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Phones4U iPhone and iPad Inventory Being Liquidated at Low Prices by UK Auction House

Brian Y said:
This is one of the worst parts of UK law in my opinion.

Many of these phones/items will be the property of people who shelled out cash to Phones4U, but never received them after the company went into administration. I really don't see how it's legal to say "we're going to close the business, not provide what people have paid for, but still sell of the stock we have already sold (again) to pay for the administration costs".

It's about time we held company directors liable for their company's debts.
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It's not phones4u fault that they failed! The carriers decided that they didn't want to renew their contract with they meaning phines4u could only be the middle man for 1 small carrier and it would have meant phones4u having to shrink rapidly but they had too much stock for that so it was impossible for them to operate any more.
 
Brian Y said:
I know the difference, I'm just saying that I don't believe it's fair.

Either remove the limitation of liabilities, or forbid directorship of another company until all liabilities from all liquidated previous companies were settled. It'd stop companies which run up debts, or operate unprofitably, knowing they can just escape at any time leaving their debt behind. A good example of this is a double glazing company here in East London which I won't name. The same group of people have been running the operation for about 15 years now, yet they've been through several companies, every few years ditching their debts, both private and tax.

And it's not a barrier to commerce, it's paying what you owe.
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What you're asking for is ridiculous. It's never going to happen. Companies are entirely separate legal entities from the people that run them. It's that way for very good reasons that entirely dwarf your silly calls for some kind of mob revenge.

Your dubious double glazing firm's directors will all have their histories in the public record, and there are plenty of severe penalties, including jail if they are breaking the terms of their limited liability. You can even report them yourself if you think the directors should be disqualified.
 
Tempted to see if I could bag a sealed white iPhone 5 for a sibling, but I doubt they would go cheaply. Also there's that 20% buyers premium to add on and the fact that you have to collect the items in person.

Bah.
 
I wonder how much someone could make if they offered to be a carrier for these.

Just collect a fee, show up at the auction house to pick up the orders of everyone who paid them, and then ship them all via UPS (or whoever will ship internationally from there). Collect enough of a fee to cover the cost of traveling to/from the auction house and the UPS fees, and then make a profit on top of it. I feel like you could easily beat the prices of other carrier services.
 
the8thark said:
People will just use bid bots and other things to snipe all the decently priced auctions at the last second. And anything gotten this way for cheap will be flipped and re-sold in ebay for a profit. Sad but that's how things are these days.
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This auction company operates a "3 minute rule", so last minute bids extend the auction by 3 minutes. Thus you can't really snipe auctions like you can on eBay.
 
iHateMacs said:
It's not a good idea.

I was on an online auction buying liquidated machinery and every time a bid was made 10 minutes was added.

It meant you are tied to the computer for an indefinite time.

At least with eBay you know that at 10am or whatever it's over and you can go do something else.
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I think it's a great feature which gives both sellers and buyers a fair price in the end.
It also takes away the business of all these "sniper-sites".

Usually, there's a "Buy it right now" price anyway. If you want to end the auction, just pay the full price.
If the full price is not realistic, just don't bid. Or bid to your limit and let others bid more.
I'd guess you only got tied to the computer because you increased your bid in small amounts, instead of going to your limit right away and letting someone else outbid you.

Where I live, the primary online-auction site is not eBay but another site that follows this principle, adding three minutes every time someone does a bid after the auction has officially ended. The one time I was in a "bidding war" with someone else, I think I spent maybe half an hour slowly increasing my bid over the other persons bids.
That's not "indefinite time".

As for the items here, not being in the UK and with all the hassle involved, I think I'm giving this one a pass ;-)
 
Lostanddamned said:
I like how all of the 5C are apparently pink. As some of them are around the £81 I considered picking one up for myself; but if I can’t tell the colour of the unit I’m bidding, they can do one.
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I love the iPhone 5c, but the 8GB version is really crippled. They're often given away free with carrier contracts in the UK and thus tend to go very cheaply on eBay anyway.

8GB may sound reasonable, but much of that is consumed by iOS leaving you hardly any storage for apps and data. It's always running out of space and causing headaches. Just a bad user experience.

Only consider an 8GB if you really don't want to have apps, music, or anything really on your device. 16GB is the minimum they should be selling any iPhones with these days.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I wonder how much someone could make if they offered to be a carrier for these.

Just collect a fee, show up at the auction house to pick up the orders of everyone who paid them, and then ship them all via UPS (or whoever will ship internationally from there). Collect enough of a fee to cover the cost of traveling to/from the auction house and the UPS fees, and then make a profit on top of it. I feel like you could easily beat the prices of other carrier services.
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Nothing. Too many people are bad at maths and pay ridiculous prices. There is always one idiot who doesn't realise that you pay bid + 20% to the auction house, plus 20% of the total in tax. There are already people who bid so high, they will have to pay more than buying in the Apple Store.

Example: Bids for a good dozen of iPad Airs are now £245 to £270. Add 20% twice, that makes £352.80 to £388.80. Retail price is £319. So they found enough idiots that every iPad goes between £33.80 and £69.80 over retail price. And if you order from Apple, you get free delivery, manufacturer's warranty, statutory rights, and the right for a 7 day (or maybe 14 day) return if you don't like it, which these devices in the auction don't have.
 
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Reason077 said:
I love the iPhone 5c, but the 8GB version is really crippled. They're often given away free with carrier contracts in the UK and thus tend to go very cheaply on eBay anyway.

8GB may sound reasonable, but much of that is consumed by iOS leaving you hardly any storage for apps and data. It's always running out of space and causing headaches. Just a bad user experience.

Only consider an 8GB if you really don't want to have apps, music, or anything really on your device. 16GB is the minimum they should be selling any iPhones with these days.
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I have a 128GB 6. I was looking to pick up a 5C because I wanted a backup phone and I think it is pretty.
 
Not So Cheap

I live near auction House. Everything starts at £2.
Auction House adds 40% Commission and VAT, on top of what your winning bid is. £100 would become £140 on final bill.
Ipad mini's are already bid up to near full retail price.
Take extreme care if you bid, collection times are very quick, just around 3 days to pick up. credit card charges as well.
 
mw360 said:
What you're asking for is ridiculous. It's never going to happen. Companies are entirely separate legal entities from the people that run them. It's that way for very good reasons that entirely dwarf your silly calls for some kind of mob revenge.

Your dubious double glazing firm's directors will all have their histories in the public record, and there are plenty of severe penalties, including jail if they are breaking the terms of their limited liability. You can even report them yourself if you think the directors should be disqualified.
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My "Silly calls"? lol.
 
BCWorld said:
At the uk pound prices vs dollar plus a 20% buyers premium they can forget it.
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If only, it's actually 44% above the bid price.

----------
BfcMac said:
I live near auction House. Everything starts at £2.
Auction House adds 40% Commission and VAT, on top of what your winning bid is. £100 would become £140 on final bill.
Ipad mini's are already bid up to near full retail price.
Take extreme care if you bid, collection times are very quick, just around 3 days to pick up. credit card charges as well.
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Just to be picky, it's 44% because the 20% VAT is added on top of the 20% premium. Making £144.
 
AaronM5670 said:
There are some very mixed reviews of this auction house online, personally I wouldn't trust them with no warranty, as well as mislabelled and potentially misleading photos.
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I agree. If you look at the HTML of the auction site page, it was made in front page hahaha.

Code: 
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
 
iHateMacs said:
It's not a good idea.

I was on an online auction buying liquidated machinery and every time a bid was made 10 minutes was added.

It meant you are tied to the computer for an indefinite time.

At least with eBay you know that at 10am or whatever it's over and you can go do something else.
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Why not just put in the max bid you are willing to pay, then you don't need to be "tied to the computer for an indefinite time" and no need to whine about snippers. If you want to bid in $1 increments and be tied to the computer, that is your fault.
 
gnasher729 said:
Example: Bids for a good dozen of iPad Airs are now £245 to £270. Add 20% twice, that makes £352.80 to £388.80. Retail price is £319. So they found enough idiots that every iPad goes between £33.80 and £69.80 over retail price. And if you order from Apple, you get free delivery, manufacturer's warranty, statutory rights, and the right for a 7 day (or maybe 14 day) return if you don't like it, which these devices in the auction don't have.
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Are they all just Wi-Fi 16GB then? I assumed they would at very least be Wi-Fi + Cellular so Phones4U could sell contracts. If so they start at £419.

As I understand it if the device isn't registered with Apple once you register it the warranty kicks in. I purchased a new and boxed iPod Touch a couple of years ago on eBay, the lady had been given it a year before but didn't want it, I registered it on Apples site and it said I had a years warranty.

I don't think these are spectacular bargains and some will pay close to retail, there are more bargains around especially in the January sales and the refurb store is a good bet too.
 
mw360 said:
You have to pay in cash, by bank transfer or debit card. You have to make a cash deposit up to £500 before bidding, you are deemed to have inspected the lot in person before bidding and the purchase isn't protected by any consumer laws. Don't play unless you can afford it.
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NO, you don't have to pay £500 before bidding.
 
What on earth is going on with this auction

Have you seen the latest auction bids for the iPad mini 2 ... its nearly £100 more than you can buy it at john lewis department store ! one is at £240 plus you have to add 40% vat and buyers premium to that ! and theres still a few days to go ...
http://www.auction-solutions.co.uk/lot_details.asp?l=1&lotid=957400&pageno=6
its £239 at john lewis ... its bizarre ..wish i could find these idiots when i have something to sell.
 
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