Have you been noticing adverts saying Flipkart will be making the widely popular OnePlus 3 for under ₹20,000 during its upcoming ‘Big Shopping Days’ sale? Today, did you visit the Indian e-commerce website and notice the same offer in the scrolling banner? Well, if you’ve been as pleasantly surprised as we are then you’re not alone. Even the Chinese flagship killer’s CEO was stumped when he saw the banner and it didn’t go down well for Flipkart.
In a move to promote their new ‘holiday season’ shopping festival running between December 18 to 21, Flipkart invigorated the crowd by sharing details of one of the products that’ll be available on their platform. This banner (attached above) mentioned that the OnePlus 3 will be sold with a sub ₹20,000 price tag, while the brand new smartphone (64GB) retails for ₹27,999. On clicking this banner, you’re taken to a product page which shows the Soft Gold variant with the original price and a coming soon tag. It is being sold by OmniTech Retail.
This announcement must have gotten users excited as well as confused at the same time. But the most prominent person to be taken aback from the buzz created by this stunt was OnePlus CEO Carl Pei. It seems Flipkart is making the smartphone available on their website without the knowledge of the company. But that’s not the biggest problem (or flaw!?) with this sweet offer.
For those unaware, the Chinese smartphone maker sells its devices via an exclusive partnership with Amazon India in the country. And the same was flagged by the founder in a rather direct tweet questioning the antics being employed by Flipkart to build hype for their festival. It also recently launched its upgraded flagship device OnePlus 3T in a similar price bracket on Amazon itself. And Pei already stated during an interview that OnePlus would never undermine or disappoint their customers by discounting their devices.
.@_sachinbansal brother, what’s this? We’re exclusive with @amazonIN pic.twitter.com/0QBoyagoXz
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) December 16, 2016
In response to the allegations, a Flipkart spokesperson has reached out to several publications and defended the advert stating,
Flipkart is a marketplace which helps sellers connect with customers across the country. All our sellers are mandated to adhere to stringent guidelines. The prices and discounts for all our sales are decided by the participating sellers and brands.
Even after all the hullaballoo, the promotional teaser hasn’t been taken by the Indian e-commerce giant. This suggests that the customers will most likely be able to purchase a OnePlus 3 handset for under ₹20,000 in the coming days. And if you want one then you’d need to hurry as they are available in limited quantities.
