iPhone 4s - T-mobile false advertising

Striderhound

I'm new to this, and this is my first post but I just needed to describe the problems we've just had when trying to purchase a new iPhone 4s.

After much deliberation and number-crunching for the best deal that I could afford, I decided to stick with my great sim-only deal with T-mobile and buy an iPhone 4s outright.

Checked Martins page about iphone deals which outlines the prices. T-mobile has it showing as the cheapest at £409.99 so went straight to their website, added it to the basket and this is where the problems started.

Long story short, we tried purchasing it 3 times, twice with a credit card, once with a debit card and each time the purchases did not go through. Nothing wrong our end, good credit rating, money available to use. Ended up on the phone to them (again) and the guy on the other end actually said to us that the system is flawed, it's a default fraud mechanism that as soon as you're diverted to the banks security password check page, that automatically cancels the payment and blocks the card for any further use. He said he'd not known one ever be processed. There was no other way of purchasing it, they can't take payments of more than £200 over the phone or over the counter in store and admitted there was no physical way of purchasing that phone. We told him we would be passing this onto trading standards, which we did.

I just felt that I should post this as it's false advertising, which he also admitted and just might be helpful for someone else, and might need a note adding to Martins iPhone deals page.

We did actually manage to get one in the end but only after my husband called through as he is a business user (managed to get through to the same guy as before!) and the cost has been added to his bill but we were advised this was a 'one-off'.

Guys_Dad

Don't think that a fault/bug on their web site means false advertising.

Striderhound

Hmm... Surely them admitting that there was no physical way of being able to purchase the phone that they were advertising is a breach of something?

POPPYOSCAR

What did trading standards say?

chanz4

Its not false advertising, they could say that they rejected your order for security/fraud reasons

NFH

Striderhound wrote: »

Hmm... Surely them admitting that there was no physical way of being able to purchase the phone that they were advertising is a breach of something?

Yes, it is a breach of Schedule 1 Regulation 6(b) of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 which states that "Making an invitation to purchase products at a specified price and then refusing to take orders for it or deliver it within a reasonable time" is an unfair commercial practice.

abbiedabbie

Maybe not much help but just got my daughter iPhone 4s for £100 on tesco for £20 per month capped with 750 minutes 5000 texts and 1gb data, total £580 over 2 years all in. Saw it online then went out of of stock but when I phoned they had it

kevinbev

I had the same problem a few weeks ago when Quidco did some cashback offer for T-Mobile of if I remember correctly £70 for handsets over £140. I went to order the Iphone 4s, put my credit card details in and it came back with some other card authorisation box, all that went through and I thought that was it. Some other box came up saying order being processed. A few hours later a phone call from the bank asking if transaction was genuine. I replied it was. Later checked my card account and no money was showing as taken. A few days later I rang T-Mobile sales and they said there was delay in the orders. Another few days later checked a/c still no money coming out so put in another order. Exactly the same again. Then gave up as Quidco cashback had been reduce to £35.

Buzby

How does caution for a 'customer not present' transaction equate to a failure to provide the goods? They never got paid, so you are not entitled to them. So no false advertising.

When you say it is referred to the bank, it is automatically cancelled - you need to be clear what the referral is. If you mean the 'Verified by Visa' step - then this is an integral part of a CNP authorisation. Even if you pass this, the bank can still block it for any reason it wishes - fraud check, non payment of owed amounts etc etc.

If your card issuer does not block it, then the firm is not going to refuse business - as long as the card allows payment.

Your issue appears to be with the card supplier, not the retailer.

POPPYOSCAR

Buzby wrote: »

How does caution for a 'customer not present' transaction equate to a failure to provide the goods? They never got paid, so you are not entitled to them. So no false advertising.

When you say it is referred to the bank, it is automatically cancelled - you need to be clear what the referral is. If you mean the 'Verified by Visa' step - then this is an integral part of a CNP authorisation. Even if you pass this, the bank can still block it for any reason it wishes - fraud check, non payment of owed amounts etc etc.

If your card issuer does not block it, then the firm is not going to refuse business - as long as the card allows payment.

Your issue appears to be with the card supplier, not the retailer.

I placed an order for an i-pad with John Lewis for delivery to store the next day.

The payment went through and I had a confirmation email but 30 mins later I had a cancellation email.

When I rang them to find out what was wrong they said it had failed the checks but could not tell me why. This has never happened to me before or since and they never even tried to take the money from the card provider, so the issue is not always with the bank, it is with the retailer.

chanz4

merchants get a flag to high risk areas, none address verifications or different registered address. What you have to remember is they loose out if fraud