10.56 AM Tuesday, 19 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 05:07 06:20 12:29 15:54 18:33 19:47
19 March 2024

'Short-lived' Souq.com iPhone 5 for Dh999 deal frustrates buyers

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

Updated on April 29, 2013

The Souq.com homepage, after being unavailable for most part of the morning, is back (around 10.30am). However, the Dh999 iPhone 5 deal, as feared, has already been "Sold Out". No word yet from Souq.com on the number of devices sold at that price, but one thing is for sure, customers who had been waiting to bag Apple's latest smartphone at thsoe bargain prices but weren't able to are not a happy lot.

“I am one of the regular readers of your newspaper’s online edition. I would like to bring to your notice that on 2nd April, 2013, there was an article published on your online edition saying: Get iPhone 5 for Dh999, iPad Mini for Dh499 in Dubai. I hope you might remember this. Neither of the deals were shown on souq.com on the said dates,” Shafi Mirza Baig emailed us in a not-so-happy tone.

“Hello Sir, My purpose of email is just to inform about... misleading customers, I see a news on your webpage that is. When I check their website to purchase that item believe me that website not open... "error, error, error, error, " Please inquire about this and please inform your readers about the actual image of these kind of website pls...," wrote in another reader, M. Adeel Tariq.

There are other readers writing in with their complaints about being unable to log on - ever - during the said deals. We'll update this once/if we receive a comment from Souq.com.

 

Earlier article

Get iPhone 5 for Dh999, iPad Mini for Dh499 in Dubai

Good news for die-hard Apple lovers. Beating the deals at Gitex Shopper, the iPad Mini will be up for grabs for a mere Dh499 on April 22 while the popular iPhone 5 will be available for just Dh999 on the 29th of this month.

The original price of the iPad Mini is Dh1,299 and the phone is officially priced at Dh2,699, according to the Apple’s official iStore.

The catch? Yes, there is one – it part of the ‘Deal of the Day’ promotion by a local deals and discounts site, and your chances of landing one would be one in thousands if not less.



The deals, being advertised as the next ‘wow’ deals on online shopping site souq.com, offer registered customers the chance to log in and grab the Apple devices on the said dates.

 “This is great but I’ve heard that such deals get sold out very fast. Anyways, I will try my luck and see if I can get one,” said Anya Menezes, an Indian national based in Dubai.

In the wake of the imminent launch of the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, the price of the current iteration of Apple’s smartphone, the iPhone 5 prices have seen some decline in Dubai, especially as Samsung Galaxy S4 will soon be available on store shelves in the city.

The prices of the entry-level 16GB variant of the iPhone 5 have slipped marginally to Dh2,495 at cellsouq.com, a Dh104 discount to the official UAE iStore retail price of Dh2,599.

While its ‘Deal of the Day’ offers the popular iPhone 5 at Dh999, souq.com is otherwise retailing the device at Dh2,499, a Dh100 discount to the official UAE retail price. At the same time, the 16GB iPad Mini is otherwise available at the same price on souq.com https://souq.com as it is at the official Apple store.

ALSO READ:

Dubai site offloads BlackBerry Z10 for just Dh1




Apple to launch iPad 5, iPad Mini 2




Transparent iPhone 6 confirmed by Apple Inc.