Xiaomi apologies for UK ‘Flash Sale’ in which only ten phones were made available.
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Im not sure why they don’t do same in India?
1. What a dumb promo.
2. What a dumb bunch of customers.
At the prices they sell for, they are already practically giving phones away. They don’t need to literally give phones away.
Chinese webshops like Gearbest etc. do this all the time. Products are gone by auto-buyers before you have any chance. I guess it is more of a Chinese way to do a promo that isn’t very common over here.
Then they shouldn’t pretend they’re giving the phones away.
They already have a huge market in India. They don’t need promotion there. It’s different in UK, nobody buys xiaomi products there. And after this shit, nobody ever will, hopefully.
Why the customer are dumps?
Even in the source code, the promo will throw “out of stock” message without checking how many phones left, THIS IS A FUCKING SCAM
Why they shouldn’t expect?, a logical thinking is Xiaomi is a new brand and they would spend a lot of money to advertise, not just 3 600$ phone.
probably the number of phones they expected to sell lol.
Shameless bastards!
I hope they get banned from selling their devices in the UK.
I have been incredibly supportive of the brand but slimy business practices like this really grind my gears.
For those saying ‘Chinese webshops’ do the same thing – yes, they do.
But they’re third part resellers and not an OEM officially peddling their wares in the UK.
> they got the advertising and hype that they wanted
I don’t think being associated with scams is what they wanted. If it was or wasn’t a scam doesn’t matter now, they are now asociated with shady business practices.
I think in the rest of the world it is better to do a traditional price cut like -22% for all the day instead of this thing. I would gave up before the start of the flash sale
Is it Open for online or Local shop only?
do you have a source on that?
Why exactly are the customers dumb? I hope they did not expect 1£ phones for hundred customers or more. If I hear about a chance to buy a phone for a £ then I expect like twenty units, but not a massive sale. Hell, I think even ten units would be enough but then Xiaomi should have been more transparent with their sale
If I saw a sale offering phones for basically free, and no quantity was stated, I would assume 2. Or fewer.
1. More like what an ILLEGAL promo – it violates UK advertising standards and falls under “bait advertising” or “bait & switch advertising”
2. No, if you advertise something for a pound, you must be able to supply for a pound, OR make it clear on the main promotion that there is limited stock, NOT bury it in the terms and conditions.
I would like to see the advertising watchdog grills Xiaomi over this bullshit and fines them.
It’s China, they won’t give a fuck
It’s not “entitledness”, it is literally a breach of advertising laws. This stands out as the most obvious case of “bait advertising”.
Not only wan’t is clear that the amount of stock was extremely limited (it was buried deep in the terms and conditions, NOT boldly on the main page), but Xiaomi didn’t even follow their own terms and conditions (from saying that it was first come first serve in the T&Cs, to revealing later that it would be a “lottery”).
This is how Xiaomi could have gotten around it in the first place:
* Making it absolutely clear (as in on the promotion itself in font at least the size of the price tag and in a similar prominent position) that there was limited stock
* Offer the same quantity for free (so it technically wouldn’t constitute as bait advertising)
* Or not pull stupid pranks like this
> I guess it is more of a Chinese way to do a promo that isn’t very common over here.
Because it’s **illegal**. Look up “bait advertising” or “bait & switch advertising”
Maybe they expected *a chance* to get a phone at the discounted price, on the promised “first come, first served” basis. Instead, it appears that most customers never even got the chance since the website was coded to never give them an opportunity, the phones actually weren’t distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and Xiaomi never disclosed that this was limited to 10 phones (a disclosure they’re legally required to make).
i know i tried for Saturday and Sunday but didn’t work out, but they should have done a reasonable discount for a flash sale like £50 or something, but they are only using tricks they know which westerners not sure about it will disagree with for sure. Time will tell with Xiaomi, but it will see how retailers play out
Entitled to buying the product at the advertised price?
I think you an I have very different definitions of entitled.
Firstly it was advertised as a sale not a giveaway. In Britain and the West in general there’s a thing known as consumer protection laws which prevent companies from pulling bait and switch sales.
https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/regulations-that-affect-advertising
>The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations mean you cannot mislead or harass consumers by, for example:
> including false or deceptive messages
> leaving out important information
> using aggressive sales techniques
They seem to admit to the deceptive messaging with regards to the the Flash Sale having different meaning elsewhere which would then lead to the leaving out important information point.
So no British people aren’t entitled, they expect companies to follow the regulation had they said
We are giving away 10 phones to people randomly selected there’d be no issue.
The issue lies with the messaging they chose to put forward and the blame lies entirely on them.
Don’t know if someone has posted this but:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46183480
http://genknews.genkcdn.vn/2018/11/13/c2b335e6468436-1542092954388351746057.png
You can see what happen when you click a mouse, educate yourself before say someone retarded
Dickhead
Actually, I was talking about flash sales in India. Xiaomi does this every year they go out of stock within seconds but still no words from them till now because no strict rules here which really disappoints.
I’m exactly talking about same
That’s because China is effectively lawless when it comes to the normal commoner. It’s common in China to fake bezels of smartphones in advertisements. So you’d imagine that almost no Chinese smartphone has a black border around their LCD and that it reaches the edge.
At the same time, in China, Xiaomi does these kinds of scammy flash sales all the time. It is precisely what hurt their reputation for years within China. The reputation then became that other companies had great deals that you could actually attain, whereas Xiaomi was just pushing scams. They still do these practices in China.
And its precisely why Xiaomi had a checkered reputation in the earlier years. Not even 4 years ago it was doing these all the time. So the reputation was that Xiaomi has the best deals, but no one can get them.
That’s why people just purchased Oppo and other brands in China back then.
They didn’t advertise it as a giveaway. They advertised it as saying that if you went to the site early enough, you’d have a chance. The expectation should be somewhat reasonable that early birds would have a chance.
What they didn’t say was that it was only 10 units in total and that it was a lottery. Under the law in many US states at least, that would be illegal to not have small print denoting that and just hiding it in the T&C.
> and Xiaomi never disclosed that this was limited to 10 phones (a disclosure they’re legally required to make).
but this they did, stop with the fake news
This they did not. Their initial ads did not disclose there were only 10 units. Their later ads buried this information in their terms and conditions that you had to click through to see. Just because something hurts your feelings doesn’t make it fake news.
Will Xiaomi be hit by a fine for this? Because it clearly cross the line here.
I will never understand their ‘business model’ (or the lack, thereof).
And they’ve been spamming their users with ads (in India at least) of late.
To the point where it’s beginning to impact the user experience and detract from the brand’s core values, which was ‘innovation for everyone’, except now that innovation comes at a price.
Oh they are more than intrusive. ‘Crass’ is the word you are looking for.
And you are right. They can totally beat Samsung & Apple in the UK if they play their cards right.
Which they don’t seem to be doing.
For shame!
“Why can’t I get even more reasonably priced devices for free?!!”
What did people expect, thousands of phones for virtually free? Not only do other companies don’t have this practice, but when one does – it is of course not enough. I just don’t understand this.
It’s not about whether other companies have this practice or not, it’s about using a shameless marketing tactic in first world nation like the United Kingdom.
This might fly in China or other developing country where advertising laws aren’t as consumer centric.
But not in the United Kingdom.
Advertising a flash sale and having *only* 10 units available? Sure, it’s their choice how many units they offer but it’s just *so* petty. They could have easily given out a 100, at the very least. If for nothing else, for the sake of honouring their own word.
Having the website pre-set to display sold-out as soon as the sale begin?
They REALLY need to be pulled up for this.
>And after this shit, nobody ever will, hopefully
Doubt it. Shitty business practices or not, their phones still bring greater value than their competition.
I’ve tried some of these flash sales and treasure hunt super bargains.
Literally impossible, when there are probably hundreds and thousands of people waiting on the internet all waiting on a push button. You’re better off queuing in line overnight.
“At the prices they sell for, they are already practically giving phones away.”
I have to agree with this. I mean, he’s not wrong.
https://www.soyacincau.com/2018/04/27/xiaomi-could-be-making-less-than-rm20-profit-per-phone/
These flash sales are common occurrence on Gearbest/Flipkart and no one could consider themselves being ripped off buying the devices after at full price.
Xiaomi doesn’t have an official store on aliexpress
I did. Arrived today and setting it up now. Mi 8 Lite 6Gb/128Gb in black, from the first of the 4 ‘Flash Sales’. I didn’t attempt any of the others.
Initially I didn’t think I’d been successful, but a couple of days later got an email saying I had the the voucher in my account. Ordered and it arrived today.