Flipkart surprised all of us yesterday when the e-commerce platform started advertising the OnePlus 3 smartphone as a part of its “Big Shopping Day Sale”. Flipkart has priced the phone at INR 18,999, which is INR 9,000 less than its actual INR 27,999 price tag. But that’s just half of the story. Technically, Flipkart shouldn’t even be selling OnePlus 3 smartphones.
In case you don’t know, all OnePlus smartphones in India are sold exclusively via Amazon India website. This is why it’s strange how and why Flipkart is advertising for the device. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei asked Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal on Twitter: ”@_sachinbansal brother, what’s this? We’re exclusive with @amazonIN.”Shortly after, OnePlus released an official statement saying that they’re exclusive with Amazon and can’t guarantee the authenticity of the phone if it is brought from anywhere else.
Shortly after, OnePlus released an official statement saying that they’re exclusive with Amazon and can’t guarantee the authenticity of the phone if it is brought from anywhere else. Anyway, Flipkart had scheduled the first OnePlus 3 sale on its website for 4 PM today. But surprisingly, the website listed the phone as “Out of Stock”, thus increasing the confusion even more.
So the question is- did Flipkart not know about the exclusive OnePlus-Amazon tie-up? Or did it find a way to sell the phone for cheap and make more profits? Some speculations say that Flipkart might be intending to sell refurbished units. But the retailer listed the phone as out of stock in a minute or so of the sale going live, which suggests that Flipkart might be reconsidering its decisions.
Flipkart hasn’t released an official explanation on this matter, so the confusion continues to grow. Till then, hold on to your money if you are thinking of buying the OnePlus 3. We’ll keep you updated about this, so stay tuned.