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

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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Where do you see that on their site? And why do you say you have to make a deposit?
 
captain cadet said:
Where do you see that on their site? And why do you say you have to make a deposit?
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Its all in the T&Cs. Well worth a read. Looking again this particular auction does allow credit cards for an extra 2.5%, but there's a fee, about £130 or so if you win then pull out. My point was that there's no point going into this waving your consumer rights. They have it sewn up.
 
mw360 said:
Its all in the T&Cs. Well worth a read. Looking again this particular auction does allow credit cards for an extra 2.5%, but there's a fee, about £130 or so if you win then pull out. My point was that there's no point going into this waving your consumer rights. They have it sewn up.
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I didn't see the £500 in the t&c yet when you look at their site i says no deposit required - I am confused :confused:
 
Im not sure whats up with this auction, the price is actually 20% buyer premium for EACH Item!!! people keep bidding and bidding and the auction is long from over! WOW! on top of that, they extend the auction for 3 minutes if someone bids within the last 3 minutes.. To me it makes more since at this point to walk into a store and pay full (UK) price because thats probably what this stuff will sell for in the UK. its very weird to me... :rolleyes::confused:
 
BCWorld said:
Im not sure whats up with this auction, the price is actually 20% buyer premium for EACH Item!!! people keep bidding and bidding and the auction is long from over! WOW! on top of that, they extend the auction for 3 minutes if someone bids within the last 3 minutes.. To me it makes more since at this point to walk into a store and pay full (UK) price because thats probably what this stuff will sell for in the UK. its very weird to me... :rolleyes::confused:
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The headphones and phones I'm not sure about and I agree with you but the a lot of the bulk will be brought by people who will sell it like £1 shops, eBayrs and Sunday marketers
 
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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To be fair, there are steps in place to disallow people as directors of a company. Unfortunately they are not followed. These should be more rigorously followed .

Removing the limitation of liabilities won't work, as they will register a limited liability company elsewhere in the EU and operate here.
 
macfacts said:
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.
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Auctions don't quite work like that do they.

If you are bidding on used machinery you have no real idea what it's worth. So you cannot put in an initial max bid. It's psychological, plus it's a bit like gambling. You bid a bit then you hold off and see what others are doing.

It's different with brand new liquidated stock like this as the new value is known precisely so you can decide that you will pay $50 below market value.

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MRrainer said:
I spent maybe half an hour slowly increasing my bid over the other persons bids.
That's not "indefinite time".
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eh? well in hindsight it was 30 minutes but at the time you did not know it would be 30 minutes so it WAS indefinite. It could have been only 10 minutes or 3 hours.
 
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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All non delivered orders from Phones4u were refunded, they were still property of Phones4u and the administrators sold them off in order to pay costs the Phones4u had to pay out. One of the costs includes redundancy money to staff members who lost their jobs.
 
captain cadet said:
The headphones and phones I'm not sure about and I agree with you but the a lot of the bulk will be brought by people who will sell it like £1 shops, eBayrs and Sunday marketers
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You are saying that the guy who is bidding £330 for an iPad worth £319 RRP (+20% auction fee, +20% VAT) is going to sell it in a pound shop? Well, that's interesting. I suppose he will go out of business soon.

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AaronM5670 said:
I remember paying £395 for a sealed 4S on eBay about 3 or 4 months after it came out! Whoever is paying this price now is mad.
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If you have a broken 4S, Apple will replace it with a brand new one for £160 (out of warranty "repair". They call it "repair", but they repair it by swapping it with a new one. )
 
gnasher729 said:
You are saying that the guy who is bidding £330 for an iPad worth £319 RRP (+20% auction fee, +20% VAT) is going to sell it in a pound shop? Well, that's interesting. I suppose he will go out of business soon.

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If you have a broken 4S, Apple will replace it with a brand new one for £160 (out of warranty "repair". They call it "repair", but they repair it by swapping it with a new one. )
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Phone accessories - were now on target for a profit (we brought a box of 100 screen mounts for £0.20 each with tax and someone to pick it up! not bad)
 
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