Warning as consumers duped by van sales

THERE'S been a spike in dodgy appliances being sold from the back of vans in Perth.

The state government's Consumer Protection watchdog is warning against buying from travelling conmen after a Wundowie man bought audio-visual equipment in the car park of a Midland hardware store this week and saw smoke pouring from an amplifier as soon as he plugged it in at home.

Not only did the equipment pose a fire risk, it also did not match the description and model images on the box.

Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll says travelling conmen often sell inferior and sometimes counterfeit products at a high price, convincing their targets that they are getting a genuine bargain.

"Instead, consumers are paying far too much for goods that are generally low in quality and, as in this case, could be dangerous as they may not comply with Australian safety standards," she said.

Consumer Protection has recorded 277 reports of dodgy sales in the past 12 months, the vast majority being from vans parked outside major shopping centres, retail outlets and service stations.

The hot spots were Midland (17 reports), Cannington (11), Morley (10), Maddington (10), Belmont (9) and Rockingham (9).

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iYogi launches in India for SMBs, consumers

iYogi, the global provider of tech support, has launched its service for both SMBs (small and midsize businesses) and consumers in India, touting it as a cost-effective alternative to incident based services.

iYogi provides subscription-based remote and onsite support for a variety of computing devices and software.

According to Access Markets International Partners (AMI Partners), the SMB market in India is estimated at INR 100 billion (US$1.83 billion) across more than 4 million businesses in India.

"We've witnessed rapid growth since our inception and plan to maintain this by focusing on three areas--geographic expansion, focus on SMB, and service innovation to capitalize on the growth in mobility," said Uday Challu, CEO and co-founder of iYogi, at the launch.

"The tech support opportunity in India is exploding based on the rapid adoption of technology among consumers and businesses, their growing technology dependency, and the increasing complexity created by a heterogeneous device environment," he added.

iYogi's Business NonStop service is aimed at the SMB market and comprises the Pro, Pro Plus, and Pro Premium subscription plans. Under these plans, organizations will get technical support starting from INR 249 (US$4.56) per month. Business NonStop Pro Plus is targeted for organizations with 5 to 25 PCs, while Pro Premium is for organizations with more than 25 PCs.

The company has also introduced service plans for consumers and wants to be a one-stop service provider for all support needs of a digital home. "The rapid proliferation of devices including computers, smartphones and tablets, and the emerging digital lifestyle of urban users is a growing opportunity in India," said Vishal Dhar, co-founder and president of marketing for iYogi. "The consumer tech support market is underserved, and the opportunity is large and glaring."

The global on-demand services vendor provides tech support for consumers and businesses in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and GCC states. It currently deploys over 5,000 "Tech Experts" serving more than 2 million users across 10 countries. Since its launch, the company has managed more than 10 million service requests, according to iYogi.

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