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I thought Kogan was legit, but it looks like they aren't.
I ordered two Samsung AKG EO-IG955 earphones from Kogan. I got the black and white earphones. Both of these are sold by Kogan.com.
I also have the original earphones that came with my Samsung S20+.
Upon arrival, I noticed that the two versions of the earphones came in different packaging. The white earphones did not have Samsung packaging around them while the black ones did. Weird, but whatever.
Upon using my new earphones I noticed that the white earphones have a high-pitched background noise whenever you play audio. At low volumes, the background noise is louder than the actual audio. I then used the black earphones and there were no problems, sounds just like my original.
At this point, I suspected the white ones were faulty, but just in case I got a USB device information app from my play store to see the details of the connected USB device.
My original headphones have Samsung as the vendor, a vendor ID, product ID, and 9 interfaces, all legit.
The new black headphones are the exact same. Samsung as the vendor, same ID's, interfaces, everything.
Then I plugged the white ones. Weird vendor name with a foreign character, vendor ID and the product ID is 0000, only 5 interfaces and no Samsung brand anywhere.
You can take a look for yourself: https://imgur.com/a/yb33fwn
I really didn't think such a massive brand would do this. I've requested a refund for the white earphones and I'll post the results when they respond.
Is this already known about Kogan? I did some googling and the broad consensus was that Kogan is legit.
UPDATE:
Hello again everyone.
I've requested a refund from Kogan, to which they assured me that all items are "authentic and genuine products" and that they "would never claim one of our products to be genuine when this is not the case". Regardless, they have agreed to credit my account. The credit hasn't come through yet, but I don't really care.
Now here's the fun part. I've also heard back from a CEO Representative of Samsung Australia. Take a read:
Good afternoon ____,
Thank you for reaching out to Samsung Australia’s CEO Team regarding your enquiry.
I am sorry to hear about the negative experience you have had when ordering the headphones.
I will be passing this information to the relevant department to investigate further but we would recommend avoiding unauthorised retailers such as Kogan as they do sell grey import or non genuine products.
However, I would be happy to send out two AKG type headphones free of charge for your inconvenience.
Should you wish to proceed, can you please confirm that the below address is correct?
· ___________
Kind Regards,
Shannon | CEO Representative - Email |Service & Logistics Division |Samsung Electronics Australia3 Murray Rose Avenue, Sydney Olympic Park. NSW 2127 AustraliaE [email protected] | W http://www.samsung.com/au
(+1 to Samsung for offering to send me the earphones free of charge)
Kogan is an unauthorised retailer of Samsung products. Who knows how many other companies haven't authorised Kogan to sell their products.
How does a multi-million dollar company, one of Australia's largest online retailers, get away with this?
Yes it's already known. They're a scummy company with grey market products, price jacking during pandemic and poor to non-existent customer support. It's a shame people still support them.