Tags:
Journalism of Courage
After I read all the reviews of the budget smartphone Yu Yureka, I was convinced that this is the smartphone I wanted to buy.
Since, Yureka is available only on Amazon, that through a flash sale, I had to be in an online queue like other buyers and wait for lady luck to smile. February 12 was my second time on this virtual Amazon queue. During the first attempt, I was unable to buy as I could not add the phone to my cart.
This time, on first attempt, I again failed in adding it to my cart after I was privileged enough to get on to the 15-minute wait list from the time the sale goes live every Thursday at 2 pm. At 2.15 pm, I got notification that the phone is available and I had three minutes to add it to cart and 15 minutes to check out. I did. But what happened next was shocking, even though I knew it had happened to hundreds of people before me.
I added the Yureka to my cart, at the price of Rs 8,999. But when I went ahead to checkout, the price increased to Rs 12,500. I went a step further to the payment gateway and the price did not come down to Rs 8,999.
Even at the launch, the phone was announced as Rs 8,999. Not Rs 12,500. The box might say Rs 12,499, but no one is selling phones at their box price and the system should recognise that.
It is more strange that this is happening with one of the top online retailers in the world and not some fly by night e-trader.
I decided not to go for the phone at the price of Rs 12,500 even if Amazon might have returned the extra amount charged.
I think the Yureka is a good phone at Rs 8,999, not at Rs 3,500 more. I have better options at that price point. can get much better phone around the price tag of Rs 12,500. I can pick up the Micromax Canvas Nitro or Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G or wait for the Asus Zenfone 2, which is set to release in India soon.
But I can’t get why Amazon and Yu would let this anomaly continue on for so long when they apologised a month back. I would have expected Amazon to fix this by now. I am certainly not the only person who did not go ahead with the purchase because the price is not what it should be.
In response to this, an Amazon spokesperson said, “The YU YUREKA is available for purchase only through flash sales hosted every Thursday at 2pm on Amazon.in at a selling price of Rs. 8999. The MRP of the device is Rs. 12,500 which is visible on the site at all other times.”
By Akash Sinha
