Argos compulsory phone top-up

Benji

I have just bought a Vodafone HTC desire 510 from Argos 356/9445.

At checkout I was told I had to buy £10 topup. I queried this as it was not on the in store screens, but I was shown a catalogue where this is shown. I already have a Vodafone contract so the voucher is useless.

The internet makes this clear - no internet facility in store.
The catalogue also, no cats for customer use in store.
The shopping terminals in store make no mention of this, indeed a search for Vodafone brings up 2 x HTC 320s which are flagged clearly as needing topup and the 510 with no such logo.

Manager was not interested "its been like that for over 10 years" (meaning compulsory top up on all phones). Customer Services sounded hopeful but ultimately "you could have not bought the phone when you found out"

Do I have any rights? Surely the omission is mis-advertising when there is no other source of product info in store?

Just to rub salt into the wound, my receipt says the voucher is non refundable. Pretty obvious BUT that bit of the receipt has been circled and initialled by the clerk, presumably to indicate she had told me this - she hadn't.

RS2000.

It's clear online and in the catalogue?

But the Argos you went to didn't have any catalogues?

So how did you get the item number for the phone?

wealdroam

Benji wrote: »

Do I have any rights?

Yes. As you were told, you had the right not to make the purchase.

Benji wrote: »

Surely the omission is mis-advertising when there is no other source of product info in store?

You seem to be saying that you weren't told about the compulsory £10 topup.
Then how did you find out about it?
You were given the opportunity to not make the purchase when told about the £10 extra.

Even if it were 'mis-advertising', that doesn't help you recover the £10 you willingly spent.

Benji wrote: »

...that bit of the receipt has been circled and initialled by the clerk, presumably to indicate she had told me this - she hadn't.

I would suggest that that bit of the receipt was highlighted to make sure that you saw it. It worked.

Benji

Thanks for your input guys & gals. You know I never realised I was stupid, thanks for that. Lovely to be back on MSE.

vikingaero

The reason for the "compulsory" top-up is to discourage overseas buyers from buying phones in the UK where phones are relatively cheap and selling them in countries where phones are sold for much more.

RS2000.

vikingaero wrote: »

The reason for the "compulsory" top-up is to discourage overseas buyers from buying phones in the UK where phones are relatively cheap and selling them in countries where phones are sold for much more.

How does that discourage them?

GwylimT

I don't know about the catogue but it is very clear on the website, phone topup cannot be refunded, this isn't an Argos no refund policy.

Shelldean

Virgin do the same, and insist we a top up voucher. We're not on payg but on pay monthly sims, we just add it to our account (as if we're pay as you go) and it credits against the account.

So in the case of my son whose monthly charge is £7, the dd doesn't go out one month and the next month is reduced to £4. Thus using the £10 credit.

Do Vodafone do similar?

agrinnall

I haven't been in Argos for a while but in previous visits I've never seen one that doesn't have a catalogue available for in store use (and there always used to be big piles of them to be taken away).

jb66

You can sell the voucher on ebay for £9

Helix

agrinnall wrote: »

I haven't been in Argos for a while but in previous visits I've never seen one that doesn't have a catalogue available for in store use (and there always used to be big piles of them to be taken away).

They have new digital stores now where they have tablets in place of catalogues, I think they are gradually rolling it out to more stores.