By James Wells

MELBOURNE: The Good Guys has been forced to apologise to consumers for advertising a Conia 106cm (42-inch) plasma television in a catalogue that has not arrived on the Australian market due to an expected typhoon.

An apology printed in News Limited newspapers today states that the plasma, which was recently advertised in a four-page catalogue called ‘Score Big’, will not be available until the end of the week.

“Unfortunately, due to a typhoon there has been a delay with the shipment of the 106cm Conia widescreen plasma CPDP4251 advertised in our catalogue on page 3 for $1799,” the apology said.

“The product is not expected to be available until the end of next week.”

Typhoon Pearl, which was the first weather event of its kind recorded in Hong Kong this year, caused an oil company to mobilise 144 flights to evacuate 3,840 offshore personnel from 25 oil rig platforms off the coast of China. Typhoon Pearl, which formed on 8 May 550km east of The Philippines suddenly turned in a right angle after arriving in the Eastern South China Sea.

Pebble Electronics general manager – sales, Nick Fry, told current.com.au the typhoon which struck Hong Kong around 18 May caused the delay to the shipment.

“This is all above board. I have been liasing with Justin Pinner and Graham Roberts at The Good Guys and keeping them in the loop as late as yesterday afternoon when we had to formalise the apology,” Fry said.

“It was simply a delay of shipment due to the weather problem. Unfortunately it has affected the promotion for this week which is a pain for us as we are closing off the month and we have a lot of plasmas sitting on the water,” he said.

The plasmas will be sold through normal Conia distribution channels – Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Clive Peeters as well as selected Retravision stores.

According to Fry, the first shipments of the plasmas arrived in Sydney this morning. There will be additional shipments in Victoria on Thursday and the last shipments will arrive in Queensland on Friday.

“We expect to supply all of our orders this week,” Fry said.

The Good Guys, in line with its company media policy, refused to comment on the typhoon and the delay of products to its stores.