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590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

finance.yahoo.com

71–80 of 122 posts

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#71
post #47

The terms of what that $100 went to were updated last month... https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/trump-mobile-t1-sma... The terms, updated April 6, state that the deposit is not a binding sales contract. It provides only a "conditional opportunity" to purchase the phone if Trump Mobile eventually chooses to sell it, with all discretion resting with the company. The company "does not guarantee that a Device wil…

So just a scam.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#72

It used to be that the thought process of receiving a portion of sale money before delivering any product allowed the company to pay suppliers and keep afloat as they drove towards the finish line of delivery. Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the t…

It used to be fraud was the problem of the perpetrator, and not the victim.

Welcome to the grift economy.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#73
post #65
post #60

Assuming this was not a scam from the beginning. I just think they got more orders than they expected. This seems to be a reskinned HTC U24 Pro (I think earlier Images and specs were advertising another phone). Also seems to have changed from "produced in the USA" to "Designed with American values in mind" & "With American teams helping guide design and quality" according to their website. At best this is bait and sw…

Bait and switch is a scam.

I don't disagree. As far I understand this is 100 dollar deposit up until now. So the customer would have to actually go through the order process where they would see the updated website with new specs etc. so it's not fully a switch yet. I am from the EU and no a lawyer so I would not know the legality of it all.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#74

It used to be that the thought process of receiving a portion of sale money before delivering any product allowed the company to pay suppliers and keep afloat as they drove towards the finish line of delivery. Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the t…

[flagged]

For reference, this seems to be what you are referring to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Tour_(The_Jacksons)#Ti...

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#75

It used to be that the thought process of receiving a portion of sale money before delivering any product allowed the company to pay suppliers and keep afloat as they drove towards the finish line of delivery. Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the t…

> Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the time the grift comes due, your "investment" will have grown to a magnitude where even if you are forced to pay it back, you will have made a tidy profit. There's never been a time where that would work. A dama…

> been black-letter law

Only civil, though, right? IIRC criminal law seeks restitution, which would be the original $1000. Civil law is where unjust enrichment would come into play, to my understanding.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#76
post #4

It feels analogous to giving alms to a religious institution at the end of a prayer service - you don't get anything material for it in return, but maybe for the faithful, that's not the point?

Tithing often involves the implicit or explicit promise of rewards from God, both spiritual and material.

Certainly that does happen, and you'd be right to say it's fraud. At the vast majority of churches, it's well understood that the church staff need to eat and pay for the mortgage and upkeep on the facility. Trying to frame tithes as "often grift" is extremely cynical.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#77
post #9

“ The device would work with Trump Mobile's service plan. For $47.45 per month, Trump Mobile's "47 Plan" (2), which operates on the T-Mobile network, claims to be "better than the rest," offering 100% U.S.-based support; extensive 5G coverage; unlimited talk, text and data; telehealth services; roadside assistance, and international calling to over 230 countries and territories.” If you fell for that you deserve to l…

This is actually cheaper than what my parents currently pay Verizon every month--somehow they're spending $161 every month on two lines, with no special services, and they're on ancient phones (an iPhone SE and an iPhone X). They know they need to switch, but have no idea how to pick a replacement service. (I'm going to sort it out in the next week or two.)

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

For reference, this seems to be what you are referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Tour_(The_Jacksons)#Ti...

Thank you, I was flipping through the book that I read about it in and was having trouble finding it.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#80
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

>Michael Jackson did this with concert tickets, sort of. You had to pay hundreds of dollars for the chance to buy a ticket to his mega tour, to be refunded if you didn't manage to get one. People send their money in and have to wait like three months to find out if they managed to get one. Meanwhile, he's making money by the dump truck on the interest from all this. This doesn't pass the sniff test. If we assume that…

He's estimated to have made $10-12m in the 80's.

I had some of the details wrong btw, you had to mail in $120 for the chance at 4 tickets, and he only held it for 6-8 weeks. Part of what was so shitty though was that very many of his fans couldn't really afford what was about a months rent but scrapped it together anyways. Maybe it was a poor financial decision on their part, but he took advantage of those people for his own profit, when he didn't even really need the money.

Edit: link from sibling comment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Tour_(The_Jacksons)#Ti...

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