Vodafone Iphone for €50 deal

As you may or may not know Vodafone advertised the Iphone 4s on Sunday for €50.

Many people on here discovered this through the boards.ie bargain alert post that was posted.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056871262


Now of course we all know this was a mistake by Vodafone and they were never going to sell Iphones at €50. That said I was reading the thread with interest and I noticed towards the end some people claiming that had Vodafone actually taken the money out of your account then they had indeed agreed to the sale and must under the law honour the sale. However most people felt that the money was just being held in the account and not actually left.

This morning I checked my online banking and the money has been withdrawn by vodafone.

So Are Vodafone legally obliged to honour the sale or is there some get out of clause?

eamondunphy

I also have had 50e taken from my credit card, never expected to get the phone but now that they have taken my money, wonder what I am or am not entitled to

_Whimsical_

Deleted User wrote: »

As you may or may not know Vodafone advertised the Iphone 4s on Sunday for €50.

Many people on here discovered this through the boards.ie bargain alert post that was posted.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056871262


Now of course we all know this was a mistake by Vodafone and they were never going to sell Iphones at €50. That said I was reading the thread with interest and I noticed towards the end some people claiming that had Vodafone actually taken the money out of your account then they had indeed agreed to the sale and must under the law honour the sale. However most people felt that the money was just being held in the account and not actually left.

This morning I checked my online banking and the money has been withdrawn by vodafone.

So Are Vodafone legally obliged to honour the sale or is there some get out of clause?

In accordance with Vodafone T&C taking your money does not constitute agreement to a contract of sale. Agreement and completion of the contract does not happen until your purchase has shipped. For that reason Vodafone is under no obligation,other than to return your money,as they don't have a contract of sale with you.

keithclancy

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

In accordance with Vodafone T&C taking your money does not constitute agreement to a contract of sale. Agreement and completion of the contract does not happen until your purchase has shipped. For that reason Vodafone is under no obligation,other than to return your money,as they don't have a contract of sale with you.

I dunno ... NCA says different:

http://corporate.nca.ie/eng/Business_Zone/Guides/Full%20List/Advertising.html

What happens if an advert has wrong prices?

If you do give a wrong price, you must point this out to the customer before the transaction takes place.

However, you may be in breach of consumer protection legislation and liable to prosecution by the National Consumer Agency.

Might be worth contacting them.

dudara

There is a large grey area due to automated systems that are commonly used. In the past "consideration" was easy as two people had to agree. Errors in pricing could be discussed before payment was made.

Nowadays, things can happen quickly in automated systems, even to the point of money being deducted, but still come from pricing errors. So I'd say that people should still have a bit of cop on, and accept that this was indeed a pricing error. But in a similar vein, Vodafone should not have deducted funds from peoples accounts.

imitation

keithclancy wrote: »

I dunno ... NCA says different:

http://corporate.nca.ie/eng/Business_Zone/Guides/Full%20List/Advertising.html



Might be worth contacting them.

I don't know if in this particular case that rule would hold, it seems to me its designed to punish unscrupulous businesses trying make money off customers using shady practices. However what Vodafone did was list a phone for 10% of its market price, they corrected the issue in a short period of time and issued refunds. There certainly no benefit to Vodafone considering the bad will and hassle that has been generated.

It would be a bit over the top for a judge to then come along and throw the book at the company. It sets a bad precedent for any other other company's that make a pricing mistake and it encourages people to exploit them, not a very business friendly move

Fresh Pots

Also had my €50 debited today. :mad: What a ridiculous system they have.

Thor

I too had the money taken from my account today.

Not sure how they plan on refunding us now, but it said in the email the money would be back in our accounts within 3 working days, I really doubt that.

The problem I have is that they said the orders were on hold since Saturday, if that is true then how come the money was taken in the end.

Anyone here shed some light on this. I didn't mind just getting my money back since it was just on hold, but the fact they have taken it kind makes me change that.

green123

has nobody tried asking about this on the talk to vodafone section of boards ?

or are they deleting threads over there ?

http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1270

dudara

green123 wrote: »

has nobody has tried asking about this on the talk to vodafone section of boards ?

or are they deleting threads over there ?

http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1270

The Vodafone reps cannot delete threads - that is under the control of Boards moderators and admins.

_Whimsical_

11. When you submit details to make a purchase, a credit card check is carried out by our third party credit card payment agent with our partner bank. We will send you an email confirming receipt of your order, this email shall not constitute an acceptance of your order. Your order will not be accepted and an agreement concluded between us and you until the relevant Goods have been shipped to you. Your credit card will be charged with the price of the Goods.

Source : https://www.vodafone.ie/terms/shop/

This is the relevant section from the Vodafone sales t&c. It is legal and provided for within the distance selling regulations.

There is no contract if the phone did not ship, therefore you have no legal rights and no right to redress beyond getting the return of your 50 euro.

Giving it anymore head space is unfortunately just wasting your time. There's nothing you can do.

green123

dudara wrote: »

The Vodafone reps cannot delete threads - that is under the control of Boards moderators and admins.

i never said that the vodafone reps deleted threads, did i ?

UrbanSea

green123 wrote: »

has nobody has tried asking about this on the talk to vodafone section of boards ?

or are they deleting threads over there ?

http://www.boards.ie/ttforum/1270

dudara wrote: »

The Vodafone reps cannot delete threads - that is under the control of Boards moderators and admins.

green123 wrote: »

i never said that the vodafone reps deleted threads, did i ?

Sounds like dudara was just answering your question,doesn't it?

WildCardDoW

There's a delay in transactions, if Vodafone process a refund today, it'll still take 3 days to go through the bank. Not their fault.

green123

RichieLawlessness wrote: »

Sounds like dudara was just answering your question,doesn't it?

no, it doesnt, because my question wasnt about vodafone reps

pkent23

At this point, Vodafone have taken my money, not given me what I have paid for, not refunded me for what they have taken from my account...

Assuming that I am refunded, will vodafone cover any charges e.g. transaction fees or interest incurred by me in the time it takes for them to refund me the money that they took from my account after they apparently made a pricing error.

rameire

I think a facebook page should be setup
That would sort it.
Just like the littlewoods shocking scandle.

01902

Everyone who purchased this must of known it was an error and just chancing their arm at benefiting from a company mistake. They were never going to give an iphone to anyone for €50 sure everyone that who ordered one knew that and now they are issuing refunds that takes a few days to process. I don't really see the issue??

pkent23

01902 wrote: »

Everyone who purchased this must of known it was an error and just chancing their arm at benefiting from a company mistake. They were never going to give an iphone to anyone for €50 sure everyone that who ordered one knew that and now they are issuing refunds that takes a few days to process. I don't really see the issue??

People may have known it was an error and purchased it but the issue here is that Vodafone, despite knowing their error, processed the payment. Seems like vodafone are making a lot of mistakes and are not doing a lot to rectify it

At this point, many consumers have had money taken from their accounts and have neither received the goods that they paid for or any acknowledgement from Vodafone that they will refund the money. When you say that they are issuing refunds, where are you getting that information? Also, if you are an AIB customer, you may have incurred transaction charges, will Vodafone refund these?

I don't think it is unreasonable for people to take an offer at face value and attempt to purchase the phone. I don't think it is unreasonable for the same people to question why they are charged for a product that the supplier is not willing to provide. I think it is unreasonable that Vodafone have not publicly admitted their error, contacted the affected people and committed to a resoultion for all of it's mistakes.

Hope that clears up the understanding for you.

Kenny Logins

How much was the AIB transaction charge?

pkent23

Kenny Logins wrote: »

How much was the AIB transaction charge?

Not to dilute this topic with an AIB slant, I have added the below (source Irish Examiner Mar 22nd 2012). The point being made here is that (and irrelevant of the size of the bank charges) consumers will be left at an inconvenience and potentially out of pocket through no fault of their own. I say potentially because at this point, Vodafone have not committed to make any refund (neither of the €50 or any additional cost).


"From May 28, AIB will begin charging customers — who do not maintain a minimum of €2,500 in their current accounts — transaction fees and maintenance charges.

The charges include:

* 20c for every debit card transaction;

* 30c for every paper and staff-assisted transaction including cheques, counter withdrawals and lodgements, and staff-assisted transactions at any AIB branch or in the post office;

* 30c for withdrawing cash at the counter;

* 20c for every cash withdrawal from ATM’s with AIB banklink cards and AIB debit cards. "

Kenny Logins

This all just comes across as bitterness because you didn't get away with it. Get over it.

Kenny Logins

...you might be better off contacting Vodafone reps, here - http://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2056874368

pkent23

Kenny Logins wrote: »

This all just comes across as bitterness because you didn't get away with it. Get over it.

Wouldn't say bitter Kenny... A bit disappointed that I didn't get a cheap phone and take advantage of what looked like a great offer. I'm sure you'd have taken a similar deal if it was offered to you and of interest.

I'll do my best to take your advice to get over it. It's super to have people like yourself giving motivational advice such as this on here. I see that you are quite the veteran on here and welcome any other nuggets of advice you would offer. Assume you work in some sort of customer facing industry and offer this sort of helpful advice regularly...

You might send on a link to any other motivational material as this response was a help to me and I hope others will find some comfort too. Honestly, I am thinking of donating the €50.20 to you (see how i put the transaction fee in there for you too!).

GerardKeating

TheTechGuy wrote: »

Also had my €50 debited today. :mad: What a ridiculous system they have.

If you had not tried a purchase when it was obvously a pricing error, your card would not have been debited...

xpletiv

GerardKeating wrote: »

If you had not tried a purchase when it was obvously a pricing error, your card would not have been debited...

And what if it wasnt a pricing error? Then hed be kicking himself more for NOT trying.

AlwaysAmber

pkent23 wrote: »

At this point, Vodafone have taken my money, not given me what I have paid for, not refunded me for what they have taken from my account...

Assuming that I am refunded, will vodafone cover any charges e.g. transaction fees or interest incurred by me in the time it takes for them to refund me the money that they took from my account after they apparently made a pricing error.

Will you refund Vodafone for the fee's they'll incur processing your refund when you knew damn well it was a pricing error and chanced your arm?

JustAddWater

imitation wrote: »

It would be a bit over the top for a judge to then come along and throw the book at the company. It sets a bad precedent for any other other company's that make a pricing mistake and it encourages people to exploit them, not a very business friendly move

It would make any company more stringent in their checks before uploading incorrect prices

At the moment, they can upload whatever they want, claim its wrong and no bother to them, no repercussions, no phones got sold for €50 so it was all good for them

A slap on the wrist would do them and others no harm

_Whimsical_

pkent23 wrote: »

Wouldn't say bitter Kenny... A bit disappointed that I didn't get a cheap phone and take advantage of what looked like a great offer. I'm sure you'd have taken a similar deal if it was offered to you and of interest.

I'll do my best to take your advice to get over it. It's super to have people like yourself giving motivational advice such as this on here. I see that you are quite the veteran on here and welcome any other nuggets of advice you would offer. Assume you work in some sort of customer facing industry and offer this sort of helpful advice regularly...

You might send on a link to any other motivational material as this response was a help to me and I hope others will find some comfort too. Honestly, I am thinking of donating the €50.20 to you (see how i put the transaction fee in there for you too!).

I wish that we could nominate posts for some sort of hall of fame. I think this one is kind of special.:)

Jarren

rameire wrote: »

I think a facebook page should be setup
That would sort it.
Just like the littlewoods shocking scandle.

Done


https://www.facebook.com/vodafonejustice

:pac:

super_furry

Justice? Sweet merciful Jesus.

Maybe give Nelson Mandella a shout, I'm sure he'd love to get involved in this titanic struggle for justice.

pkent23

AlwaysAmber wrote: »

Will you refund Vodafone for the fee's they'll incur processing your refund when you knew damn well it was a pricing error and chanced your arm?

Making some assumptions there amber... You assume that I know better than vodafone what the price of their product on their website should be. Who's to say that i didn't naively take the offer as a very good one and try to purchase it.

Do you think that a consumer should be held responsible for the errors of a supplier? Seems like an odd argument to me but hey, it's good that you are free to share your thoughts. Might just be worth taking a look at the wider facts

- Product was sold my vodafone
- They took the money
- They realised their mistake (giving them some credit we will assume, as you like to do, that they realised after money was taken)
- They did not acklnowledge their mistake
- They have not committed to either refunding or providing the product
- Some consumers may now be charged by their bank

While it is good that you were not duped by this offer, broaden your mind to the concept that others might have been. We are not all like you Amber... and that's ok too!!

super_furry

pkent23 wrote: »

Who's to say that i didn't naively take the offer as a very good one and try to purchase it.

Anyone with even the slightest iota of common sense.

Corruptedmorals

pkent23 wrote: »

Making some assumptions there amber... You assume that I know better than vodafone what the price of their product on their website should be. Who's to say that i didn't naively take the offer as a very good one and try to purchase it.

Do you think that a consumer should be held responsible for the errors of a supplier? Seems like an odd argument to me but hey, it's good that you are free to share your thoughts. Might just be worth taking a look at the wider facts

- Product was sold my vodafone
- They took the money
- They realised their mistake (giving them some credit we will assume, as you like to do, that they realised after money was taken)
- They did not acklnowledge their mistake
- They have not committed to either refunding or providing the product
- Some consumers may now be charged by their bank

While it is good that you were not duped by this offer, broaden your mind to the concept that others might have been. We are not all like you Amber... and that's ok too!!

You knew very well it was an error. No company is going to take a loss of €500 per unit, and if you believe that they will, then you do not deserve the refund and apology that you'll eventually receive.

As for a refund, you will get one. Maybe take a minute to think that they may be swamped with the mess this mistake has created. It will take a while to sort out. As for bank charges..you knew it was an error and you took advantage, why should they pay your bank charges?

pkent23

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

You knew very well it was an error. No company is going to take a loss of €500 per unit, and if you believe that they will, then you do not deserve the refund and apology that you'll eventually receive.

As for a refund, you will get one. Maybe take a minute to think that they may be swamped with the mess this mistake has created. It will take a while to sort out. As for bank charges..you knew it was an error and you took advantage, why should they pay your bank charges?

As with Amber, you are making the same assumptions. You cannot speak for what I do or do not know. Nor can you speak for every individual who accepted this price throughout the day.

There are examples of companies giving away smartphones... Three do it and tie you to a contract so in effect they take the loss on the phone for the greater good of the contract. Who is to say that Vodafone were not trying something new and inventive to increase their customer base. I am not there to second guess their motives.

To address the point of refund and apology. They may or may not do this. Happily for me, the odds on getting my money back are in my favour. It is for vodafone to decide if they apologise or not. Am I supposed to feel sorry for Vodafone being busy correcting their mistake? Am I supposed to accept that I deserve to lose money because of their mistake? (These are rhetorical questions by the way, not an invitation for you to tell me what you think I know).

They may well be swamped (pretty busy myself dealing with the fallout of their mistake!)

You accuse me of taking advantage. This assumes that I knew that something was wrong and you can't know that. They don't (and most likely won't pay any charges) but what's nice is that people are free to highlight these issues.

Guy:Incognito

pkent23 wrote: »

As with Amber, you are making the same assumptions. You cannot speak for what I do or do not know. Nor can you speak for every individual who accepted this price throughout the day.
.

pkent23 wrote: »

Making some assumptions there amber... You assume that I know better than vodafone what the price of their product on their website should be. Who's to say that i didn't naively take the offer as a very good one and try to purchase it.!!

Lets for a minute pretend you genuinly didnt know this mistake was happening.
So when you looked at the list of phones on the website and it said "Iphone 4s €499 (or whatever it was) and then you said "ah, I think I'll buy that and clicked add to cart. Then it showed up as €50, nothing in your head thought it might be a mistake?

pkent23

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Lets for a minute pretend you genuinly didnt know this mistake was happening.
So when you looked at the list of phones on the website and it said "Iphone 4s €499 (or whatever it was) and then you said "ah, I think I'll buy that and clicked add to cart. Then it showed up as €50, nothing in your head thought it might be a mistake?

At no point did i click on a phone priced at 499. The phone was priced on all pages at 50. So to help your reconstruction...

I searched vodafone for iphone 4s. The phone was listed as €50. I clicked add to cart and checked out. Was i surprised that the item in the cart was priced the same as the website? Nope...

Kenny Logins

pkent23 wrote: »

At no point did i click on a phone priced at 499. The phone was priced on all pages at 50. So to help your reconstruction...

I searched vodafone for iphone 4s. The phone was listed as €50. I clicked add to cart and checked out. Was i surprised that the item in the cart was priced the same as the website? Nope...

Did you happen to notice the other variants of the same phone that ranged from €599 to €799?

Procrastastudy

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Source : https://www.vodafone.ie/terms/shop/

This is the relevant section from the Vodafone sales t&c. It is legal and provided for within the distance selling regulations.

There is no contract if the phone did not ship, therefore you have no legal rights and no right to redress beyond getting the return of your 50 euro.

Giving it anymore head space is unfortunately just wasting your time. There's nothing you can do.

I'm having trouble finding this (within the distance selling regs) which isn't surprising as I can barely keep my eyes open! Any pointers please?

Thanks.

pkent23

pkent23 wrote: »

There are examples of companies giving away smartphones... Three do it and tie you to a contract so in effect they take the loss on the phone for the greater good of the contract. Who is to say that Vodafone were not trying something new and inventive to increase their customer base. I am not there to second guess their motives.

They don't take a loss on the phone. You pay back the cost over the 12/18/24 months as part of the tariff. Just look at the SIM only plans and you'll see that you get a lot more for the price you pay, because you're not paying back what is basically a loan on the phone.

TheMilkyPirate

Why are people still discussing this? Go outside, read a book, Have sex, Eat some nice food.. Get a life.

You're not getting an Iphone for €50.

Procrastastudy

baraca wrote: »

Why are people still discussing this? Go outside, read a book, Have sex, Eat some nice food.. Get a life.

You're not getting an Iphone for €50.

I tend to do all of those on my iPhone.

jamesbondings

GerardKeating wrote: »

If you had not tried a purchase when it was obvously a pricing error, your card would not have been debited...

so are we now to assume that all of vodafones prices are correct?
how will we know? I have bought some great deals in my time nothing to say that the price wasnt right. A bargain is a bargain im not going to question it! Vodafone PR section is shocking nothing mentioned about this whatsoever nor even a sorry for the inconvenience.

I thought it was too good to be true, turns out it was, no problem. However, vodafone have handled this appallingly for such a big multinational.
Sweep it under the rug and forget about it is NOT the way to do business in this day and age....

jamesbondings

jamesbondings wrote: »

so are we now to assume that all of vodafones prices are correct?

How could a price be considered to be anything but an error when it's a 92% discount? Sure there's loss leaders out there but not to this extent.

I've complained about Vodafone's service a fair bit in the recent past but I'm with them on this one.

bigpoppa

I'm sorry but taking this up as a "consumer issue" makes you look foolish. This was clearly a mis price. Your not entitled to it. Get over it. Playing the hurt lamb when you tried to put one past Vodafone. Lame. I'll pay your tiny transaction fee if only to spare you more shame.

jamesbondings

as a previous posted said, how are we (and i mean everyone on ANY website about any product) to know that the marketing team in any company haven't devised a plan to sell their products and turn a profit on a high priced item??

as such how are we to trust that the prices displayed on said website are true?
if we were overcharged for whatever reason would they bring it to our attention? i think not.

jamesbondings

jamesbondings wrote: »

as a previous posted said, how are we (and i mean everyone on ANY website about any product) to know that the marketing team in any company haven't devised a plan to sell their products and turn a profit on a high priced item??

as such how are we to trust that the prices displayed on said website are true?
if we were overcharged for whatever reason would they bring it to our attention? i think not.

I doubt it costs €50 to manufacture an iPhone, let alone make any profit on it.

jamesbondings

bigpoppa wrote: »

I'm sorry but taking this up as a "consumer issue" makes you look foolish. This was clearly a mis price. Your not entitled to it. Get over it. Playing the hurt lamb when you tried to put one past Vodafone. Lame. I'll pay your tiny transaction fee if only to spare you more shame.

if you have nothing constructive to say, say nothing.....
i agree with the majority posts on this topic on both sides however this does raise some important issues on the needs for regulation even legislation in order to protect consumers and also companies who market and sell their wares online.....

so please if you have nothing to add, stay quiet.

Procrastastudy

jamesbondings wrote: »

if you have nothing constructive to say, say nothing.....
i agree with the majority posts on this topic on both sides however this does raise some important issues on the needs for regulation even legislation in order to protect consumers and also companies who market and sell their wares online.....

so please if you have nothing to add, stay quiet.

To be honest the legislation is all there and in place. I only quoted you on that point my next point is a general one.

You're all as whiney as each other. If you want to explore the legislation open it up, have a read and contribute something rather than attacking each other. Vodaphone's T&Cs are pretty clear (thanks to the guy who posted the link and comment on distance selling) I'm still wondering if they're strictly legal however. As far as I thought the e-commerce Act provided that once an order had been submitted there was a binding contract. Open to correction, which would be nice rather than a load more after hours crap.

WildCardDoW

Are people posting on here are trying to make us believe they think an iPhone can be purchased for €50? :rolleyes:

To be honest anyone that purchased one of these knowing it was a pricing error and is now trying to play a game with Vodafone have some serious problems with morality. It was a mistake, payment is accepted automatically and their T&C's state contract isn't final until dispatch of the physical goods.

bigpoppa

I do have more to add - your hilarious, some of you guys do know that we followed you on the other bargain forum and that it was clear you knew this was an error right? idiotic