Frustrations of doing Business in South Africa By David Lipschitz 28th January 2009

1. Call Centres

1.1. Some agents are parrots

1.2. They don't understand their clients

1.3. The knowledge base they rely on is inadequate

1.4. They don't have good tracking systems

2. Suppliers

2.1. don't respond to emails from web addresses

2.2. make promises they don't keep

2.3. don't tell you they aren't going to keep their promises

2.4. even when you speak to their boss, who says he will help you, nothing happens

2.5. A project that was planned for completion in November, is still not complete

2.6. One pays proforma invoices in advance and when the goods arrive some are missing. When you phone the supplier, they say they don't have the stock

2.6.1. Under normal circumstances paying a proforma means the supplier "picks" the goods, ie makes them available for you only

2.7. The box is correctly labelled, but contains the wrong product

2.8. The box is correctly labelled, and the product inside the box looks correct, but it has been incorrectly assembled

2.9. The sales people are "order takers" and don't understand their products