When we think of e-commerce players in the country, there are only a handful of names that come to mind. Flipkart is one of them. But the retailer is apparently having a tough time dealing with the rules and regulations, which is perfectly illustrated by the whole OnePlus 3 fiasco.
The company mentioned on Friday that it was going to sell the OnePlus 3 at a massive discount as part of its “Big Shopping Days” sale. However, the retailer is not authorized to sell the product as the handset is exclusive to Amazon in the country. OnePlus co-founder expressed his displeasure towards Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal on Twitter, saying “Brother, what’s this? We are exclusive to @Amazon_in.”
But Flipkart has been relatively quiet on the matter. However, it’s barely believable that the company didn’t know about the intricacies of the matter before making the product public. So what does this mean? Well, the company hasn’t done anything illegal, but by selling the product even though it wasn’t authorized to, Flipkart has surely lost its credibility in the marketplace.
It has been said that the product sold via the company was not meant for India and that the warranty regulations won’t apply to the region since they’re mostly imports. But some customers don’t mind this as they got an amazing phone for just Rs 18,999 while it costs Rs 27,999 via Amazon. Unsurprisingly, the phone sold out within a matter of minutes on Flipkart.
Since then, OnePlus has issued a statement to clear the air. The company said “We have an exclusive partnership with Amazon in India. We advise customers to purchase OnePlus products only through official channels as we cannot guarantee the authenticity of the products sold elsewhere.”
