Avoid Focalprice.com like The Plague

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  andy19363 on 11/05/2010 - 22:57

  +1

  Not to defend them particularly, but I would suspect that at the time, when most of the world and his dog was trying to purchase their entire stock at 50% off, their e-mail system might have been somewhat under pressure……

  • 

    andy19363 on 11/05/2010 - 23:02

    and…..speaking as one of the world and his dog…..my refund came through today :)

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  [Deactivated] on 12/05/2010 - 08:10

  +2

  Totally agree with Andy, what do you expect when an error was made giving 50% off everything in their store, which includes free shipping. Yes It wasnt for the earbuds that you ordered, but have some understanding that, from that post some found out it worked on other items and things got out of control.

  You know its easy to do. You even put focalprice.com.au in your heading rather than focalprice.com

  Focalprice is a cheap chinese website. You go there for a bargain you cant find here, or not worth the time and effort trying to find here. They can take up to 2 weeks to deliver, due to mail and other things.

  And they are not too great on returns or faulty products. I found Dealextreme a better company to deal with. Buying a universal keyring remote control from DE didn't work, so they sent me another. The another item 5c cheaper at FP which I bought, which is faulty still hasn't been acknowledged even though I have emailed them twice. But that's the only bad experience.

  Which leaves me with the choice like many others, I buy from FP only what I cant buy elsewhere.

  So guess only issue is with your title. Maybe FP service lacking, a warning to others ,… rather than avoid like the plague. (and the .au) LOL

  That aside, its a good point to share with the community.

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  wearytraveller on 12/05/2010 - 10:12

  -2

  Ozpete,

  I'm sorry if that erroneous .au got up your nose. I've since removed it. Thanks for pointing it out.

  I'm not blaming them for having a system which wasn't able to cope with a huge influx of email requests. I'm not blaming them for accidentally giving 50% off the entire store (even though that is a massive boo boo).

  But in light of making that error, you would think they would try and appease potential customers by honouring a deal that they offered while their system wasn't coping (as a result of their own incompetence). Don't forget, all I wanted to do was actually buy the earphones that was part of the original deal, not something else on their website.

  Oh, and I don't buy the attitude that just cos their products are cheap, they can afford to have poor customer service.

  So from my experience, I wouldn't be recommending this company to anybody else ie - avoid it like the plague.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 12/05/2010 - 21:41

    I wasnt having a go at you or the stuff in your post. But suggest you might want to cut some slack, they probably got overwhelmed, english isn't their first language, which tends to make anyone apologising seem rather curt as they cant put the extra words in that we would expect.

    I always remember going to Quebec, where I was told, not to say - Ne parlez pas Francais, (I dont speak French) which my other Ozzie mates thought was at least attempting to advise of the language issue they had. They always got. No Speak English in return.

    I was wisely told. Je regret, je ne parlez pas francais, je suis Australien. Sorta Sorry I dont speak french I am Ozzie, and 9 times out of 10, I would get, no problem we speak english. (and sometimes from those who had just told my mates No speak english.

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  Kranbone on 12/05/2010 - 11:41

  I joined them and received no confirmation email either. If my items not shipped I'll ask them for a refund and a bonus voucher which I'll pass on to someone here (as I don't intend on using them again).

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  zhenjie on 12/05/2010 - 13:22

  +6

  What an extremely weak argument to justifying to others to 'avoid it like the plague'.

  • 

    Wampus on 12/05/2010 - 14:49

    +3

    I've got to say, when I read the title I expected the OP to have been defrauded out of payment and or goods

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  bargs12 on 12/05/2010 - 21:43

  lol many buy some kleenex when they're on special

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  wearytraveller on 13/05/2010 - 11:40

  -4

  Wow. I have to say I'm really surprised at the reaction to this thread.

  I would have thought the Ozbargain community would have appreciated knowing about negative experiences with some online sellers, because it would help them to make better judgements about where they choose to spend their money in the future.

  Now I'm feeling like I shouldn't have bothered spending the time and effort to write the original post, because it seems that the community is more concerned about scoring cheap shots than listening to other people's experiences. It seems to me that some of the posters have neglected to keep in mind that the OP was written for their benefit, to help them to make better consumer choices. Anyway, lesson learnt, I won't share my experiences in the future.

  • 

    zhenjie on 13/05/2010 - 12:27

    +3

    Did you not actual read the peoples responses? What people are generally trying to say, is that this issue was minor, and to overreact and warn people to avoid the site like the plague was extreme. You didn't lose any money and nobody has been scammed. You have just overreacted. Judging by your most recent post, it seems you overreact to everything!

    There is nothing to gain from being so negative.

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  pais on 13/05/2010 - 23:45

  This wasn't a falsely advertised product (which I can always understand frustration at, ala Dell), but blatant misuse of a loophole in their ecommerce solution. I actually feel sorry for FP for the backlash that this is sure to have caused them — this post is a perfect example of that.

  1. The coupon would not have been honoured in the first place (I thought that was pretty obvious from the get go).
  2. It was clearly an error (and the coupon was NEVER, EVER offered as "50% off everything" — it was for a certain set of headphones only, I believe)
  3. If something is too good to be true, it probably is.

  The first two are pertinent in this case (and obviously so, I would've thought) in particular. The latter is just some advice for next time. At the end of the day, you were attempting to take advantage of a loophole in their system… I'd be more inclined to recommend FP stay away from your dodgy consumer practices ;) When you're dealing with overseas outlets (I'd say particular so in parts of Asia where counterfeiting runs high and there's no avenues of consumer protection), you get what you pay for. FP is cheap.. for cheap crap. Regardless of what they should or shouldn't do, I don't expect followup, service, warranty or anything else if I'm going to do business with FP or DX.

  I'm sure everyone here appreciates that you're trying to warn us of a negative experience… But i think you're really lacking perspective here.

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  andy19363 on 14/05/2010 - 00:28

  +2

  Just a quick one. Thought I would pick up these cheap earphones from focalprice after seeing this post:
  http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/25277

  The other thing to note was that the coupon was not valid for the earphones detailed in that deal anyway….the coupon EP018B50OFF only covered the sony earphones with the sku EP018B http://www.focalprice.com/EP018B/Sony_EX082_Inear_Noise_EX_0…

  So you were never going to get the earphones you ordered for half price…. irrespective of when you got your e-mail. As we now know, there could have been 200 similar posts that night, for 200 different products…..all invalid….. Just because something is on ozbargain does not necessarily make it the truth :)

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 14/05/2010 - 14:36

    +3

    "Just because something is on ozbargain does not necessarily make it the truth :)"

    Aint that the truth!
    But then again is it? LOL

    • 

      cameldownunder on 18/05/2010 - 14:28

      Do you want the blue or the red pill?

  • 

    Blah Blah on 22/05/2010 - 12:51

    Certainly can't believe all the offers here. By the time some are found to be wrong its too late to vote negative and then you have the anti negative changing people (who don't want anything voted negative even with a valid reason) (sometime the negatives are even removed by moderators).

    • 

      zhenjie on 22/05/2010 - 14:53

      If a negative is removed by moderators they have a reason for it and will state it. Its not like they go removing all negatives.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 22/05/2010 - 15:03

      The basic principal here is to make the offers available. Just because it's posted here doesn't mean throw away personal discernment. We are not here to set standards on offers, as everyone has different standards and likes. There are sometimes over a 1000 visiting this site at any one time

      That said obvious scams, spam illegal content etc is removed - and we do have a REPORT button for everything, so you can alert the Mods.

      1. As for voting attracting mods attention - yep that's what we are here for to make sure people play by the same rules. Then people understand what is happening. Have you read the wiki on voting? If so you'll find what the voting is all about. Each site has different interpretations, so read it to understand what it means here.

      2. As for people reacting to negatives, just like those who make negative comments, it's their right - as long as nothing is offensive illegal etc. ie it cuts both ways

      Cheers