A video of a poor Vietnamese factory worker pleading for his money back from store employees, after being told to fork out $1,500 in additional warranty fees for his iPhone 6, has gone viral.
Pham Van Thoai traveled to Singapore to visit the Mobile Air store and purchase an iPhone 6 for his girlfriend, after saving up $950 with his meager $200-per-month salary to buy the new Apple smartphone. However, after he purchased the phone he was asked by staff at Mobile Air whether he wanted a one or two-year warranty, with him opting for the former without realizing that he would have to pay more money. The warranty cost him an extra $1,500, with Mobile Air’s employees telling him that if he did not pay up, he would leave the store empty-handed.
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Unable to pay the extra cash, Pham fell to his knees and began begging the store’s employees to let him leave with the iPhone 6 without the warranty, though they refused and, according to the factory worker, instead laughed at him.
After his pleading, they eventually said that they would refund him $600, though his girlfriend reportedly refused to leave without the full $950 he paid, and called the police. When the police arrived, Mobile Air showed them the agreement he had signed (which was penned in English, but Pham states that he signed it anyway because he thought Singapore was a safe place to shop) and then only offered him a $70 refund.
Eventually, after the Consumers Association of Singapore got involved, Pham was given a refund of $400, still $550 short of the amount he had paid. Fortunately for Pham, an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign has been set up by a man named Gabriel Kang, who set up a page for people to donate to in order to get Pham’s girlfriend a 128GB iPhone 6.
While the campaign initially had a goal of $1,350 to pay for the iPhone 6 and shipping costs, the campaign has now reached over $12,000 with just under a week left.
Looks like Pham’s girlfriend will be getting that iPhone (and some extra dough on the side) after all.
