Flipkart bagged the exclusive deal with Xiaomi for the Mi 3 sale in India when the Chinese brand came to the country. Till date, they have sold more than 70,000 handsets via the flash sales itself.
Though the Xiaomi Mi 3 handsets were available on a few other websites, they were not from the Xiaomi company directly, but were either purchased abroad or smuggled into the country and sold in India.
Xiaomi has got their Indian fans anxious on the most affordable high-end smartphone, the Mi 3. With more than 3 lakh customers registering for the handset, only around 70,000 handsets were handed out with almost 2 Lakh plus customers still waiting for the next flash sale.
The Flipkart flash sales have disappointed almost 80% of its customers since it involved first-come-first –serve basis, and a whopping 20,000 handsets being sold within seconds of the counter opening at noon, each time.
Many people have taken advantage of this flash sale and have used their minds to make a quick buck. They are purchasing as many as possible handsets from the Flipkart sale and selling them in black with a higher cost. You can see them selling the same across free selling websites such as OLX, Quicker and eBay India.
The Xiaomi Mi 3 handset’s official cost is 13,999, but if the customer/fan does not want to wait, they can approach these websites and buy them immediately, without having to wait, register for the flash sale and be lucky to get their hands on a piece. The price for these handsets are hiked by almost Rs 5,000 and the Xiaomi handsets are being sold in black for a whopping Rs 16,000 to Rs 20,000—a straight profit of Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000. However, the customer buying from these guys for a higher price could risk warranty since the handset would not be registered on their names.
Flipkart has no strategy of monitoring if more than one handset is being purchased from a single IP address. However, the buyer could purchase multiple handsets from computers on different IP addresses by deploying different internet service providers such as 3G dongles, 3G mobiles and alike.
Lastly, there are a high percentage of genuine fans losing out to these guys who are purchasing more than one handset.
