mobiles.co.uk trick to lure in customers?

johnathan45

I saw this in the MSE newsletter the other day:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/compare-samsung-galaxy-deals#tab1

A Samsung S9 for 190 downpayment and £23 pm with Vodaphone.( 190+24*23 = £742).

Discounting about £10 per month for SIM only deal ( 10*24 = 240), you can have the phone for £502 which sounds like a great deal. At the time of posting, I can't find any website which sells this for less than £650. In fact even a Galaxy S8 sells for about £450 on Amazon from questionable 3rd party sellers!

I went ahead and placed the order. After a couple of hours I got an email from them asking me to call them on a number. After being kept on hold for 10 minutes, the agent informed that Vodaphone have rejected my application but he can find similar deals with other operators. I said ok. But the deals were hardly comparable and I cancelled the order.

So I am wondering if this headline grabbing £502 S9 deal was just a trick to lure the customers in? Anybody else faced a similar issue?

Edit: My credit record is stellar! Never been rejected by anybody for any reason before. They suggested that I check with Experian(where my score is 999) and there is no record of any check being carried out by Vodafone!

Edit2: 48 hours. Still no trace on the credit check.

Edit3: 5 days, still no trace on the credit check - either on Experian or Equifax.

shaggy

johnathan45 wrote: »

I saw this in the MSE newsletter the other day:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/compare-samsung-galaxy-deals#tab1

A Samsung S9 for 190 downpayment and £23 pm with Vodaphone.( 190+24*23 = £742).

Discounting about £10 per month for SIM only deal ( 10*24 = 240), you can have the phone for £502 which sounds like a great deal. At the time of posting, I can't find any website which sells this for less than £650. In fact even a Galaxy S8 sells for about £450 on Amazon from questionable 3rd party sellers!

I went ahead and placed the order. After a couple of hours I got an email from them asking me to call them on a number. After being kept on hold for 10 minutes, the agent informed that Vodaphone have rejected my application but he can find similar deals with other operators. I said ok. But the deals were hardly comparable and I cancelled the order.

So I am wondering if this headline grabbing £502 S9 deal was just a trick to lure the customers in? Anybody else faced a similar issue?

Edit: My credit record is stellar! Never been rejected by anybody for any reason before.

This sounds like Voda rejecting the application due to their stringent / silly credit agreement requirements. I'd find out why you failed - check your credit report maybe?

I doubt mobiles.co.uk would deliberately fail you or offer you a non existent deal just to entice you on to other deals. Credit checks are done by providers like Voda not mobiles.co.uk

JJ_Egan

All shops have goods to lure the customer in .

johnathan45

shaggy wrote: »

This sounds like Voda rejecting the application due to their stringent / silly credit agreement requirements. I'd find out why you failed - check your credit report maybe?

I doubt mobiles.co.uk would deliberately fail you or offer you a non existent deal just to entice you on to other deals. Credit checks are done by providers like Voda not mobiles.co.uk

As I said in my edit, I regularly check my credit report and there is nothing wrong with it.

johnathan45

JJ_Egan wrote: »

All shops have goods to lure the customer in .

But with a product which doesn't exist?

mije1983

I would think if it was an imaginary deal there would have been more than one complaint on here, especially as it was heavily featured in the email and on the site.

Just seems to me that you failed whatever criteria Vodafone have. You could try asking Vodafone why you failed, but they are highly unlikely to reveal their credit assessment criteria for obvious reasons.

d123

johnathan45 wrote: »

Edit: My credit record is stellar! Never been rejected by anybody for any reason before. They suggested that I check with Experian(where my score is 999) and there is record of any check being carried out by Vodafone!

This made up number means absolutely nothing to any company that credit checks you.

mobilejunkie

Mobiles.co regularly turn down customers without going through a network check. People on the phone don't always know what they're talking about and sometimes tell people it was a network decline. Usually CPW reject people before it gets to that stage because someone already has a certain number of contracts in a given time via them. If so, they can over-ride that and then go through the network check.

Vodafone reject if a new application is made less than 60 days after a previous one (I expect they still do). In any of these instances, your external credit file is irrelevant.

johnathan45

d123 wrote: »

This made up number means absolutely nothing to any company that credit checks you.

But wouldn't a credit check by Vodafone leave a record? Why is it not there?

glentoran99

wont appear immediately

mobilejunkie

johnathan45 wrote: »

But wouldn't a credit check by Vodafone leave a record? Why is it not there?

Probably because it never got that far, as described.