being falsely accused of breaking an item in the shop and being forced to pay for accessories that should be free.