UPDATE: I had “unapproved” all comments on my post (below) after being contacted by a “security agency” looking into false allegations posted by commentators on this blog.
Here’s the original post with all comments approved. I read in the paper yesterday that the security agency was simply iPhoneNow.ca trying to strong arm bloggers.
My advice – do not buy from iPhoneNow.ca
Rick
==== original post from Nov. 26, 2007:
These guys are advertising on Canadian TV.
$700 (expensive)
Is it for real?
They seem to be selling unlocked iPhones. Add a SIMS card from Rogers or FIDO and “good to go”.
I assume this is too good to be true. Leave a comment below if you know anything.
iPhoneNow.ca – Canada’s Source for Purchasing the iPhone in Canada
Rick McCharles 
I just ordered an iPhone from the site and their policy is a refund within fifteen days so I’ll see how well it works and keep you posted.
Don,
Any update on your iphone yet?
Email me.
Thanks
I ordered an iPhone from them on Dec 9th and according to their website it is “Pending Shipping” as of this morning (Dec 19th). The charge is still not showing up on my Visa, which is curious… but, other than being super slow and a little defensive when confronted about their timelines, it seems like I might get an iPhone before or just after Christmas.
My phone is yet to arrive. I ordered it on the second and it’s the 19th today. Thus far I am extremely disatisfied with the company’s rude attitude to customers- especially when you enquire about their shipping. They are yet to give me a valid tracking number and I have to bring it up again…Upon talking to them on the phone I realised they have the rudest, most unprofessional service reps. I’ve EVER encountered. If my phone comes I’ll retract this warning but for now I say “BEWARE!”
Look on ebay…. there are lots of iPhones, factory sealed, locked and unlocked, going for $500 & up. Sellers will “gift” them to you for obvious reasons I understand.
Here’s an update on my story.. if anyone is interested: Ordered my iPhone on Dec 9th, updated my order to include the One Year Warranty on the 10th. On Dec 19th my order status switched from “Processing” to “Shipped” on one page and “Pending Shipment” on another page only after I had a rather pissy (on their end, not mine) conversation with a support staff member. My credit card just got charged on Dec 21st so I am really hoping it shows up soon. On the plus side I did talk to Visa before I made the purchase and they said I am completely covered if this turns out to be a scam so… I guess I wait. I will not however bother to talk to their belligerent customer service ever again… which makes me wonder what good buying the warranty was.
No real big updates as of yet… except that I received an email from them telling me that my ordered has been shipped, and my order status on their webpage went from “Pending Shipment” to “Shipped” (in both places) at noon(ish) on Dec 24th. I don’t know if that is a good sign or not but I am choosing to take it as one. I ordered the 7 day ground shipping, so with any luck I will have my phone mid next week.
hey brock, let me know. i applied for the financing at about the same time you placed your order and i haven’t heard anything back.
let me know what happens!
i hope you get it and that it works.
let us know if its unlocked or if it is infact a sim shim or whatever.
thanks,
Steve
Hey folks, I am moving my updates over to my own website so I only have to update one place instead of 3 different blogs. Sorry if this seems like a way to drive traffic to my site, as it is not… I am just lazy.
http://www.frozenpuck.com/article/iphonemaybesomedayca
It’s been a month since I ordered my phone, I’m yet to receive it, and this experience could be summed up as a horror. They (as always) rudely told me my card was declined (twice) and said my order appeared fraudulent because I had contacted their service so frequently (they said customers with such a “rush rush” attitude are usual thieves). Rush rush? It had been a month and during that time I hadn’t received a valid tracking number and everytime I tried to get one I was rudely put on hold on their live chats for hours on end. Like the other reviewer mentioned above, Visa will protect me if the company proves to be fraudulent so I made the order again using my wive’s name and card. The levels people will sink to to obtain a simple gadget. And hey I’m one of them.
Just a quick update – Still no iPhone (not quite a month since I ordered it but close), my credit card was mysteriously credited for the amount I initially payed, they claim I returned my iPhone one day after it was shipped, my status on their website still reads “shipped” even though they told me on the phone on boxing day that I had returned it.
Weird… I don’t know how or who they are ripping off, or indeed what they are up to, but I don’t trust them at all, even though I didn’t lose anything but time on this endeavour. Weirdness. Dodgy dodgy weirdness.
Forgive me for not being the most grammatically correct here 🙂 but that company is seriously effed up. All I really have left to say.
I thought you might like to know, the man the RCMP caught in New Brunswick for the Playstation 2 scam back near Christmas 2000 (http://www.news.com/2100-1017-249348.html and http://www.news.com/2100-1017-249277.html)is at it again in BC. He is doing the same scam, but this time is saying that he has hundreds of iPhones to sell when he in fact does not. (www.iphonenow.ca)
He may be going by the name Scott Byers, Josh Trousdale, or more recently has been reported under the alias Adam Kay. Please see the following URL for a detailed thread following not only his fraudulent business actions but his unsavory activities involving underage boys in the Kelowna and Vancouver areas: http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?t=3546
He is running a large number of internet businesses, as he has done for years. I knew him personally several years ago when he was operating in New Brunswick and can easily recognize his style of web design and internet business anywhere. Not to mention, the sites and businesses he are running are all tied together with links to a company called “CIPC Worldwide Holdings Corporation”. The company has several “virtual offices” and forwarding phone numbers all over Canada, US and some overseas. The following are just a small selection of the web sites and “businesses” he is running as part of his personal, financial and identity information theft network:
http://www.internetphonecompany.ca
http://www.easytelecom.ca
http://www.jiffywireless.com
CIPCCORP.COM
iphonenow.ca
iphone-unlocked-now.com
Please investigate this man and his company CIPC Worldwide Holdings Corporation! Also, please notify the appropriate authorities about the iphonenow.ca scam he is currently running!
I ask everyone to please submit complaints to the Better Business Bureau and/or please contact police and other authorities about this man and his scams.
i have ordered a phone over 1 month ago and have not recived it…
Hey guys! about your iphones. I know this guy personally that is operating this little scam out of his home in Vancouver! HE IS A SCAM! Don’t question it. He claims to be Josh Trousdale sometimes and sometimes even different names so who knows what hes going by this time. His real name is Scott Byers, a pedophile child pornographist that has in fact done time for child pornography. If you google Josh Trousdale or Scott Byers you will find a couple scams that he had. For one ps2.com, he had started this when playstation2 first came out claimed he had ps2’s but never delivered them and also ended up doing time for this based on 3 or 4 different accounts of fraud. If anybody wants to talk to me direct I will be happy to answer all your questions. Just leave a comment and we will go from there!
hey guys…. i ordered my i phone 4 weeks ago and after long last i am pleased to say it arrived yesterday!!! for sure it took a long time and this company needs to shape up but just relax it will get there in the end! what a relief!
I knew Scott in real life several years ago before he got busted for the ps2storecanada.com and ps2storeusa.com scam in 2000. This is 100% a Scott Byers scam. It only took a small amount of digging to see the connection between all his current web sites including the iphonenow.ca scam. You know what’s sad? I think he’s going to get away with this. He has had 8 years to learn from his mistakes on the last Christmas-time scam and he is a very smart (intelligent? maybe?) man and I have a feeling he has worked out a way to make it very difficult for RCMP and other authorities to connect him to the scam, and/or to prosecute him for his actions.
I would be interested to know how you know him, if you live in his area (I do not, I am on the East Coast where he used to live) and what else you know about him. I have posted on some other message forums related to him. I have also submitted reports to the Better Business Bureau as well as the RCMP online faud site (https://www.recol.ca/intro.aspx?lang=en).
I’d love to chat it up. I know him personally too.
He has been incriminated by someone who knows him directly (an ex boyfriend) and linked to the iphonenow.ca site.
More details here: http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?t=3546
The security agency is actually the con man running the iphonenow.ca scam. You’ve been had! By giving in, you have aided in him avoiding authorities and removed evidence and witness accounts from the internet. He likes to threaten people with legal action, but never actually does anything because if he did, he would be drawing attention to himself. Do a google search on Scott Byers or Josh Trousdale or iphonenow.ca. Cheers!
Not all comments on here were false. Mine was simply an account of my experience with the company. By the way you didn’t spell approved correctly 🙂
By which security agency? The owner of the site is already being investigated by CSIS and RCMP…Has been for awhile now
Lots of complaints all over the net . Poor customer service, not receiving product and other accusations which would make your head spin. I would stay away, better chance getting one on ebay with some form of protection.
Here is some proof about iphonenow.ca from legitimate media channels. And please note that contacts from so called security agencies are fake.
Want proof??? Here it is! All from legitimate media releases!
http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-21507-1-.htm
http://www.castanet.net/cgi-bin2/newNews/news_list.cgi?method=show_story&id=16110&query=search
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13954310
http://www.news.com/2100-1017-249277.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/12/12/nb_rgplay001211.html
http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/1905p107id44671.htm
Here is an example of his fake legal threats targeted at the media outlet that exposed him:
http://kelownalaw.blogspot.com/2006/03/josh-trousdale-sues-kelowna-media.html
Here is the proof linking Josh to Optixx, CIPCCORP, and IPHONENOW.ca
http://www.internetphonecompany.ca/About_Us/index.html
http://www.internetphonecompany.ca/About_Us/ceo.html
http://www.internetphonecompany.ca/About_Us/management_team.html
I too got taken by this fleabag!!! I got a really nice package today from purolator! A letter stating that the phone might take another 8 weeks and that the phone is unlockable. I will have stuff posted on the following website in regards to Josh
http://www.angryitguy.com
Funny, so many blogs and web sites removed all comments after iphonenow.ca mentioned legal action.
What happened with democracy and freedom of speech? or maybe i have wrong idea of North America…
yea, same thing happened to me, but lucky I chose the 6mnth no payment option and had nothing to lose, I never received anything and after a month of calling them to see whats causing the holdup I remember once the sales rep started spazing at me on the other side for asking if their “business” is legitimate. – what a surprise after scamming about $7,000,000 they shut down the site.
My name is Bridget and I have been trying to get ahold of Josh Trousdale. If any one nows how I can contact him directly, you help would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached toll free at 1-866-958-5850, ext.505 or via email at bkohle@cca.ca
Thanks.
Bridget
I have been following Scott byers ( aka Josh Truesdale (sp?)) for a few years because he was such a bs artist from Kelowna when I was there. The guy is a scammer lowlife. I f you have sent him money, it will be gone. I haven’t but I watch that he keeps surfacing and keeps doing the same stuff and people still fall for it. Chbc news had a bunch of stories on him. he is a #1 creep.