iPhone 4 32GB $34/Month Vodafone Deal OzBargainer beware!!

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  Geewhizz on 26/01/2012 - 11:09

  Ombudsman has more punch than dept fair trading. I can't really see, if they're offering to release you from the contract though, that either will bother to take it much further.

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  syswong on 26/01/2012 - 11:36

  yeah I know this is an unusal situation as most of the time people contat them to get out of a contract. not forcing the privider to hornor a contract. well see what vodafone say when they received the case.

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  snorbert on 26/01/2012 - 13:32

  If Vodafone are seen to be acting in reasonable good faith, by promptly refunding any payments and releasing you from any undertakings you made to them, then there's not much leverage under consumer protection legislation to make them do something more for you. You could ask whether this is bait and switch, but it would be hard to prove they deliberately misrepresented their ability/intention to supply you with an iPhone 4.

  That said, this kind of "whoops, sorry" issue is not great customer service; thanks for trying to save others the hassle!

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  syswong on 26/01/2012 - 13:51

  i can actually prove them deliberately misrepresented their ability/intention to supply you with an iPhone 4 because I have a screen shot of their website.advertising the deal two days.after they tell me they have no more stock. They change the ad to the 8G version after I send them the screenshot and question why they are.still advertising the deal.

  • 

    Tal_Shiar on 26/01/2012 - 14:06

    That's not proof of deliberate misrepresentation

    • 

      syswong on 26/01/2012 - 15:31

      Mate, u work for Vodafone? If so please get customer services to sort out this mess.

      If some one send u an order confirmation for a particular product and later on tell u they are out of stock. Further more they try to cross sale u to something with a lower product value but charge u the same price. Don't u think that is wrong. An if they ask u to cancel the sales contract, would u let them?

      Just think about the above situation and it is what exactly happen here.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 27/01/2012 - 19:47

        +1

        Amateur Legal opinion doesnt count in the real world. Tal-Shiar was just letting you know, that just because you believe something and It maybe unjust for you doesn't mean its guaranteed you will win your case.

        Just because someone tries to give you advice that might go counter to what you want to hear doesn't mean they work for the opposing side.

        You start a topic here, and you'll get advice here. Whether or not you like it, its your issue.

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  syswong on 01/02/2012 - 07:54

  ok just an update for those who is in the same position.

  The guy come back to me from VF is very nice, not like the other person so rude from customer services.
  I won't spool the details but I can tell you all if you have a IPhone 4 32G special order that VF claim no stock and cannot fullfill, go to the telecommunication ombudsman and file a case. You are likely to get somewhere much better than just canceling your contract or take a undervalue handset.

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  llama on 01/02/2012 - 08:39

  +4

  Geeze, some people will complain about anything won't they.

  Take a look at this… http://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/telstra

  See that? Almost every one of those deals have expired!

  Quick, QUICK - get the Ombudsman! Get the Police! Get the Fairy Godmother!

• 

  llama on 01/02/2012 - 08:51

  I believe as soon as Vodafone has confirmed the order, they are binded to supply customer the agreed contract and hardware.

  Like ozpete already said - what "you believe" and reality are sometimes conflicting. This might well be one of those cases.

  Run out of stock is not really the customer's problem and they should provide confirmed customer with a hardware that is equal in value and specification.

  Run out of stock means that "the deal has expired". You never signed any contract, and they have offered you an alternative deal (which they don't actually need to do). No money has changed hands.

  go to the telecommunication ombudsman and file a case

  Do the rest of the wider community a favour, and don't waste pulic resources' time on this kind of rubbish. From what scant details you have provided, there is no evidence to suggest that anybody needs to involve the ombudsman in this NON-problem.

  The ombudsman is there to help people who have been ripped off, and have a real problem - not a pretend one.

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  syswong on 01/02/2012 - 10:33

  Did anyone actually read that they have confirmed the order?? Then they say no stock… Obviously not much people are reading the details. Its all resolve now anyway.

  No offence but sometimes people has double standard. It is ok for OxBargainer to make merchants hornor worng price quote/ads but it is not ok for me to make a merchant hornor that they have confirmed with me?? I think I am actually a very reasonable person.

  • 

    llama on 01/02/2012 - 11:41

    +1

    Did anyone actually read that they have confirmed the order??

    If they have no stock, then they are entitled to refund you.

    There is no contract - you never got that far. You missed out, that's all.

    Annoying = yes.

    Involve Ombudsman = definitely NOT.

    • 

      tonyjzx on 01/02/2012 - 13:32

      of course there's a double standard

      vodafone is a multinational with a crappy network

      you're one whinging "not even a customer"

      in certain situations they will have the upper hand… like now

      life's unfair… build a bridge

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  syswong on 01/02/2012 - 15:11

  I was surprise so many feedback that is taking side of VF given their crap network and customer services. Having said that the guy who is in the TIO resolution team that I speak to is very polite. Unlike those in their god knows where call centre.

  • 

    tonyjzx on 01/02/2012 - 18:36

    i hate vodafone but that's what most people would class as a 'dose of reality'

    many people post on forums wanting a cheer squad to tell them they're right and then get upset when people don't agree with them

    look at it like this… the TIO hires people to take down and investigate alleged communications company breaches… they don't get punished for following up nuisance calls… in fact its usually quite diverting to try to help people when you know the outcome is going to be negative for the customer… hey its easier than trying to follow up legitimate issues

    at worst they collect a fee from vodaphone and they seem like they're doing their job… its win win

    whether the customer is right or wrong is irrelevant, as long as we've following procedure

  • 

    llama on 01/02/2012 - 20:02

    I was surprise so many feedback that is taking side of VF

    Nobody is taking sides. There is no sides to take, since nobody can either "win" or "lose".

    This is a non-problem. There is nothing to resolve, no money has been lost, nobody is out of pocket, nobody (or animals) have been harmed.

    My point is that it is morally wrong to waste resources like the TIO on this kind of rubbish. Imagine this potential news story…

    A customer is given a $35,000 phone bill for a mobile phone that they don't even own. The Phone Provider refuses to justify the charges and has commenced legal proceedings to recover the money. The client is a widow with 3 young children, who has no family in this country and who cannot afford legal representation, let alone pay the bill.

    The Australian TIO states that they currently do not have the resources to handle this case, because all staff are working on the problem of a client who wants retribution for an advertised product that was subsequently out of stock when they went to order it.

    Yep, let's all get those priorities in order!

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  [Deactivated] on 02/02/2012 - 03:29

  syswong

  I was surprise so many feedback that is taking side of VF

  You start off a thread warning Ozbargainers to beware

  That is alarmist, so of course you get attention, reaction and opinions.

  Then you tell us

  I believe as soon as Vodafone has confirmed the order, they are binded to supply customer the agreed contract and hardware.

  And others here are just telling you, that in the past deals reported here, plus from their own experience and efforts, have also reached this stage and not proceeded, without being resolved with the goods being delivered.

  If you dont want this advice, then it may have been better to have waited until you had an answer from the TIO, ASIC, or consumer affairs before starting the topic.

• 

  syswong on 02/02/2012 - 09:34

  Officially I have not been sent a phone yet so this is far from over between me and Vodafone but it is getting somewhere. The purpose of my post is I believe there are many people who will be in the same shoes as me and I simply point out that there is another way other than cancelling the order or taking a under value handset as an alternative.

  And yes I think merchants should be held responsible for out of stock situation IF THEY HAVE CONFIRMED YOUR ORDER. In this case more so because given the company size of Vodafone they should be able keep an accurate inventory. Moreover, I did not miss out on an expire deal because they were still advertising the deal a few days after they told me they cannot full fill my order. It is simply very bad management coordination between their advertising and inventory department, not to mention a very bad ordering system.

  On the issue of raising this enquiry to the Ombudsman, I had considered fair-trading but was advised that it would be more appropriate to go to Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman. When I spoke to Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman we were discussing this in detail and they believe this will fall in their jurisdiction hence they accepted my case. I am sure people who have a $35,000 bill forced on them will surly get more attention and priority than my case

  For the record, I despire people who haunt merchants for wrongly advertised price and I stood by that. I am planning to launch a web store soon. If I advertising something on a wrong price and got people nag me about it all day, I will be piss off too, but if I CONFIRMED an order with customer, I will for sure honour what has been confirmed and do whatever possible to full fill the order.

  • 

    llama on 02/02/2012 - 10:27

    You keep going on about "confirmed the order" but what exactly does this mean?

    You say you are opening your own web store soon, so how will people "buy" from you? Let's assume you use a shopping cart with automated payment gateway using Paypal (because that is the most common method). And let's say that you create an ABN to trade under, because you are not a shonk.

    What happens if 2 people process an order for the same item at the same time? Both will get through checkout and make payment… the inventory system (if any) won't cope with that, because the checkout and payment are 2 separate steps.

    What I mean is, a buyer doesn't get "dibs" on an item just because it's in the shopping cart. The order is only confirmed once they pay. So, until they pay, another person can place the same item in the cart. Then, 2 separate invoices get produced and 2 separate payments get made. Your shopping cart sends off 2 automated emails saying "thanks for your order" - the title of those emails might well be "Order Confirmation".

    The flow is SELECT ITEM > CART > CHECKOUT > PAYMENT > PAYMENT_APPROVED > ORDER_CONFIRMATION > INVENTORY_ADJUSTMENT

    The inventory system is updated AFTER payment, but now you have a problem. You have 2 payments, sent 2 Order Confirmation emails, and your stock shows "Minus One" because you have sold one item twice. You check stock with your supplier, but there are no more available.

    You apologise for the error, you offer the buyer some alternative items of similar value, and offer the buyer a refund if they prefer.

    Instead of taking you up on your offer, they take you to Fair Trading, where must now waste time on justify what happened, provide documentation about what you have done so far, etc. Because you have an ABN, you cannot wiggle out of it, you MUST respond to Fair Trading even though you have done absolutely nothing wrong.

    Do you understand yet?

    • 

      zeroxp on 26/02/2012 - 23:42

      That doesn't look like a very good design. I hope there's some sort of transaction locking on the inventory before you sell it to multiple buyers.
      Oops~ What forum was this?

  • 

    llama on 02/02/2012 - 10:48

    And yes I think merchants should be held responsible for out of stock situation IF THEY HAVE CONFIRMED YOUR ORDER. In this case more so because given the company size of Vodafone they should be able keep an accurate inventory

    I am just filing some purchase emails, and found you a few examples of merchants who have failed to deliver. A couple of OzBargains that others here might remember too…

    ===========================

    From: [email protected]
    To: [ME]
    Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 12:51 AM
    Subject: JB HiFi / Order Confirmation #2760799

    Hi [ME], thank you for your online order with JB HI-FI.

    Order Confirmation
    Tax Invoice (blah blah)

    ---

    From: [email protected]
    To: [ME]
    Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 3:47 PM
    Subject: JBHiFi - OID 2760799

    Order Notification

    Hi [ME],
    This email is to update you on the status of your JB HiFi order 2760799, placed on Apr 13 2011 11:51PM.
    Full details of this order are available. Click here.

    ORDERED ITEM(S)

    SKU: NDMTCG Item: (Qty. 3) Marvel Trading Card Game
    Availability: Sorry, this item no longer available from selected supplier **.
    CURRENT STATUS: DELETED from order

    SKU: BM5082 Item: (Qty. 3) Dsl Complete Gamers Kit
    Availability: Sorry, this item no longer available from selected supplier **.
    CURRENT STATUS: DELETED from order

    ---

    Unfortunately we are no longer able to supply the above item(s) marked "Deleted" in your order. All items are offered for sale in good faith based on current supplier catalogues, but occasionally items can become unavailable.

    ===========================

    From: Staples [mailto:[email protected]]
    Sent: Monday, 6 June 2011 11:08 PM
    To: [ME]
    Subject: Your Order with Staples.com.au

    Dear [ME]

    Thanks again for shopping with Staples. A tax invoice will come with your order but in the meantime, here's a little reminder of the order you just made:

    [This order was for 6 x Imation Atom USB Flash Drive 4GB for $4, less the SAVE$20 voucher]

    ---

    From: Staples.com.au Customer Support
    Sent: Thursday, 9 June 2011 12:39 PM
    To: [email protected]
    Subject: Out Of Stock

    This email is to advise you that due to limited stock quantities Staples is unable to fulfil your order, this has meant we have had to withdraw your order.

    ===========================

    I have heaps of other examples too - This kind of thing happens all the time. It is normal! There is no injustice, I simply missed out on these deals. In both cases, the orders we CONFIRMED and then a few days later I received notification that there was no stock.

    Maybe you are not very experienced with online purchasing, and have never had this happen before?

• 

  Geewhizz on 02/02/2012 - 11:39

  syswong, did they go through the id check and everything and then tell you the transaction had been authorised, and THEN notify you that the item was out of stock, or was there simply an automated response immediately following your online purchase?

• 

  Geewhizz on 02/02/2012 - 11:53

  On a totally different subject, the original post of the deal that you ordered through states that the phone has been discontinued, so I'm not sure how anyone can force them to honour your decision to purchase.

  Putting the shoe on the other foot briefly, if you had placed the order (and it wasn't out of stock,) up until the phone had actually been shipped Vodafone would have allowed you to change your mind and cancel the order, so it's not reasonable to consider it a one-way street where the (potential) customer gets to dictate all the rules of the game.

  I guess technically, as they see it, any contract is not necessarily binding until you have the phone in your hot little hand.

  EDIT
  Have just been off doing a bit of reading on their site. It seems even then you have a 14 day cooling off period during which you can return the phone if you have simply changed your mind, and can be released from the contract.

  Given that this was obviously a special price offered on a discontinued item, IF the ombudsman proceeds with your case and you win any sort of discount or whatever from Vodafone, consider it a bonus, because you're not really entitled to anything more than what they have offered. Sure, it was a good deal, and you're disappointed that you missed out, but they really have been quite fair in what they have offered.

• 

  syswong on 08/02/2012 - 20:27

  Funny how vodafone now trying to off load IP4 16G with the same kind of deal now. Hardly feel like a bargain.

  IMO any handset less than worth less than $650 is better off just buy it outright because the same plan can be brought from TPG for $10 a month so the plan value is 240 in the contract and I think not being bind to a 24 months contract is worth $3 a month. make it still worth while as long as you hand set is around $650

  AS for my story, I have been offer a handset with value way above $650. So I am now a happy Vodafone customer. And surprisingly the data speed is much better than I though. Only usually make calls to Three or VF so almost certain the bill is not going over.

• 

  altomic on 08/02/2012 - 21:34

  a contract involves you (consumer) giving money in exchange for a product (from a seller)which has been offered for sale.

  have you paid vodaphone money?
  do they have a phone to offer you?

  no
  no

  no contract.

  • 

    Elijha on 25/02/2012 - 01:52

    A contract is an agreement of terms. I don't think monetary exchange is implied.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 25/02/2012 - 12:04

  I recentely ordered the Motorola Milestone 2 on a 12 months $19 cap, and when i did there was still 11 in stock. Anyways i recieved an email saying there is no stock left and they can alternatively run my application for a different handset. They offered me terrible phones, and after complaining i was offered a HTC Desire HD. I thought awesome, its a pretty decent handset, anyways, a few hours later they tell me the HTC Desire HD is now out of stock, and they can offer me some gay nokia thats not even worth $30.

  Long story short i just put in a complaint with TIO. Bait and switch. I know for a fact the milestone was in stock when i ordered it. I'm not suprised though, nothing i ever read is praise for vodafone. I wish telstra was a little cheaper, i think thats the only reason people put up with vodafone/optus.

  • 

    llama on 25/02/2012 - 22:25

    After being a member of this site for a while, most people learn that it is very common that "deals" expire. People miss out. Not many would think to contact the government to launch a full-scale investigation simply because they were too slow and missed out on a limited deal.

    I mean really - who cares? After you "miss out" you end up in EXACTLY the same position as when you started. No money changed hands. No money was lost. Nobody was ripped off.

    I'll give you an example… look at this deal that you posted last month: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/61394

    You posted it on 11/01/2012 - 01:29

    BigKev posted on 11/01/2012 - 22:16 (less than a day later) that it was out of stock.

    So, shall we all band together and report YOU to the ombudsman, because you are promoting "Bait And Switch" tactics?

    Or do you only class it as "bait and switch" if the retailer offers you an alternative, rather than simply saying "sorry, too late, bad luck"?

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 26/02/2012 - 11:57

      It was the fact that i knew the Motrola Milestone 2 was in stock when i ordered it. The lady told me so. In addition, i have an email stating they are willing to run the same contract for an alternate handset, however they didn't honour that either and instead offered me a HTC desire hd instead of the other phones in the email.

      There is more to the story, i was just giving a brief summary. So in my case i believe i'm 100% in the right to be reporting them to the ombudsman. They have failed to honour anything, and i have it in writing.

      As for the Sunbeam Multiblender - everyone who ordered it recieved it. You don't see Big W selling anymore then what they have in stock. I have never have - they possibly have before but not to the extent that vodafone continually do it. Its not the first time vodafone have offered a deal they couldn't honour, and it wont be the last unless someone complains…

      • 

        syswong on 28/02/2012 - 18:46

        Finally someone sees in my point of view.
        Missing out in an out of stock situation is ok if they have not confirmed your order. In the case VF has actually check my ID did all the paper and send me an email to CONFIRM yes we have accepted your order. THEN they told me it is out of stock which they are still advertising the very same deal on their web site. And yes there is a contract because they offer to release me from it. Just I choose not to nor pick a different phone.
        As I say normally I would just not border, but the discount ratio is so good on the deal that I don’t see why I should let them off the hook so easy. From what I see other member’s reply this seems to be a common VF tactics. Advertise the hell out of it and just tell people they can’t have it if stocks run out.
        A positive comment to VF is their TIO response team is very professional and resolve the matter for me in 24hours. They upgraded me to an IPhone 4s 32G on the same deal. They said I would have to wait a week but the handset turn up in two days. That is equal to a 10% discount on the phone with 24 month interest free credit plus you get the 29 cap for free. Can’t complain more.
        Also note that I have yet to experience the “Vodafail” problem that everyone is talking about. Signal has been quite good internet speed is acceptable, especially when compare with the latest “Telstrafail”. That may be I am in Sydney CBD most of the time.

• 

  syswong on 29/02/2012 - 15:58

  Something interesting just happened. Apparently the TIO team upgrade me and sent me a 32G 4S, but somewhere somehow no one remember to cancel the outstanding IP4 32G order. So guess what. an IP4 32G turn up at my office just before lunch. Vodafone's logistics is just "AMAZING".

  I check with poeple in store, if I activate this phone it will be my second line on account which means the line rental will get an extra 10% off. that is $31 a month ($744 for 24 months) with an iphone 4 32G (Currently stil going for $750). + a $29 plan and the VF 2 year warranty. Works out quite sweet. Just still deciding if I am going to keep it or not.