After 11.5 years in the computer hardware industry, SecretNet will cease regular day-to-day shop trading as of September 13th, 2008. This has been an incredibly hard decision. We have watched the health of the industry decline over recent years, especially with new cut-price hardware vendors which we can not compete with on price by any legal means whatsoever. Things have been increasingly difficult the last two years for SecretNet. We have watched a large number of competitors, both friendly and hostile, strain and collapse. We've even seen some of our own distributors collapse under the changing marketplace that has now faced the industry. Just to reiterate, we are not bankrupt, and are not disappearing overnight, however a decision needed to be made whether we try and wait it out for things to improve (at our cost), or throw in the towel and let other players have a go. We'll continue to honour warranties on parts well after September 13th, either directly still through SecretNet, or by working with customers via e-mail to direct them to the appropriate suppliers for individual components. History of SecretNet
SecretNet was founded in December 1996 by Andrew Macks and his father, Paul Macks. It grew mostly in the year of 2000, when we began sponsoring both the Overclockers Australia forums and soon after, the MPU (MultiPlayer United) computer gaming events in Sydney. SecretNet's tracking system and system builder have received positive feedback from Australian internet users and those abroad, and the management system of SecretNet (all written in-house) continues to be a world-class template of integrated business operations. Not just for stock management and invoicing, but complete bookkeeping, including banking, accounts, tax and payroll, with supplier, bank and courier company online integration. In 2006, SecretNet achieved formal recognition by being publically voted equal Best Online Retailer of the Year by PC Authority magazine. So what now?
We will continue to take orders for new (out of stock) products until the 5th of September (for anybody who wants to have their last SecretNet experience), and there will continue to be clearances on the site for remaining stock as time goes on (which has already begun). We plan to smoothly wrap up operations, similarly to how we handle our Christmas period annual close-down. Stay tuned for more details about a SecretNet event on Saturday, September 13th. |
