JEDDAH, 11 February 2003 — With the Haj season in full swing and most businesses closed for Eid holidays, prepaid mobile phone cards are selling at higher prices to the confusion of consumers.
Surprisingly, the SR100 fixed price vending machines are empty. However, at any gas station, the attendants will offer you SAWA cards for a minimum of SR105, with some small convenience stores openly selling them for SR110.
“This is done a couple of times a year,” says convenience store owner Mohammed Al-Zahrani. “During the Eid Al Fitr period, and the Haj and Eid Al-Adha season.
“Usually we buy the SAWA cards for between SR96 and SR98. But now we get them at a flat rate of SR100 as a result of what we are told is a shortage.”
“We are buying more then usual. And we are being given the supplies we need, so I don’t understand what they mean by shortage,” he adds.
“It is just a sales strategy that takes advantage of the season and the demand that comes with it,” says Ahmed 27, who runs a mobile phone booth at a popular local supermarket chain.
“This is the time to make money. You have got the Haj pilgrims in town for anything from a week to a month. You also have the local residents who are on holiday, and with the Eid at hand everybody has a lot of phone calls and text messages.”
Could the retail price go any higher? “During the last Eid, I was told that some prepaid mobile cards sold for as much as SR150, and they were all sold to desperate customers,” Ahmed points out.
Earlier this year, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) told Arab News that it has nothing to do with such price hikes. It sells the cards from its head office in Riyadh through approved agents across the country.
“The role of those authorized distributors is to sell the cards to thousands of retail outlets all over the country for a specific commission,” STC said.
There may, however, be some authorized agents who stock large quantities of SAWA cards and sell them at a premium of 13 to 15 percent.
