Counterfeits
..would you give me an idea on what is being sold at the stores in Qatar..?..what i mean is, is there a proliferation of fake goods or poor imitations being sold..?..here in saudi, it is quite difficult to find genuine products unless you're an expert in such items. it is more common to see items made in china and india which are falling short of the specifications of the original. what makes it worse is that a buyer may sometimes think that he got a discount on the real thing only to find out later that he paid expensively for a counterfeit..
..ever experienced being duped that way..?..in Qatar..?
@ soltero,depends on what you're buying mate...take Nokia phones for example,most of what is available here(as i'm sure is the case in the rest of the GCC) are made in India,but they're made @ a licensed Nokia factory in India presumably to Nokia's standards,so i wouldn't call that being ripped off...
As for other stuff,plenty of fakes available here but the prices will match,rarely will you get conned into buying a fake @ original price,not because people here are that honest! :)...more so out of fear of being arrested & shut down since this is still a small town compared to massive Saudi...
220v dropped you a PM bro
Wk
Some Chinese brands do deliver quality like Sony.
After all even Sony & most electronics brands r made in china.
There is a friend of mine who is running a small company in Dubai. They import Chinese goods to Dubai and sell them in UAE & Saudi Arabia. He was telling me that in some places in Saudi their Chinese brand TV is sold at the same price as Sony. I didn't believe him then but reading your experience I think he may well be telling the truth.
Well, if you go to the souk or some cheapo shop and buy a LV bag for a bargain price...you kinda should know it's a fake, non?
The same goes for clothes, make up, electronics, perfume etc.
if u buy from malls like citycentre,villagio/ landmark bla bla.. its 99.9% genuine.
if u go to the souq areas at local stores..
its 50% fake or 50% ripoff.
..WK..that's what pains me the most from a personal experience..a bargain for an original which turned out to be an upcharge for a fake..meaning, prices may sometimes not be a good basis to determine authenticity of an item...
You get Chinese goods here too but the difference in price from the original is so startling that you know it's a counterfeit while buying, no surprises.
Sadly, fake goods are quite common in the Middle east and many other countries.
I agree that the vendor should be honest about his wares, but many are not.
..like watches, mobiles, perfumes, clothing or anything that can be faked..sometimes honestly showing where it was made but most of the times pretending otherwise..
@brit..i failed to get that, am sorry..were there more details to that experience..?.. 8-)
You are right.. i was duped at the Ramada car park...
And she had the balls to call me JOE :O(
What kind of goods are we talking about here or everything in general?