Techoni.com.au

Techoni.com.au is one site I will not visit again after they finally deliver the product I ordered from them. Techoni.com.au is one of those sites that scares people away from buying online. Techoni.com.au is the second worst site I have ever purchased from and in a day or two will rate as the worst site.

I wanted a second mobile telephone (cell phone in the USA) for use in the country. My choice is available in two variations, one for the city networks, Optus, Vodaphone, and another variation for use all over Australia via the Telstra Next G network. The only difference is one band. Telstra use 850 MHz and the others share 900 MHz. There is no technical reason why mobile phones support only one of the two bands, it is purely a fraudulent marketing practice to exclude competition. The supplier, in this case Samsung, restricts your choice so they can sell one variation exclusively to Optus/Vodaphone and the other variation exclusively to Telstra. It is a practice that should be banned under Australia's anti competition laws but the telephone companies are too big to prosecute and Telstra was government owned, giving it royal privileges to ignore the laws and ethics other businesses are forced to apply.

The next problem is network locking. This is an anti competitive practice equivalent to indentured slavery. The telephone companies bribe retailers into selling telephones locked into one network. Again this practice is accepted mainly because of government interference with consumer rights to give their monopoly higher profits.

I shopped around for the telephone I wanted. Telstra sell the telephone for $240. I visited a Telstra shop and they tried to charge me $360. I pointed out their listed price is $240, they offered to sell at their listed price, then suddenly claimed they had no stock. This is something truly stupid about Telstra shops. They advertise a limited range of products, have big glossy shops they redecorate every couple of years, but never have anything in stock. Going back 20 years, with a new telephone every year or two, I start with a visit to a Telstra shop and they never have a useful telephone in stock. For every single telephone purchase, I have had to wait days or buy somewhere else.

The creeps at Telstra make life more difficult by locking telephones and infecting them with viruses. My last telephone was not locked, I had to shop around for days to find one not locked, but it arrived infected with Telstra software that interfered with my use of the telephone. I am starting to think that buying a usable telephone might soon be impossible because they are infected by the manufacturer back at the factory. We have to thing of the manufacturers as creeps supporting the unethical and should be illegal practices of the rapacious telephone companies.

Unlocked?

Techoni.com.au advertised the telephone I wanted at the same price as every other shop but unlocked. After I ordered, they changed the Web page to say the telephone is locked into Telstra. If the telephone ever arrives, I will check the lock status and may return it if it is locked. The only problem with returning it is the sheer waste of time Techoni.com.au created over delivery. Life is not long enough to go through that again to get a refund or replacement.

Price

The Techoni.com.au price is exactly the same as all the local shops except Telstra. When you count the time I have wasted because of Techoni.com.au, the telephone from them is costing me hundreds of dollars more than the most expensive price in any shop.

JB Hifi and Harvey Norman have the same telephone at the same price. When the Telstra sales person told me they had no stock, they sent me to JB Hifi.

Pickup

Techoni.com.au have a shop in the city and you can pick up from the shop. I called to ask about pickup. They said they do not have stock in the shop. It would take several days to get stock from their warehouse to their shop and only a couple of days to ship by courier from their warehouse. The person on the telephone had problems speaking English so I ordered online for delivery direct. When I called back several days later asking about the status of the order, I was put through to someone who said he was at the office, the telephone had just arrived from the warehouse, and he was about to ship it by courier. Based on that telephone call, they do not ship from their warehouse to you, they ship to the shop then the shop ships to you.

I could have saved days by picking up at their shop. I could have saved even more days by buying from one of the local shops, if the shops had stock. Some of the local shops can get stock delivered faster that Techoni.com.au.

Stock quantities

I normally only buy from online shops where they list exact stock quantities. Techoni.com.au do not list stock quantities so I called. They said they have stock in their warehouse. Based on their answers to telephone calls, it takes three days for them to ship from their warehouse to their shop then they ship from their shop. I think their warehouse is fictitious. I think they shop around and buy from somewhere else.

This is the second time I have purchased from a Web site that does not publish current stock quantities and in both cases, the result is massive delays. many technology related sites do not publish stock quantities because they do not carry stock. They then shop around and waste a few days of your time you could save by buying direct from someone who actually carries stock. Wasting time on telephone calls to confirm availability is useless because they can lie over the phone and you have no record that can be passed on to the government authorities that might take action against the liars. One of the reasons sales people want to talk on the phone instead of email is the opportunity to lie knowing that it is, in Australia, illegal to record telephone conversations without warning the person at the other end.

Conclusion

Never buy from Techoni.com.au. Never buy from online shops that do not state stock quantities at their shipping point. Use only couriers with online tracking.