Dishonest sales techniques by big companies

Dammit, and I knew it too. I had already ordered the upcoming phone from Apple UK, but it was unclear when it would arrive. (I had not gotten any order confirmation, oddly.)

Then Carphone Warehouse (owned by Currys, owned by Dixons...) sent an email claiming to have it. I got curious, and since I live within spitting distance of a store, I walked in. A very enthusiastic salesman started to convince me that I should buy from them, since Apple would not send it in the near future, but it was Totally Certain that their store would have it on the 17th. He even showed me a document, saying “I’m not even supposed to show you this,” which showed that Apple and all the other stores did not have stock of the phone, but CW did...
So I ordered it. I did not cancel the Apple order though.

And what do you know, today, a couple of days later, I just got a mail from Apple, they have shipped the phone!
I even knew it. That “I’m not even supposed to show you this...” That page he showed me was very strange, in retrospect. For one thing it was oddly clear and graphical for something which only the staff was supposed to read... For another thing, how can one store *know* if Apple or the other stores have stock? For a third, how can they claim “in stock” when they did not have the phone in store?

I know about such fake documents because when I bought new carpet for my flat a dozen years ago, I was with my pal Laurie J. The salesman showed me a document which showed that the price had already gone up, but he would sell it to me for the old price... Afterwards, Laurie told me that he had filmed training videos for such companies, and this was a common sales technique, and the document was not real, and it was certainly not for staff only.

Such things really should be illegal.