Ruslan Kogan, the brash online web site operator who loves telling everyone else, including Gerry Harvey how to run their business, has seen his business slammed by one of his own customers who after waiting two months to get a 46″ Kogan Technologies LED TV has described the made in China product as “absolute rubbish”.
Kogan, who came out this week spruiking publicity for his company has failed to disclose his revenues or profits after trying to get media attention with a press release claiming that he has grown his business 48% in the last quarter which was better than what LG or Harvey Norman have done.
This week, Kogan customer Ben Knapinski told SmartHouse that after 2 months of delays, he received his Kogan 46 inch LED and Kogan Slim line Blu-Ray player only to discover the TV which Ruslan Kogan had said was “as good if not better than Samsung models sold by Harvey Norman” was not up to scratch due to “constant jitters”.
Knapinski said: “I tested the TV using several Blu-Ray movies including Avatar and while the colour, detail, contrast and brightness were okay, I simply I want to throw the TV in the bin as it has the worst Jitter (jumpy motion) and highlight flickering I have ever seen on any 100Hz LED TV screen”
“I tested every possible combination of motion and sharpness settings and it makes no difference. Its absolute rubbish and I don’t even want to put it in the kids play room as I am worried the flickering and jitter will hurt their eyes it is that bad”.
This week Kogan claimed that his business had grown 48.12% and in doing so he slammed the business performance of organisations like LG and Harvey Norman, two organisations that are both profitable and organisations that disclose both in Australia and overseas their revenues and profits.
As one Harvey Norman executive said: “Anyone can grow 48.12% from a very small base. Let’s see the numbers”.
4Square Media has given Kogan’s PR advisors the opportunity to disclose the companies revenues and profits, that he is based his 48% growth claim on, but to date the publicity seeking Ruslan Kogan has not returned our calls.
A search of the Australian Securities and Companies database reveals that no company performance records for Kogan Technologies have been lodged with ASIC for 2008/2009 financial year or for 2010.
This is the same operator who was slammed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for running misleading advertising in Australia. As a result the ACCC forced Kogan to enter into undertakings relating to his marketing activities.
Here is a link to what the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission had to say about Kogan Technologies under the headline “Misleading savings claims by entertainment products trader.”
Here is a link to the undertakings that Kogan Technologies gave to the ACCC.
This is not the first time that SmartHouse has been approached about the quality of products sold by Kogan online. During the past three months three people have said that they were not happy with his products, however they chose not to be named.
