Messy Dealing with Allphones - Misleading eBay Listing

Boodek on 09/12/2019 - 21:19
Last edited 09/12/2019 - 21:21

I bought an iPhone X from Allphones today - this listing:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/163849980601

It's advertised as "Open Box, phone and accessories are in an as new condition with no marks and no signs of wear, and phone has not been activated."

I received a phone call a few hours later from someone from Allphones telling me that the phone was actually quite used, with scratches on the back, and did I still want it. I questioned why the listing was still up and he told me that they are trying to take it down. I was smelling BS by this stage, as 21 other people had bought an X via this listing since 26/09/19, (and two have bought it today since my purchase). He said he was contacting all the other buyers - the smell of BS was getting stronger. It's pretty clear they are falsely representing their products in order to sell customers something inferior to what they have paid for.

Anyway, I cancelled the deal, but am pretty cranky at their 'bait and switch' methods. Has anyone else had this experience with them?

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Comments

  • whooah1979 on 09/12/2019 - 21:27
    +1

    Not this experience, but others that were good.

  • datafellows on 09/12/2019 - 21:38
    +4

    I find Allphones/Mobileciti quite a good seller.

    Most likely they are selling some batch they received and most of them were in new condition. They may have noticed the defect once preparing to ship the item to you.

    It would be silly for any business seller waste time and money and chance to get a negative feedback on eBay to try to intentionally sell not as described item and then calling customers if they want it or not.

  • p1 ama on 09/12/2019 - 22:38
    +2

    Anyway, I cancelled the deal, but am pretty cranky at their 'bait and switch' methods.

    So you would have rather them delivered you a phone that was "actually quite used, with scratches on the back"?

    • Boodek on 09/12/2019 - 22:50

      Not at all, because it would be sent straight back and quite rightly so. My issue is that the listing promising as new phones is still up and they've sold 10 over the last three days. It is quite clearly misleading.

      • p1 ama on 09/12/2019 - 23:15
        +3

        How did they mislead you? They contacted you and told you honestly what the condition of the phone was. That's the exact opposite of misleading you, right?

        • D C on 10/12/2019 - 02:42
          +1

          OP feels cheated because he misses out on started a new thread titled "My NEW phone has scratches!!!!".

          It happens. You have a stack of 10 new items, but the time you get to send out the last one you find it's squashed, water damaged and has a family of rats living it in. It was new a few weeks back. Well, technically it still is, but are you going to send it out?

        • Boodek on 10/12/2019 - 07:16
          -1

          See above. You can still buy this phone even though it doesn't exist. That's misleading.

          • ThithLord on 10/12/2019 - 08:55
            +1

            @Boodek: lol welcome to OzB. Users love to take the moral high-ground for no discernible reason.

            You're totally warranted to be annoyed at the situation, OP.

            • p1 ama on 10/12/2019 - 11:21

              @ThithLord:

              You're totally warranted to be annoyed at the situation, OP.

              Why? I couldn't care less about "taking the moral high ground", I just think if you're gonna be annoyed at someone, at least think about what other outcome you would have preferred or what you would have done in their situation.

              Sometimes things like this happen. You sell something online only to find out that the box was opened, or it's missing from the warehouse, or is squashed and damaged in shipping or whatever. What would you do? You've only got two options - send it anyway, or contact the buyer and explain the situation.

              I've worked in retail, sometimes you just have bad luck. Trust me, the business would have much preferred to have sold that phone too. It's like getting annoyed at a rainy day - it's nobody's fault.

              • Bargain80 on 10/12/2019 - 12:17
                +2

                @p1 ama: the seller basically waster OP time.
                How come that it's not annoying?

              • ThithLord on 10/12/2019 - 12:29

                @p1 ama: The advertised this:

                "Open Box, phone and accessories are in an as new condition with no marks and no signs of wear, and phone has not been activated."

                OP was then offered this:

                the phone was actually quite used, with scratches on the back, and did I still want it

                OP parted with +$800 for a phone that was advertised as like new, but then was bait and switched to a phone in terrible condition. It really couldn't be any more simpler than that, dude.

                • p1 ama on 10/12/2019 - 12:52

                  @ThithLord:

                  OP parted with +$800 for a phone that was advertised as like new, but then was bait and switched to a phone in terrible condition. It really couldn't be any more simpler than that, dude.

                  You sell phones, you have stock of 100 phones and list 100 phones. You're sending out phones and you notice one of them is damaged. What would you do?

                  That's an honest question, I genuinely do not see what else the retailer could have done in this situation.

                  • ThithLord on 10/12/2019 - 16:36

                    @p1 ama: I think our point of contention is that you give the seller a lot more credit than I do. I feel this is a nefarious tactic, personally.

                    • p1 ama on 10/12/2019 - 19:54

                      @ThithLord:

                      I think our point of contention is that you give the seller a lot more credit than I do.

                      You're avoiding my question because even you know that there is literally nothing the seller could have done apart from 1) refund OP (which they did), or 2) send the phone anyway (which would be the wrong thing to do).

                      I feel this is a nefarious tactic, personally.

                      How exactly has the seller benefited from what happened here for it to be "nefarious"?

                      • ThithLord on 11/12/2019 - 08:43
                        +1

                        @p1 ama:

                        You're avoiding my question because even you know that there is literally nothing the seller could have done apart from 1) refund OP (which they did), or 2) send the phone anyway (which would be the wrong thing to do).

                        My point is that the seller probably knew the phone was in poor condition and wanted to hawk the goods at a premium, compared to what they'd get if they advertised a poor-quality device. So they nefariously advertised it as A-Grade quality in the hopes that a user would just accept the goods as is because they've already invested their money in the transaction.

          • D C on 10/12/2019 - 15:46
            +1

            @Boodek:

            That's misleading.

            In true OzBargain spirit you should now contact the ACCC, Fair Trading, Current Affair, Four Corners, the UN etc. Take it all the way to the supreme count, it's the vibe, y'know?

            Or just say "Eh' and get on with your life.

            I read something a while back that says humans are wired to expect danger, and these days these isn't any for most of us, so we create some drama (see Twitter/FB/etc) to make up for the danger our monkey brain thinks is out there somewhere.

            Saber tooth tiger, mildly scratched phone. Same thing really.

  • mbck on 10/12/2019 - 09:39

    Huh why is op warranted? They've already called you up to say what's happened. Some other business would've sent it anyways, waited months to do anything when you message them. Then your complaint would be warranted.

    Considering the size of the business, it's entirely plausible that a department is communicating with another department to take down the listing. Maybe the warehouse only found it recently, so they need to communicate this to the sales department.

  • HighAndDry on 10/12/2019 - 15:48

    They literally proactively called you up to advise you of an issue and let you cancel without any issues. What exactly is the problem here?

    "Bait-and-switch" arguably doesn't even apply to eBay because there's no shop, physical or digital, that the ad would induce you to enter.

    • D C on 10/12/2019 - 19:17
      +1

      It's actually a public service announcement.

      Bummer not having a store though, he can't just march in and demand to speak to a manager.

      • HighAndDry on 10/12/2019 - 20:09

        Haha probably why OP is here instead.

        • D C on 11/12/2019 - 11:24
          +1

          You have to wonder how this would have played out for @OP in real life:

          Person: Hi there, I would like one of those please.
          Person: And here, have some money for your troubles.
          Shop: No worries, let me get that for you.
          Shop: Oopsie, I've dropped it.
          Person: Oh no!
          Shop: Bugger, it's got scratched.
          Shop: Ya still want it?
          Person: Nah.
          Shop: Okie dokie, here's your dosh back.
          Person: Ta mate. Thanks anyway, see ya.
          Shop: Not a problem, have a nice day my dude.

          On the other hand there's @OP:

          OP: Outrage! Gah! Worst seller ever! I'm telling OzBargain on you! Outrage! Aaaaaargh!

          • Pigsy3 on 14/12/2019 - 07:35

            @D C: Or.

            OP walks past shop with sign advertising like new phones.

            Shop: Here's our newish looking phones

            OP: I'd like one of these newish looking phones. What a great price and condition.

            Shop puts down new phone and pulls out scratched looking phone from behind counter.

            Shop: here you go, it's a little scratched but I'll give it to you for the same price as the one in new condition.

            OP: No I don't want it. This is really annoying, you advertised a better phone. I wasted my time, coming out here. Good day to you sir.

            Shop: Bye.

            Shop waves, puts away scratched phone and puts new phone back up without changing advertising.

            • D C on 14/12/2019 - 16:06

              @Pigsy3:

              Or.

              Maybe.

              As Allphone has no problem selling used phones at lower prices, I suspect the comment "…and do you still want it" was followed by "…and for lower $$$" was "accidentally" left out by @OP.

              (Of course all posters on OxB are saints, and would never do anything like that.)

  • Associatedlyl @ Allphones on 11/12/2019 - 10:17
    +4

    Hi Boodek,

    Just looked into your case. The previous sales were for open box as new stock, however the last few units were in a pre owned condition, so all the affected customers were called to let them know the situation and give them the option to cancel the order. Sorry to hear that you were not satisfied with our service, but there is no intention to mislead anyone, and that is why we rang you to let you know of the condition. The listing was also updated after to reflect the Pre Owned condition. We have a large range of Open Box/Pre Owned items, and for each item the condition is clearly marked in the listing title and description. Please do not hesitate to contact us if there are any other concerns. Thank you

    • HighAndDry on 11/12/2019 - 11:51

      Link doesn't seem to go to the right page? Interested in… browsing for now. Ta.

      • Associatedlyl @ Allphones on 12/12/2019 - 10:29

        Strange, the link is working for me? Are you able to try on a different browser/device? Thx

        • HighAndDry on 12/12/2019 - 10:30

          Ah you're right. It shows fine in browser, but not in the mobile app the link auto opens.

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