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Hi,
I just want to cry out loud the frustration I've been experiencing with an order at Mobile Planet aka expansys-usa.
I participated in a pre-order of HTC Touch Cruises (aka Polaris) in November together with a few more people.
When TC went out in February (or rather expansys-usa got the first units), expansys-usa didn't fully fullfill our order (but partially, around 1/3) leaving several people waiting for their TC.
Ever since, Expansys has been delaying the shipment and even though that they got hundreds of units in stock afterwards they didn't want to fullfill the order saying that they bought these units at a higher price than the original order and that they would not honor the original price from the order placed in November as they promised.
The expansys-usa sales rep even wrote an email asking to cancel the order and go buy the phones somewhere else.
Imagine how I feel after been waiting for so long.
I just want to warn anybody that is going to pre-order anything from Mobile Planet/expansys-usa to BE AWARE of their business practices. Even if they promise they will honor the price of your order, don't believe them! they don't have a word that can be trusted.
Thanks.
= J =
Note: also posted in HoFo
read and weep fanboys
http://shop.o2.co.uk/iPhone
I have no reason to weep as I'm not a iPhone fan. But thanks for the notice!
Interesting. That's either because they've run the stock out for the 3g model coming out soon, OR they've pulled out of their contract with Apple for some reason.
Here is the full press release
British carrier O2 today issued a statement on its website (not available outside of the UK) that the company has stopped selling the current-generation iPhone. Both the 8GB and 16GB models are listed as "no longer available" and have not been given a restocking date by the provider. Apple itself continues to list both versions as shipping within 24 hours, though independent phone retailer Carphone Warehouse has also reported selling out all its supply without expectations of new shipments.
O2 recently instituted a temporary price cut to help drive sales but is thought to have underestimated demand, triggering a sales spike that dried up supplies of the 8GB model covered by the discount.
The device has been in chronic shortages in recent weeks across both the US and Europe, and is believed by many to have effectively been phased out by Apple in favor of a replacement expected at next month's Worldwide Developer Conference. California-based Apple has not explained the early shortfall other than to suggest that demand has been stronger than anticipated.
To me, this seems a slightly strange marketing tactic unless they're gonna sell the "new" iPhone for a lot more...
Why stop people buying the current generation when you can still make money?
Actually... I have both an iPhone and a TyTN II... so... just to help shed some light... while WM people here are saying that O2 is cutting supply because of unsatisfactory demand, people at the Mac side are speculating that this is to make way for the 3G model, with its eminent release, which is believed to be held sometime June 9th-13th, in Apple's WWDC. AT&T has also passed an internal memo to its employees restricting employee vacation days on June 12-July 15 or something like that... I forget. But on the company memo, it said that they needed manpower to help the stores because they were "expecting large demand" due to an "exciting new product launching." Looks like O2 is probably clearing the way for the 3G iPhone. Just my 2 cents.
just an update the site now says that only the 16gb is available. this has been updated within the last half an hour???
l3v5y said:
To me, this seems a slightly strange marketing tactic unless they're gonna sell the "new" iPhone for a lot more...
Why stop people buying the current generation when you can still make money?
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y? maybe they dont want to piss their customers off?
buying a iphone for less then a month, and now u have 3G iphone which is much better?
Guess that explains this...
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/171022/iphone-price-reduced-to-169-from-to/
I don't get it. i clicked the TS link and i get offered to buy an iPhone. Am i missing the part where i can't buy it and its no longer available?
The 8Gb are gone but they seem to not have a problem selling you a 16GB one. Is that what all the hullabaloo is about?
This is bizarre - can't get onto the o2 shop to even look - says they only sell to the UK.
But I'm in the UK, working at one of the larger internet backbone suppliers ....
Snowreaper said:
I don't get it. i clicked the TS link and i get offered to buy an iPhone. Am i missing the part where i can't buy it and its no longer available?
The 8Gb are gone but they seem to not have a problem selling you a 16GB one. Is that what all the hullabaloo is about?
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Click to collapse
If you read my post following the original announcement. Within half an hour of releasing an official press statement from both o2, apple and carphone warehouse they have changed the site to say that only 16gb available
Looks to me like either they cant make up their mind or a shameless marketing ploy
My phone is on my company's business contract, so I have no choice but to be with Orange (UK). It came up for renewal about 6 months ago but they don't seem to have released a single interesting phone in that whole time. The Hero is the only phone that's even close, but it's so old now I don't really fancy committing to it for 18 months. The Touch Pro 2 was supposed to be out when I started looking but they withdrew it before I had a chance to get one. Later the HD 2 seems to suffer a similar fate. Someone from Orange phoned me last month to ask why I hadn't upgraded yet (obviously concerned that I was getting ready to leave) and she said the HTC Bravo would probably be out in March, which I later worked out was similar to a Google Nexus and so quite interesting. I phoned to check today, but they still have no idea if/when it will arrive.
Does anyone else agree that there's something a bit strange going on when they don't properly release a high-end smart phone for 6 months or more? I mentioned to them I was suspicious that they were just trying not to distract attention from the iPhone but, of course, she didn't offer any useful comment.
The main question is, does anyone have any idea what Oranges plans are regarding high-end smart phones? Is it worth holding out for them to finally release one of the many iPhone-eclipsing devices, or should I be trying to convince my company to open an account elsewhere?
I had been looking on Orange's website to see if they were offering the HD2 as an upgrade. As far as I know they still aren't even listing it but I got an HD2 through Phones 4 U as an upgrade and as a loyal Orange customer got a 10% discount on the Dolphin 35 tariff (albeit for 24 months) as well as the handset for £50 minus £50 for trading in ANY old phone.
The only downside is that I'm now wondering if I should have waited for Win Phone 7 if it's released as early as Sept...
I had been looking on Orange's website to see if they were offering the HD2 as an upgrade
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That reminds me, I meant to mention that the Orange Business website hasn't barely changed their HTC section since I first started looking. That includes the HD Touch Pro 2 which (as far as I can tell) was available for about 1 week, 6 months ago. Maybe they're just trying to make it less obvious to the casual observer that Apple is pressuring them to bury anything better than the iPhone.
I hadn't thought about third party phone shops for a Business account. Can anyone confirm that's an option?
I read somewhere that Orange UK are not doing WM till 7series comes out now
Seems like they're in no hurry with Android either. Since the Hero they've only gone further down-market (Tattoo), passing over several higher end possibilities.
Anybody care to comment on my pet conspiracy theory about cutting out distractions from the JesusPhone™?
I thought I'd post my story so far in acquiring my zpad and update it as I go along.
And see if anyone else is interested in it.
January 2011
I wanted a tablet pc as soon as I saw my friend's Ipad, but thought that they would be too expensive, so I just put it out of my mind. Then while looking for a netbook for my wife, a friend of mine said he could get pc's at great prices from china. We agreed to get her a netbook through him and he told me he could also organise other cool tech like tablets, etc.
(We get ripped off really badly here in south africa, everyone is greedy here and they put up huge mark ups on tech. e.g. galaxy tab is R8000 here which is $1117 at the current exchange rate. Instead of the $650 that it currently is on amazon.com. Which is ridiculous!!!)
He is starting up an importing business from China to South Africa(where I live), I would be his first customer.
He showed me a few tablets, which either were underpowered or had a 3 hour max battery life or both. Eventually he showed me the Malata tablets, the windows one and the one that they later called the Zpad. The windows one sucked so I was interested in the Zpad. Specs looked good and the more I looked into it online the more I was keen. But it was still a lot of money.
I found out mid January that I had gotten funding for university this year, so I decided to get the Zpad. The order hadn't gone through yet for the netbook so I added the tablet (and other tech that we've wanted for a while, eg. 1GB external HDD & logitech G9x mouse, malata dock..) and paid and waited.
1st Feb 2011
Package finally arrived. When he saw the box my friend phoned me straight away in alarm. The box was tiny, way to small to house a netbook and a tablet and all the other stuff.
When he opened it, there were a few 1GB and 2GB USB drives in the box.
SHOCK AND HORROR!!!
He phoned around frantically trying to find out if he had been ripped off by his chinese supplier or not, as he had never bought from the guy before.
Eventually the guy replied, it was 20:00h in china, he says that the guy who dropped the packages off must have switched them around by mistake. He said he couldn't get hold of DHL to find out if the other guy had got the package already, or even to find out who the other guy was, as it was late there.
So now after waiting 3 weeks or so for my tablet I sit and wait, to find out where my tablet and my wife's netbook and everything else is. Are they with the would be flash drives owner? Will he give them back? Will the Chinese guy still send us new ones if the other guy doesn't give them back to him? Very stressed out.
Update:
2nd February 2011
Heard back from the supplier in China and from what I could understand (His English is a little broken, but can't blame the guy, I can't speak a worn of Mandarin) he says that they have had this problem in the past and how it works is they use a 3rd pary company to take their packages to DHL and then DHL send it, so the 3rd party guys must have made the mistake. This happened before and they stopped using that company as a result, but now it has happened again.
He says it shouldn't be to difficult to get hold of the stuff and get it sent to us, but it will take a while.
I really hope so. I'm still worried that some guy is playing on my Zpad or have taken the factory screen cover off (which I was planning to keep on, if it came with one), or even worse has sold it...
So no concrete progress, but things are looking up.
Update:
3rd February 2011
It's Chinese newyear now. So I wasn't expecting much progress today, and didn't get any. But the Chinese supplier told us he hasn't gotten the status of the parcel yet, but we should hold on to the wrong parcel we received and he will chase them up and try to get them exchanged.
Update:
4th February 2011
The supplier said that DHL are contacting the person who received our parcel and he will let us know the outcome.
Update:
18th March 2011
So, we still haven't heard from DHL, and our chinese contact hasn't contacted us since my last post. He is also no longer on the trading sites like alibaba, etc. So we think we have been swindled.
My friend here is going over to china in a few months, so he will probably see if he can find this guys, using private investigators and press charges against him (and maybe a fist or two).
My friend did take responsibility though, saying that it was his fault and he should have tested out his contact first.
He has found a more reliable contact and is waiting for a sale to go through, and then will try order it again, out of his pocket.
But I don't know if I still want the Zpad, with shipping, 3G and GPS, the tablet cost about R6500 here, which converted is about $900. Which is really expensive, but the cheapest I can get it at. I can get the Gtablet for R4313 ($600), buying through a local online business who buy from amazon.
But I don't know, there are many new tablets coming out now, so there is no longer the benefit of getting the only tegra 2 tablet, and getting use out of it before the big boys arrive. So I think I might as well look around, now that the Zpad is no longer on it's way.
I'm thinking about getting the Xoom WIFI instead when it comes out. My dad is going to Italy soon, and hopefully it will have released in Europe by then, so he can pick one up for me at a comparable price to the US $600. When it finally gets here it will be ridiculously expensive, I estimate the same price that I paid for the Zpad,($900). So if the Xoom is anything less than 650 Euros, Then I have saved money, buying a better tablet.
Then when my friend has managed to make some money back, he can refund me, rather than ordering me another one, and I will have money left over for accessories.
So, right now it is just a wait to see when the Xoom Wifi comes out in Europe, how much it will be, and if it releases before my dad gets there; sometime in May.
Yep, more waiting, but I'm happy to wait again, I feel I am getting a better deal now, and I feel more in control.
Update March 20th:
I have placed my order to get the Xoom Wifi with a local company, they will get it from the US as soon as it releases, so it will ship on the 28th/29th and I should get it in at most a week from then.
Update April 3rd:
My Xoom came yesterday, and WOW!!! It is amazing, it is an awesome resolution screen, great viewing angles, incredibly responsive, amazing battery life, has honeycomb.
The Zpad not coming was a blessing in disguise. I will still try get my money back for the Zpad from my friend to cover the cost of the Xoom, though.
Really , Really glad that I didn't get a Zpad in hindsight. I know that's a bit cheeky to say in the Gtab forum, but after waiting this long, I would want it to be perfect, and well neither tablet is perfect, but the Xoom is a lot closer.
So, this will be one of my last posts on the Gtab forum, I'll be living in the Xoom on from now.
Thanks so much for reading my story everyone.
I will update if this thread is still around and I get my money back from my friend, but otherwise that's it.
Cheers
wow, that really sucks.
I hope all works out and the Chinese supplier fixes his mistake and sends you your order.
Thats really bad. I think it's at the same level as my story at ebay... Sad.
Seems getting a zPad is just not as easy as we thought.
Ya, it is sad. But I'm optimistic. It might be a DHL mistake too, in which case they will have to fork out of it doesn't sort its self out.
Good luck getting it sorted out. I had ordered a low end DSLR Camera for my daughter for Christmas. It made it to within 15 miles of my house and then vanished at the FEDEX facility. By that point, everywhere was sold out of low end DSLR Camera, the original seller, Wal-Mart, was of no help other than sorry and refund my payment and I was left scrambling and finally had to fork over much more $$$ in order to not disappoint on Christmas morning.
The fact that you ended up with a package gives me hope. Perhaps it was just an address switch-a-roo and the other party will confess especially if he/she is contacted. The tough part is the start of the Chinese New Years which will bugger up all shipping from there for a month. Best of luck. The waiting is the hardest part.
anjenaire said:
Good luck getting it sorted out. I had ordered a low end DSLR Camera for my daughter for Christmas. It made it to within 15 miles of my house and then vanished at the FEDEX facility. By that point, everywhere was sold out of low end DSLR Camera, the original seller, Wal-Mart, was of no help other than sorry and refund my payment and I was left scrambling and finally had to fork over much more $$$ in order to not disappoint on Christmas morning.
The fact that you ended up with a package gives me hope. Perhaps it was just an address switch-a-roo and the other party will confess especially if he/she is contacted. The tough part is the start of the Chinese New Years which will bugger up all shipping from there for a month. Best of luck. The waiting is the hardest part.
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It's common for a lot of packages to go "missing" around Christmas time from UPS/FedEx and other carriers. I have had a few friends who have worked for FedEx and the stories they would tell convinced me to never order anything around Christmas time for delivery. At least you were able to get your money back
That's what I am hoping too. To track down whoever was supposed to get the one we got and ask them what they got instead, because they have to sign for it, so there will be a record of them receiving something... So we just have to find out if it was our stuff or not. Either way I'm sure they will be forced to return it...
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Thanks for the moral support.
Did the Chinese supplier give your friend a tracking number? Does it match the DHL package you received? If it doesn't, then DHL is the one who messed up.
I hope everything turns out ok for you. I hate to hear stories like these. But I'm also an optimistic guy and I also give people the benefit of the doubt.
xmr405o said:
Did the Chinese supplier give your friend a tracking number? Does it match the DHL package you received?
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Ya he did give us the tracking number and we tracked it all the way from hongkong to my friends doorstep. The mix up may have been when the agents fetched the package from him.
Have updated the original post with the latest news.
Have updated the original post with the latest news.
Updated again:
18 March 2011
If you are paying with Paypal or Credit card, get it refunded by them ...
y2k-inc said:
If you are paying with Paypal or Credit card, get it refunded by them ...
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We transfered to him in china.
And we can't get hold of him to ask for refund.
From all accounts the Xoom is a better tablet.
I have a ZPad and am extremly happy with it and the community work on it (pershot et al).
If I was I am buying to day it would be a Xoom and in a months time perhaps an asus based perhaps 6moths after that what ever Malata has or who every has the fastest at the time.
One thing that seems to stand out about the ZPad is that as Malata seem to manufactuer for others and the ZPad is almost their andriod reference platform*, there is an openess that one may not get from Motorola.
*from Dmesg "Machine:NVIDA Harmony Development System"
Very few HW things in the IT industry stay the best for long, even more so with emerging product lines just look at how netbooks evolved from low end devices to dual core atoms and 6hrsplus batt life in less than 6 months.
That is how I feel too.
The xoom is currently the best, and that's what I'm paying for. It isn't as open as Zpad, but it works without as much tweaking (micro SD and Host USB aside). And to be honest, that's what I really want, something stable that Just works.
I have placed my order to get the Xoom Wifi with a local company, they will get it from the US as soon as it releases, so it will ship on the 28th/29th and I should get it in at most a week from then.
Very Excited!!!
Will keep you posted. Hopefully this is where the Drama will end.
I have update the OP(original post) with the conclusion to my story.
I'm still a few hundred dollars worth out of pocket but over the moon about the outcome regardless.
Cheers
Just wondering if anyone received their device yet. I've been eagerly awaiting some hands-on impressions of the phone to see if it's a worthy successor to my year old Key2. The spec sheet says "hell yes!" but I just want to be sure there's no hidden dealbreaker like sketchy build quality or poor keyboard experience that would ruin an otherwise attractive package before taking the $700 plunge.
zer0dotexe said:
Just wondering if anyone received their device yet. I've been eagerly awaiting some hands-on impressions of the phone to see if it's a worthy successor to my year old Key2. The spec sheet says "hell yes!" but I just want to be sure there's no hidden dealbreaker like sketchy build quality or poor keyboard experience that would ruin an otherwise attractive package before taking the $700 plunge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At this point, nobody has received a full production model yet. The current statement is that the distribution centers will send out the first phones on or before October 29th 2019. There are three groups, the motomod backers, the pre-orders, and the regular orders. I'm the 150th of the pre-orders and really hope to be in that 10/29/19 shipment group!
https://tinyurl.com/y295cuml
Just got this in the mail, seems its another week...
https://mail.webfx.co/t/i-l-pkiuyc-jrhuyuktir-y/
b_x said:
At this point, nobody has received a full production model yet. The current statement is that the distribution centers will send out the first phones on or before October 29th 2019. There are three groups, the motomod backers, the pre-orders, and the regular orders. I'm the 150th of the pre-orders and really hope to be in that 10/29/19 shipment group!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems that at least 6 people have received emails saying theirs has been shipped. No indication of anyone receiving it yet, other than the people who got prototypes.
On the official F(x)Tec forums people have been posting tracking numbers and such. Looking like Nov 19th is the date!
UPS said, I get my Pro1 next Tuesday!
a Japanese guy had already received the phone:
https://twitter.com/JH174941/status/1196247918908297216
I'm waiting for this device. Just want to watch some reviews on it by someone who has purchased it. The entire two months of November and December 2019. Nothing! Nothing! At all. I am so frustrated with this company and their transparency.
Clove Technologies
I ordered and received a clack of my very own from Clove Technologies in the UK. I've not started transferring over to that as I'm trying to decide whether to use stock OS or flash LineageOS, but it is online and I'm doing some light mobile web browsing etc. to kick the tires.
Definitely glad I held on and didn't cop out for a ROG Phone II or ZenFone 6 (or was it because both of those were out of stock when I was weak?), the shifted QWERTY keyboard was the right decision IMO as the keyboard is broad for me, and I'm a 6'1" half-German-half-Norwegian somewhere back before the US of A.
Chatting with friends via XMPP hasn't felt this good since the Symbian days. Finally! A device that has some consistency to its input, and a lot of character to boot. Clack is quite enthusiastic in personality, which (aside from their abysmal communication) likely reflects the passion Fxtec put into this device in order to get a smartphone with current guts and a physical keyboard going.
maplesteel said:
I ordered and received a clack of my very own from Clove Technologies in the UK. I've not started transferring over to that as I'm trying to decide whether to use stock OS or flash LineageOS, but it is online and I'm doing some light mobile web browsing etc. to kick the tires.
Definitely glad I held on and didn't cop out for a ROG Phone II or ZenFone 6 (or was it because both of those were out of stock when I was weak?), the shifted QWERTY keyboard was the right decision IMO as the keyboard is broad for me, and I'm a 6'1" half-German-half-Norwegian somewhere back before the US of A.
Chatting with friends via XMPP hasn't felt this good since the Symbian days. Finally! A device that has some consistency to its input, and a lot of character to boot. Clack is quite enthusiastic in personality, which (aside from their abysmal communication) likely reflects the passion Fxtec put into this device in order to get a smartphone with current guts and a physical keyboard going.
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Click to collapse
Thank you kind person!
Since my last post I've been learning all I can about the Jolla company and their operating system. More so I plan on getting the Xperia XA2 simply because it's available and can run sailfish os. If I follow the procedures and find the correct zip files online. At least I know the phone will fit the new direction I want to go in even if it does not have a pkb that I'm looking to replace from my keyOne Blk edition
Keep the information coming and thanks for the/any update.
Abysmal = good word usage! ??
Got my stock assigned email today
Finally
"Hello!
Good news! This message is to inform you that we have now assigned the stock for your Pro1 order.
The product is currently in our fulfilment warehouse awaiting to be packaged up and shipped to you in the coming days. Our warehouse is processing the queue as quickly as possible before their shutdown for the Chinese New Year holidays.
We will be back in touch with your tracking details shortly.
Thanks for your support and continuous patience.
Kind regards,
F(x)tec Logistics"
Fingers crossed...
Received mine yesterday. While there are a few bugs, I must say that it was well worth the wait.
Just got mine - a bunch of people are receiving theirs now that the promised "big shipment" finally went out...
So glad I got mine before china shut... So much better than my old D4
Received mine earlier this week. Ordered and paid back in August/September.
Got mine today. Ordered back in October. Trying out stock and lineage now. Not sure If I can get used to the weird keyboard layout (qwerty). Constantly trying to hit a key left of the actual one because the whole keyboard is shifted one key to the right. Also the round edges on the screen are really bad. I don't like it in the first place but with this one I get a lot of accidental touches.
Let's see how I feel about it in 2 weeks.
FxTec Pro 1
Hi XenGI,
I was wondering to buy the FxTec Pro 1. When did you orden your phone from them? How long time did it take, before you had your phone? I have today, the BlackBerry Key2, happy with that phone, but want to try something new. Are you happy with your phone?
Just 1 or 2 week go, BlackBerry announced that the will come with a new phone in the start of 2021.
I got mine October 13th 2020. And, I still cannot root the device. Desktop and laptop don't recognize the device. Yes I have Debugging on, Yes I have unlock OEM in developer mode. I have got to the fx tec and windows 10 website looking for drivers but have found none. so I guess I will continue to wait.
Received one a few months back
I ordered a Pro1 in May, and received a unit in August. I heard there were production issues, and naturally COVID-19 made things exponentially difficult (supply chain issues everywhere, carriers trying to ship things safely, etc.).
With all that said, I'm happy I didn't have the same experience as folks who ordered back in 2019 and are still waiting (??). Hopefully anyone who ordered a Pro1 last year actually have a Pro1 by now...