My last entry about CDR-King sparked a heated debate among readers. It’s got to do with the fact that the company, which is well-known for cheap accessories and thing-a-ma-jigs, are now going into big-ticket items such as laptops, cameras, tablets and even windmills!
CDR-King started out selling blank CDs — where other stores were selling branded CDs between Php25 to Php100 a piece, CDR-King was able to sell un-branded ones to just Php5 to Php8 a pop.
The company expanded aggressively despite not going into the franchising business (apparently, all of the outlets are company owned).
The psychology behind the business model is that the items are practically disposable — they’re very cheap you can afford a percentage of the items you bought to actually NOT work out of the box. Sometimes, it is more practical to just thrown them in the trash than to spend on gas to drive back to their stores and get a replacement/warranty.
Due to its success in that front, CDR-King expanded its inventory to many other products — flash storage, networking devices, memory modules, electrical accessories, digital cameras, TVs, tablets, laptops and many more.
However, many of these items are already above the usual “affordable” bracket. In those brackets, customers are more sensitive about the brand, warranty coverage and after-sales support. The fact is — it’s very hard to put “cheap” and “reliable” as a label for a brand.
A friend, who’s into the import/trading business, tells me CDR-King has a 6% warranty provision with their suppliers from China. So for every 100 CDs they import, their Chinese suppliers give them 106 — the extra 6 is provision for possible damaged item.
So, when CDR-King went on and started selling “cheap” laptops, people became more wary about the unit and dismissed it as inferior. I think this is a reputation problem. It’s like having to convince people that 7-11 can serve a nice cup of brewed coffee which can actually beat Starbucks coffee in a blind test.
Then again, there are the thousands of customers who have had not-so-good experiences with their past purchases in one of CDR-King’s outlets. I know CDR-King is trying to improve their CSR by stating the standard warranty claims with each purchase a new customer makes.
Still, it’s a reputation that needs time to rebuild.
I think one way to measure the level of confidence people have on the CDR-King brand is survey what items they’ve bought from the stores. So what’s the most expensive item you’ve bought from CDR-King?
ampangit ng mouse nila ung dilaw ung gilid
there is a cdr king branch near my house. do you want to know what i bought? Nothing!
Buying from CDR king is the last thing i will do
I bought a USB to VGA adapter to CD R king for a laptop last year. However there is a compatibility issue with it, so I have it replaced with another item. It goes to show that some items that they offer is not worth purchasing even though the price is cheap.
I just bought a bluetooth earbuds/headset from their store worth 400-500 last December. After a month, sira na ang right bud. I’m disappointed big time.
My most expensive item to buy in CD R King is A 32 gig USB Flash drive it cost 1,600 Php at that time. We all know that cheap brands don’t last well but many people are always go to cd r king for products because we Pinoys are like to buy low cost products. Anyway if you want some alternative USB products this is the link thanks. Ps. https://acobsglobal.com
A 1TB external hard drive since 2012 and still working! Hahaha
Magsi-SIXyrs na at may mga comments pa rin. Go cdrking! lol
My dad bought a lcd 32″ tv from them back when it was initially released, I think back 2012, and still working. I also currently use a 16gb cdrking mmc on my phone, had it since end of 2012, and still working.
I’d say 10% of what I bought from cdrking had failed in the first 6 months, Mostly the flash drives anyway.
For the price of their items, I couldn’t really complain.
One other thing, they have redesigned their stores or at least the one in bacolod, now they have a bunch of shelves in the center of the store and they are selling crap like plastic dishes and glasses stuffed animals etc.
They turned it into a dollar store or in this case a peso store. A whole lot of cheap crap that has nothing to do with computers or electronics. Need some cheap plastic crap to eat off of get down to cdr king before they are out of stock.
Cdr king is not one stop shopping, Going to one of their stores to purchase a item you saw on their web site usually gets you sorry sir out of stock. Every time i go to purchase something at their store i saw on their web site they don’t have and none of the other stores have one either.
Either they just put stuff on their web site that they don’t have or they can’t update their web page like any competent business would.
I went into one today to purchse a hdmi to av converter i saw on their web page and what a surprise they don’t have any.
Cdr king is a waste of my time.
Let me hasten to add one more comment. CDR King, as a low cost outlet, is a marvelous outlet for consumers. If they can get their act together to market higher quality product, a reasonable price, with the proper consumer-oriented service and after sales service, they deserves to have wide support, for we do need such consumer white goods products with proper servicing.
We buy quite a lot of small low cost stuffs from the outlet, on the basis if items defective, like you say, throw it away, not worth the time to go back for warranty. Have never bought any expensive items like electric bicycle, just not sure if they will really guarantee it and provided good after sales service. For example, even when no crowd, you are asked to a get a waiting ticket, after you did it, still no service, or staff did not really give a damn to the waiting ticket. If current service status is like that, personally, I cannot expect CDR King, can offer proper after sales service. That said, the staff are usually courteous but not really knowledgeable about their product quality and performance characteristics.
Before I go to a store and buy my prospected item, I usually search it first for its availability on the said store. I have visited three branches of CDR King in Cainta looking for PC to TV converter (VGA to RCA), took pictures on my phone. On three stores, when asked them about the item, they were consistent on their answers, “we don’t have that product”. But when showed them the picture, of course with CDR King label, their response was, “we’re out of stock”. Their answers are telling me that the sales persons don’t know what they are selling or they are not aware about their products. CDR King should have product awareness to their sales persons, although they have desktop PC on the store which they can inquire about the product. I have also took my time to email them regarding the availability of other items on their list and there was no response until now. That was my experience with CDR King.
I agree. This is the most common pitfall for all salespeople, whether it’s CD-R King or not. Na kapag hindi sila pamilyar dun sa produkto would be just to tell the customer that either it’s not in their inventory or out of stock.
That’s why I always come prepared each time I visit CD-R King. Kung hindi nila alam yung sinasabi ko, PRODUCT CODE na ang binibigay ko so that they can search for it online and tell you whether they really have the item on stock or not. That way, hindi na nila kelangang manghula and at the same time naiinform din sila about that product if they aren’t familiar with it.
bago ako bumili sa CD-R King, I make sure na yung bibilhin ko sa kanila is sila lang ang meron or di kaya mas mura ng di hamak. madami na akong nabili sa kanila at wala naman akong naging problem sa kanila dahil alam ko kung ano ang dapat at hindi dapat mapalitan.
I suggest na bago bumili sa mismong shop, browse muna online tapos ask the tech for availability and advice. That way hindi masasayang pagod nyo at hindi reklamo ng reklamo.
Actually, matibay naman lahat ng products ng CD-r King kaso ampangit ng packaging nila and yung detailing ng products mismo. Pero yeah, mga card-readers ko 2007 ko pa binili e tsaka yung USB hubs ko pero ok parin. Mga binurn ko ok parin. Thumbdrives ok din. Chargers ok din. speakers ang lakas and buhay parin. ang bagsak lang sakin mouse and keyboard. yeah. pero nasa paggamit nalang din yun e.
I bought 10 inch solar power pad for 1,200+ last 5 months.. Its still working!! *yay ..one time Naiwana ko syang pinapa arawan sa labas then biglang umulan. Mga 2 hours rin siguro syang babad sa tubig.. Akala ko itatapon ko na sya, pero after nyang natuyo, Gumagana pa sya!!!
yung panels ko 2 years nang nasa bubong. umulan, umaraw, bumagyo attinaihan pa ng mga ibon, eh ayos parin
“CDR-King has a 6% warranty provision with their suppliers from China; for every 100 CDs they import, their Chinese suppliers give them 106 — the extra 6 is provision for possible damaged item.” Royalty Fees……… Datablitz should be taking notes for this fiasco (they don’t really give a “” about this anyway).