It's most certainly going to effect the ones that do use shipping options handled by SAPO once it lands.
Thank my lucky stars I stopped using SAPO about two months before the strike happened and switched to reputable couriers.
There's just no way anyone can risk shipments of considerable value handled by SAPO.
Any up and coming vendor (just as I did) would like to go with USPS and SAPO as it shaves a few bucks off the retail price here in SA. Some of them (as I did too when I started out) would even consider smuggling tactics to skip on paying duties and taxes. This unfortunately is not the way forward and with the new things being implemented at customs next year we can make life very difficult for not only ourselves, but damage the reputation of ecigs in SA to a point where they prohibit us from bringing it in to the country at all.... and for what? All in the name of coming in R10 cheaper than a competitor.
Vendors undercutting make it slightly harder for the ones who operate legitimately. It's a small percentage.... but the real damage is not in profits. It's the impression that it leaves behind once the "smuggling" stamp gets put onto nic imports... I'm convinced that if we continue on this "customs friendly" (what the hell does customs friendly mean anyway? It's called smuggling) path, that we're going to create some real issues for ourselves.
This is a topic I've started feeling very strongly about over the last few months and your question posed the perfect opportunity to rant on it for a bit, even if it's not entirely related. It's a thought I wanted to put out there for the guys to consider. Vaping in South Africa needs to stay, even more so once regulations are in place, when 80% of vendors will vanish in a heartbeat. Question is, are we all REALLY doing our part to ensure that it does?
You are spot on Revn!
