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Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

I Smell a Solar Rat

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It has been brought to my attention that there is an online solar store making claims and advertising solar items online that may be a little dodgy.

Initially I was given two URL’s to look at:

  1. jpsonkrag.co.za – claimed to have started in 2017, but the domain jpsonkrag.co.za was only registered on 2022/07/13. The domain has been suspended.
  2. Another domain name is jpsolarsuppliers.co.za, which was registered on 2022/10/26 and is still active

Forum users on powerforum.co.za and mybroadband.co.za have expressed reservations about this site because:

  1. their prices are too low
  2. there are several spelling mistakes and
  3. on the about page, they use the same photo for two different “people”.

On their about page: JP Sonkrag, Solar suppliers says that; “they were established in 2017 by Mr Jamie in centurion due to the rise in power problems in South africa and on the business aspect of things, the rise in demand for solar products.”

On average their prices seem to be 20% lower than anyone else online. In these days, when an accepted GP is 20%, the alarm bells start ringing. (see disclaimer below)

Looking at the imges of the JP Solar Team on their About Us page further misgivings arise as they are all STOCK photos – along with “Jamie van Wyk” and “Marius van Zyle” possibly being identical Amawele (Twins).

JPSonkrag
JP Sonkrag ‘Team’: Clockwise from Bottom left – Charlize Coetzee (Finance & Admin), Robert Downey (Marketing), Jamie van Wyk (CEO and Founder), Kabeo Molepe (Sales), Morne JR (Sales) and Marius van Zyle (Sales)

In fact the images of Jamie van Wyk (CEO and Founder) and Marius van Zyle (Sales) are both named as: portrait-successful-man-having-stubble-posing-with-broad-smile-keeping-arms-folded_171337-1267.webp and are listed for sale as stock images here: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/portrait-successful-man-having-stubble-posing-with-broad-smile-keeping-arms-folded_6515452.htm

The image of Robert Downey (Marketing) is named as follows: 160-1600378_transparent-happy-person-png-happy-man-face-png-600×433.png and can be found here: https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/iRoRwTT_transparent-happy-person-png-happy-man-face-png/

The image of Charlize Coetzee (Finance & Admin) is named as follows: team-2-40-150×150.jpg and besides being one of the 44 we cannot find a stock photo of her online using that file name.

The image of Kabeo Molepe (Sales) is named as follows: istockphoto-627676934-612×612-1-600×400.jpeg and with a name like that it is pretty reasonable to assume that it IS a Stock Photo from the istockphoto web site.

The image of Morne JR (Sales) is named as follows: close-up-confident-male-employee-white-collar-shirt-smiling-camera-standing-self-assured-against-studio-background_1258-26761-600×400.webp and is another image from the Freepik site here: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/close-up-confident-male-employee-white-collar-shirt-smiling-camera-standing-self-assured-against-studio-background_11652938.htm

Most puzzling is that the company registration given – 2016/090761/07 – appears as the company registration for JP Solar AND Momentum Solar. JP Solar gives their addresses as 35 Park Ave, Rooihuiskraal, Centurion AND as 33-37 Willowfield Cres, Umgeni Business Park, Durban, South Africa. Whilst Moentum Solar give their address as 33-37 Willowfield Cres, Umgeni Business Park, Durban, South Africa.

According to sacompany.co.ca the registration number 2016/090761/07 is registered to a company called KESHEL and a Google search for that company name comes up empty handed so JP Solar COULD be a trading as name.

Proceed with caution.

DISCLAIMER:

Many people in the rush to get online will NOT complete their web sites and leave a lot of demo content on pages such as a Contact page. This demo content is normally provided by the theme developer.

In the case of JP Sonkrag the theme developer is a stock theme developer and that theme is to be found here: https://themeforest.net/item/martfury-woocommerce-marketplace-wordpress-theme/21273233.

It is not ‘normal’ for a theme developer to provide stock images from many different sites nor is it normal for a theme developer to make rookie mistakes by providing the same stock image for two different people. Also the theme developer is Australian so the likeliehood of an Australian providing Afrikaans names as part of demo content is highly unlikely. One would also think that with over 12 500 sales of this theme that the developer would not make such mistakes OR have had enough time or feedback to correct this.

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Views Since 15 July 2022: 80

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.